# Natural treatment for jaundice?



## Floyderman (Oct 14, 2006)

I've been reading that a large percentage of babies develop jaundice shortly after birth. I understand the hows and whys of what is happening with bilirubin levels, and I understand that doctors are looking for a certain level to declare an infant to be healthy. But why do so many infants require medical intervention (sometimes a stay in the hospital for phototherapy)? I can think of a few couples whom I know personally where this was the case. And I also know one couple that simply sat with their daughter in filtered sunlight twice a day.

What has your experience been with jaundice? Did you try any natural methods of dealing with it, or is this one of those things where "doctor knows best?" (And I cringe as I write that


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## BugMacGee (Aug 18, 2006)

Jaundice usually does not require treatment unless the bilirubin level gets very high. High meaning according to baby's weight and day of life. The only babies that usually have problems are babies with some kind of blood incompatability with mom (ABO or Rh), a large amount of of bruising from birth or are dehydrated. Preemies too.
If babe is nursing well (and pooping well) it shouldn't be an issue. Filtered sunlight is good too. But if your babe is very jaundiced, early on, he/she might need treatment. Kernicterus can be serious.


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## roadfamily6now (Sep 14, 2006)

sunshine!


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## mamaverdi (Apr 5, 2005)

It depends on the situation. I notice that my friends' babies who get more jaundiced are the ones who aren't nursing well or are spending too much time with the pacifier.


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## ~member~ (May 23, 2002)

Immediately breastfeed and sunshine. Do not vaccinate or give Vit K.


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## OnTheFence (Feb 15, 2003)

It depends on the type of jaundice your baby has. If there was a blood incompatibilty issue or other medical issue that would elevate the bili levels that could harm your babies brain then light therapy is needed. We have ABO incompatibility and of our four children, two have had jaundice related to that (it developed within the first 24 hrs). Both of them received light therapy after birth and we continued it at home.

Our oldest son, had regular jaundice, and we gave him lots of sunshine. I could not nurse him for three days due to some legal issues so he was fed formula.

Our second son, had mild jaundice showing up on the second day. We really did nothing it was so mild (it was a 10) We breastfed him and that was it.


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## liseux (Jul 3, 2004)

It depends on whether its pathological (rh or abo incompatibility) or physiological (common & mild). I am rh sensitized and just had my second affected baby. Knowing that he was at high risk of going on the lights b/c of his scarier status of blood incompatibility, I stayed awake the first night he was born and kept him drinking colostrum the whole night. Bowel movements help pass the bilirubin better than peeing a lot. Colostrum is the best possible laxative and it worked, he never needed any lights. Luckily, he was born hungry and was a good nurser. I put him in the sunshine at home and after a few weeks his yellow color faded. So yes, especially with mild jaundice, nurse like crazy before the milk is in and sunshine!


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## Phoebe (Jun 12, 2003)

ds had jaundice that appeared about a day after birth. We did phototherapy at home with a "bili-bed". I was very glad to have that. It fit right into his cosleeper. At the time I went right along with what the dr. recommended but now I hear that a bit of jaundice can even be good for a baby. I wanted to research this more before this baby arrives. I'd like to avoid even the light bed at home this time and all the home health nurses (who kept suggesting I supplement with formula because my milk hadn't come in...it took a whole 3 days!).

I'll be lurking here to hear more replys...good topic.

Amy


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## AmyG (Jan 30, 2002)

If it were my baby, at it was physiological jaundice and the baby was nursing well, it would take a lot for the doctor to convince me to do anything more than nurse and use sunlight. Especially if the baby was nursing well and my milk came in by about day 3. If bili levels got high enough to need medical treatment, I'd be concerned that there was an undetected nursing problem. In a healthy, full-term breastfed baby, physiological jaundice is normal and should practically never escalate into something dangerous.

As others have mentioned, pathological jaundice is serious. I'd still be very careful to make sure that the breastfeeding relationship was protected as well as possible with all the interventions, but I'd willingly accept medical care.


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## EricaLeigh (Apr 25, 2005)

I have a theroy. I have a friend who just had to stay with her new babe for a few days at the hospital. They had brand new machines with the lights. I'm thinking that in order to pay for the new machines babies actually have to use them. With my dd #1 the ped sent over a visiting nurse with a bili-blanket & they said nurse away!. With dd #2 they just said nurse, nurse, nurse & put her bassinette near a sunny window. NOw it seems like many people are staying at the hospital for these special NEW machines. There was a major fiasco too. Through the window the baby''s poop look just like blood. THe brand new Mama & Papa were freaking out they had specialists comeing in & finally a nurse took of the diaper & it just had poop in it. Mama was so concerned she thought that the nurse was hiding the real bloddy diaper. It was a royal mess. I guess that they took pictures & are complaining to the company, they should have warnings on the windows!!! Sorry didn't mean to hijack, but htis JUST happened last week so it is fresh on my mind.


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## mwherbs (Oct 24, 2004)

early and frequent breastfeeding not only feeds your baby but the fats in colostrum and milk bind the bilirubin out the intestines, some in the urine-- babies slow in passing meconium will have higher levels of bilirubin because it will be reabsorbed by the body--
another way that bilirubin leaves the body is via fatty cells in the skin when exposed certain wavelengths of light - sunlight has that spectrum of light and certain bulbs are designed to work also
because it is tied to fats- water suplimentation does nothing to help with washing out or reducing bili levels-- an additional advantage to colostrum is it is also a bit more laxative than breastmilk so helps to flush the bili that is in the meconium (a big part of the dark color for mec is bili pigment)

bilirubin is a very strong antioxidant- and most of the time it probably serves a healthy purpose rather than being damaging -- there is some speculation that finding it in the brain of dead babies is not because it was damaging but because it is protective and it goes where it is most needed .

-----------------------here is a link to an article in the John's Hopkins newsletter about the antioxidant effects of bilirubin

http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2002/09dec02/09yellow.html


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## pageta (Nov 17, 2003)

DS1 had jaudice. His birth in a nutsell...12 hours of prodromal labor (contractions every 2 minutes) with no progress then epidural and pitocin leading to his birth 28 hours after contractions began. He was very sleepy the first day, I was exhausted from giving birth, and I couldn't get him to latch correctly even though the lactation consultant said it "looked great." His was one notch below our needing to do the billi lights. Ped told us "lots of breastfeeding and hold him in your lap in just his diaper in front of a window so he gets lots of sunshine." We did that and never needed anything further, though I got very bloody nipples from all the nursing with an incorrect latch.

DS2 did not have jaundice at all. I gave birth completely naturally. He was very alert and nursed every 2 hours or so the first day, and I felt great so I held him all day and knew exactly when he was hungry and wanted to eat. He had 6-8 wet/dirty diapers on day 1, passed all his meconium the first night, and had 10-12 wet/dirty diapers on day two, including his first breastmilk blowout. We never even tested his billirubin levels because there were no symptoms of jaundice. Ped saw him on day 4 and day 8 and both times didn't think a billirubin test was necessary at all.

So that's my experience. I think the breastfeeding washes it out of them because they're able to process it and expel it in their diapers. They need the extra red blood cells to ensure they have enough oxygen in the birth canal, but after that, they need to be processed and disposed of. One more benefit of natural (vs managed) birth.


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## calidarling (Jul 14, 2006)

my ds had jaundice and all i did was tons of boob and when i nursed i did it in front of a sunny window a lot of the time.

it did the trick w/o the need for blood tests and whatnot


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## JamieCatheryn (Dec 31, 2005)

Delay cutting the cord, get sunshine, nurse lots, and don't worry about bili levels under 17 without other indications of probs.


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## sofysmommy (Feb 15, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *EricaLeigh* 
I have a theroy. I have a friend who just had to stay with her new babe for a few days at the hospital. They had brand new machines with the lights. I'm thinking that in order to pay for the new machines babies actually have to use them. With my dd #1 the ped sent over a visiting nurse with a bili-blanket & they said nurse away!. With dd #2 they just said nurse, nurse, nurse & put her bassinette near a sunny window. NOw it seems like many people are staying at the hospital for these special NEW machines. .

ohh my gosh! I agree with you. I had an unplanned UC but dh was freaking out that my placenta was not out and he was afraid to pull it long story short, the midwife and nurses just pulled it out, and were very upset asking me why i had the baby at home ...blah blah blah. they did the bilirubin test on ds and it was not high but they put him on that stupid bed and he got really high. well they (hospital) kept us for 3 days. apparently when dd was born a year before their bili levels chart was different higher numbers meaning they were sending babies home more often so now they changed it lower numbers and are keeping babies longer







:


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## NewCrunchyDaddy (Jul 6, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *MamaInTheBoonies* 
Immediately breastfeed and sunshine. Do not vaccinate or give Vit K.









: Amen to that. DS had BR problems when he was born, and they made us get the suitcase with the lights in it which was just horrific.







: Little guy looked like some sort of [email protected]$$ed skiier under a tanning bed, plus all the trips to the hospital for heel pricks







. We only found out _after_ his jaundice was gone that the best thing we could have done was BF in the sunshine.







:

So take a lesson from us, and avoid the lights and shots and heel pricks and vax and just bond and BF under the sun (or even a full spectrum light blub which mimics sunlight, which is what we eventually did). That's a much better option than going the route we went.


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## Floyderman (Oct 14, 2006)

Thanks for your replies, everyone! I never knew about the connection between blood compatibility and jaundice! I know that I'm Rh-, so maybe this won't be an issue, and I'm at 39+ weeks now, so a premature birth won't be a problem, either.

My niece was born 3 weeks early, and she had jaundice (and 2 or 3 full days of phototherapy). After seeing what my sister and niece went through, it made me wonder if there was a better solution out there than yet another hospital intervention. AND the doctor tried to tell my sister that she should _formula feed_ to expel bilirubin more efficiently. Argh!


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## BugMacGee (Aug 18, 2006)

Actually, ANY feeding does the trick though because BM has more laxative effect it is better for this purpose (I can see the anger rising as I write this) Baby really just needs to eat and poop as much as possible.

Of course BF is best but if there are problems with BF and baby is getting sleepy from the jaundice, sometimes formula is suggested. Some parents will opt for IV fluids and BM instead of formula in the hospital setting. Again, most likely it won't be an issue. Just BF constantly! My milk came in at <48 hours PP because DD never left my breast. Her stool was transitional at 24 hours. So her bilirubin levels were extremely low. The downside of that is that I was exhausted and my nipples were about to fall off but I was never engorged so it was all worth it. Yeehaw!


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## eco_mama (Feb 10, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *MamaInTheBoonies* 
Immediately breastfeed and sunshine. Do not vaccinate or give Vit K.









:


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## shortcake2386 (Jul 13, 2006)

sunshine and lots of bm--->lots of pooping...
my dd was juandiced for almost a month after birth...we had to take her for bloodwork every couple of days after we left the hospital...she was eating every 1.5-2hours and pooping a TON...it wasnt until i started taking her on walks that it really went down...HTH


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