Question
After my baby was born, how is neonatal jaundice treated? How do you differentiate between physiological jaundice and pathological jaundice? My baby started to look yellow around 7 to 8 days old. Sometimes it doesn’t look very yellow, and sometimes it looks very yellow, like egg yolk. Is this pathological? Today, my baby is 12 days old, and the jaundice still comes and goes.
Answer
Neonatal jaundice is first considered to be physiological jaundice. As long as it’s not severe, it can usually disappear completely within two weeks. If the jaundice is more severe or persists, it is classified as pathological jaundice, which may require hospitalization. If there are no other complications, the symptoms you described should be physiological jaundice. Pay attention to the baby’s warmth, feed early and appropriately, provide sufficient water and energy, and expel meconium early to reduce the enterohepatic circulation of bilirubin, which can alleviate the severity of physiological jaundice. Wishing you health!