Newborn Jaundice Treatment
Newborn Jaundice Treatment: Phototherapy: Gentle Care For Jaundiced Newborns
When newborns are born with high bilirubin levels, they may require phototherapy treatment. But effective treatment means more than simply placing blue light above jaundiced babies. It is a compact and LED phototherapy light system for the treatment of neonatal unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia.
What is Jaundice?
Jaundice is extremely common in newborns. However, it can be a cause of anxiety for parents and families. If someone says, “your baby has jaundice,” it means that the color of your baby’s skin has a yellow tint. But where does this yellow color come from? Newborn infants are constantly making new red blood cells, and breaking down the old ones. One of the waste products of old blood cells is a yellow substance called bilirubin. Bilirubin is processed by the liver into an easily disposable form and then eliminated from the body in the bowel movements. Some babies make bilirubin faster than they can get rid of it, causing the bilirubin to build up in the body and make the skin appear yellow. The yellow color is most visible in natural daylight (near a window) or under the fluorescent lights like those in the hospital nursery.
Any baby can have jaundice because it can take a few days for a newborn baby’s liver to become efficient at processing bilirubin. Some babies are more likely than others to have jaundice, or to have more severe jaundice. These are called risk factors for jaundice: – Babies who start having jaundice in the first 24 hours of life. – Babies who have different blood types from their mothers. – Babies born before 38 weeks completed gestation. – Babies who are breastfeeding, especially if getting off to a slow start. – Babies with bruising from birth (on the skin, or under the scalp). – Babies who had a previous brother or sister who was jaundiced.
How is jaundice treated?
Jaundice is treated with phototherapy. “Photo” means light, so phototherapy is “light therapy”. The baby is undressed and placed under special lights that penetrate the skin and change bilirubin to a form that the baby can eliminate easily. Whereas traditionally is treated by putting the baby near a window or in direct sunlight.
In Love Mum Confinement Centre, both ways of treatment are carry out with professionally and carefully.
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