3 week old still has jaundice!

[AdriansMama]

Hey ladies. My 3 week old still has slight yellow pigment to his face and a little in the corners of his eyes . The public health Nurse said a week ago that he seemed fine since hes alert and eating well / gaining weight and since its only his face and hasnt spread anywhere else .today I restocking the diaper bag and pulled out a bunch of paper from my doctors appointment from when he was 6 days old and in the papers was a requisition for a bilirubin blood test! My dr never actually mentioned sending him for a blood test that I can remember at all!! Now im feeling like like a terrible negligent mother because I havent taken him dor the test so im taking him on monday to the lab for his blood work and im really nervous ... ive been reading up on jaundice now and ill never forgive myself if he has any negative effects from this ... he is exclusively breastfed which i read can make it take longer to go away and hes not having any of the symptoms it talks about online.. has anyone else had a baby have jaundice for longer than 2 weeks and everything was ok? I really need some encouragement and positive stories ... GOD I just feel like such a horrible mother ! I didnt even know it should have been gone by 2 weeks !

 

[youngy]

No advice but my LO has it too he is 2weeks & 2 days and got to go for blood tests on monday. My midwife said not to worry if they are gaining weight & plenty of wet/dirty nappys, I've been putting him in the sun and its improved loads.
Don't feel bad, I'm sure he is just fine xxx

 

[MrsButterfly]

My lo had bad jaundice and was admitted for light treatment for four days in his first week. However, he continued to look slightly yellow until 3 weeks old when he was finally discharged by the midwife.

When my lo had his bloods checked and was found to be above the treatment line his whole body was yellow and he had almost green eye whites. He looked really poorly. I'm sure your lo is ok and is gradually working the bilirubin through his system. It can take a little while. Best to check though so you're doing the right thing

 

[Pennyb]

It took Josh about 4 weeks for it to go and he had 2 blood tests during that time.

 

[lemongrass]

My baby had a bit of it until past 6 weeks I think. It never went past his head and he never had any treatment or blood tests. If the nurse isn't worried and he's alert and feeding well then don't worry. Jaundice has to be fairly severe to cause damage.

 

[All Girls]

Here was my two week old with jaundice AFTER it improved and after several doses of treatment and tests. See how badly she was jaundiced? She ended up perfect.

 

[AdriansMama]

Thanks girls! im really hoping his levels arent high enough to need treatment his skin is definitely not very yellow and it isnt anywhere else so Im hoping thats a good sign ... ive been worrying all day and I would have taken him to emerge but since hes not acting any different and it hasnt gotten any worse I feel like it would be more dangerous to bring him around all the sick people in the emergency room than it would to leave it until monday ... im trying to stay level headed by thinking if its not getting worse and hes acting normal he is probably fine but i just feel so guilty about the entire situation ... glad all your little ones are doing well thanks again ♡

 

[dudu23]

My little one had jaundice strong enough to need light treatments for one night, I believe he was yellow for about a week.

 

[lozzy21]

Niamh's jaundice was that bad she needed triple phototherapy for nearly 5 days and IV fluids for 4. She was an hour away from a blood transfusion. If the jaundice was bad enough to have any negative affects you would have know about it. Baby would have been really sleepy, refused to feed and lost a fair amount of weight.

 

[kelkel]

my son had it from birth. It was really bad his bellirubin count was in the 20s. He did need to go to the nicu for a week to go under the lights. In all he had it about 3 weeks total.
When it got really high all he wanted to do was sleep (and he truly was orange pigmented)
Hes perfectly fine 6 mth old now..

Ds1 had to too but it wasnt as bad i he never needed to go to the nicu for the light treatment i think it took a few weeks to clear up. I know by his 1 mth appointment it wasnt noticeable.

On a side note as long as its not getting worse or moving down his body (inot his chest area) its ok.

 

[AdriansMama]

just wanted to give an update ... I took him for his blood work which came back as 152 he was at 107 before we left the hospital. .. he is still doing perfectly fine there is no change in him at all and people still cant tell he even has jaundice until I tell them and they look for the yellow, even the lady taking his blood didnt know what the blood work was for until I told her ! My dr called me to let me know that at 4 weeks he should be at adult levels which is 22 but if he was only a few days old 152 would be acceptable (I dont know why in Canada our numbers are so big lol) I wonder of because my due date was June 9th he could count as a baby thats a few days old and not a 4 week old in this case ? Im not sure how that all works. so anyways he has now been referred to a pediatrician and they are getting him in friday morning since his referral was marked "urgent" ... they havent talked about treatment or told me to stop breastfeeding ( and I hope like hell they dont!) I will give another update friday when I know more ... I hope you ladies are right that hes fine and its just taking its time going away !

 

[summer rain]

I believe Canada uses the same measurements as the UK in that case 152 is fine, my eldest only went down to that level at nearly 4 months old! 152 is well below the 'treatment line' on the graphs as well. My boys were jaundiced for 4 months, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 7 weeks and now my youngest is still slightly yellow at 10 days. With my youngest they didn't feel he needed any blood tests as he is only really jaundiced in the face and neck and its only slight. If he is still a bit yellow at 2 weeks the policy here is to wait until 3 weeks and then do prolonged jaundice testing. I am not concerned as all my boys have been completely fine. Prolonged and/or high levels of jaundice are hereditary in both mine and OH's family so it is inevitable our boys develop it xx

 

[lemongrass]

I don't know about levels but it sounds like your baby is doing just fine.

 

[AdriansMama]

Thanks summer rain!! Its comforting to hear of someone with a positive experience with the same numbers ! It gets so confusing when everything is using all these small numbers.
I think it will turn out that hes fine if I didnt know he had jaundice before I wouldnt be able to tell! He acts normal, hes gaining weight, and I wouldnt even be able to tell he was yellow if I wasnt looking for it. i just find it scary that he was referred to a pediatrician because in canada kids only go to pediatricians if theyre sick they have the GP for everything else. I guess ill just have to wait and see what the pediatrician says.

 

[MrsButterfly]

Also if it's any comfort when my lo was at his worst he was 400 odd. We were discharged at 300. X

 

[AdriansMama]

Its definitely a comfort especially with you lo turning out just fine !! How old was your lo when the nbers were so high ? The dr seemed more worried that he was almost a month old with those levels but developmentally he would be due june 9th so im not even sure if he counts as a month old baby :s

 

[MrsButterfly]

He was 300 at a week old. But then in terms of his yellowness it didn't really change for quite a while after then. Like pp said your lo is absolutely way below the treatment line so I wouldn't worry. Sometimes it can just take a long time to work its way out of their system.

I remember being told in hospital that preemies do suffer more from jaundice as well so sounds like your lo is totally normal x

 

[summer rain]

The reason they use smaller numbers in some countries is because they are using a different measurement system. 152 is between a 5 and a 10 using the US system, which is pretty low. Truth be told, many many babies if they tested them at 2-3 weeks they would still have levels over 100 but because they are not noticeably jaundiced at all, they are not tested and thus it leads to the idea that a level above the bare minimum is somehow really uncommon and may be abnormal. It is incredibly rare that it is and from my understanding the few babies that have prolonged jaundice due to liver problems would have in most cases exhibited other symptoms by 3 weeks of age.

My second youngest they discharged him once the prolonged jaundice testing was done and his level went below 300, he was still very yellow including the whites of his eyes until the weekend before he turned 7 weeks, then literally within 48 hours he went completely back to normal. At 5 weeks he was more yellow than my 10 day old is now. Second youngest had phototherapy but with my boys phototherapy doesn't work as well as they would hope, even in conjunction with formula and IV fluids and then as soon as they are out from under the lights their levels rise again to almost the same level as before, the same happened with my eldest.

With my eldest his level was either 426 or 456 at a week old and he was really poorly, I wanted him tested but all the midwives said he was fine, except the one who visited him that day who shared my concerns. With him it was a combo of genetics, feeding poorly (due to tongue tie), and excess red blood cells possibly caused by bruising sustained from birth. He needed quad phototherapy, and was put on a drip and mainly formula for 4 days. In those days they didn't test for rebound a few hours after coming out of the lights so they discharged us without retesting or giving any follow up appointment. Within 48 hours I noticed he was really yellow again though the midwives dismissed it, and a few days later when he was really drowsy and not feeding well again and I couldnt wake him I went back to A&E and they managed to wake him and said he was fine and were very dismissive, after just over another week I went to A&E again. That time they did test him and his level was above the phototherapy line again so at about three weeks we were back to where we started almost.They discharged us after doing a few tests though as by that point he was feeding better and gaining weight and it wasn't due to any sinister cause.

Then at his 6 week check the paediatrician and the HV there went crazy and said I needed to take him back for further tests as being so jaundiced at that age meant he must be seriously ill. So I did and surprise surprise the test results were all normal again, thank God and his level had gone down to about 250 but the hospital said because of policy due to him being referred by another health professional we had to keep bringing him back every few days to check the level was going down. His level stayed in the 200s until he was about three months old then it gradually began to fall into the 100s, when he was over 4 months it finally fell to 120 and they discharged him. He is now a happy, healthy and very bright 9 year old . OH was heavily jaundiced for many weeks, had to be transported to another hospital 1000 miles away and we think he did have to have a blood transfusion from what his mum remembers and he was formula fed from birth. My eldest sister was kept in hospital for three weeks with jaundice. Both sides of the family there is definitely a genetic problem but nothing has ever found out what it is xx

 

[AdriansMama]

Thank you!! I have had no luck getting any information out of our GP. By the sounds of it my appointment with the pediatrician should go well and should really just bring me peace of mind feeling alot more positive about everything today thanks to you girls

 

[summer rain]

Thanks, I am sure you have nothing to worry about and the paediatrician has probably seen this before and will offer more reassurance. xx