I read over 90 minutes this week doing research June 26, 27, and 28th over what jaundice is. I just gave birth to my third child June 24, 2012 at 2:42pm, and before we were discharged from the hospital I was told to make a follow-up appointment with a pediatrician to have my son's jaundice levels checked. I have never experienced this illness with any of my other children, so I decided to deeply research what jaunice is. I visited several websites and looked up the causes of jaundice, the signs and symptoms and treatment methods. I was releived to find that this illness is very common in infants and it causes a yellowing of the eyes and skin tone due to the liver being under developed and unable to rid the body of toxins at a normal rate. Lower levels such as in my son (under 20 points; this is determined by poking the infant in the heal of the foot and drawing blood to have tested in a lab) do not require a hospital stay. His levels did get high enough for the doctor to rent him a "biliblanket", a light that goes on his back 24 hours a day to decrease the the amount of toxins. It is also recommended that direct sunlight exposure helps with jaundice. Sadly babies with levels exceeding 20 points must stay at the hospital or be readmitted and placed under special lamps with their eyes covered for a few hours until they reach a safe level. Once levels begin decreasing they never rise again; te hard part is getting the levels to begin their decrease naturally. I learned a lot of information that was helpful in treating my son; he is now eight days old and we were informed by his pediatrician today that he has reached a safe level and he can stop treatment from his biliblanket.
I got my information from:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-jaundice.htm
http://www.babiesonline.com/articles/baby/whatisjaundice.asp
http://www.medicinenet.com/jaundice/article.htm
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