Can you prevent Jaundice? or help me stick it out in the hospital for 48 hours?

[gingerpeachee]

So both of my babies were jaundiced. With little G we were in the hospital for 48 hours after birth and he was pretty cleared up by the time we got home.

Joey was yellow for a week! He came out with a little yellow glow and by 48 hours he was REALLY yellow. His Bili levels were okay for discharge at 24 hours and I missed my older son, the hospital beds suck and my husband was less then useful when sleeping on the pull out chair, plus we were being moved to a different room because something went wrong with the plumbing in my first room... so anyway after 24 hours I wanted out of the hospital. I even skipped the stupid fancy dinner and massage. I ended up bringing Joey to the doctor the next day because I was freaking out about his jaundice and he had only voided once and that was back when we were in the hospital. He was fine, but totally yellow for a while and once my milk came in he started voiding regularly and everything was fine. Anyhow is there anything I can do to help avoid this?
Anyone have any tips on ways to get comfortable with the extra night in the hospital?
I did a group project on Kernicterus in nursing school and I just can't help being a paranoid crazy person.

[mommy2boys2007]

I read a study somewhere that babies who were more jaundice had mothers with vitamin D deficiency. Don't know the truth to that but with my last to babies I took an extra Vit. D supplement to get about 1000 mcg and their jaundice was very mild compared to my first two babies

[skadragon]

My pediatrician said that vitamin D helps the body get rid of the bilirubin therefore helps with the jaundice. People say that woman breastfeeding will be more likely to have newborns with jaundice for longer becuase the baby will get more vitamin d with formula so for my sons jaundice they recommended vit D drops for the first week. My personal opinion is that if breastfeeding is natural than a bit of jaundice in the first week should be normal. Also, I didn't get a massage or fancy meal at the hospital I had to stay 4 days because I had lost a lot of blood.

[3 ladybugs]

My son was yellow for 3 months because of breastmilk jaundice. So I will be following this thread closely. The doctor wasn't worried about DS so I didn't either but now looking back at the photos I can tell he was jaundice for a while!

[TwinKristi]

I'm not sure that typical newborn jaundice is really something I would actively try to prevent. All my babies have had it, none of them have been sick from it and it was such a PITB to treat. My twins had to stay in the nursery for a few extra days because they were and they just put them under the light and they were fine. With my 4th he had breast milk jaundice and they did home lights and his levels didn't budge. Having not heard of breast milk jaundice I didn't know it was normal and ok, my Ped said my baby would have mental retardation if his levels went up above 20. He was like 13-14 and just hung out there. She had me switch to formula for 4 days and that ruined out breast feeding relationship but cured his jaundice. :-(
I never did anything with the other boys. I just nursed and nursed!

[gingerpeachee]

I just don't want to come home and then freak out and run to the doctors office again. I think I'd be less worried if I stayed and the baby was checked at 48 hours. But I just know I'm going to miss my boys! Maybe I'll at a Vit. D.

[mama_to_DJM]

My guess is that you can't prevent it? Only one of my kids had it, my middle child. He was born at the end of August. My June & December babies didn't have it. Maybe you will luck out this time! Or maybe you could treat it at home, like we did with a bili-blanket (and a home nurse that came out a few times). GL!

[songbird516]

Nurse as much as possible. The suggestion about vitamin D certainly can't hurt, although I hadn't heard it before. My first wasn't jaundiced in the least but my second was, for about 5 days. We just nursed a bunch and laid him in the sun. I think that many breastfeeding relationships are damaged from overreactions to normal newborn jaundice. Mild to moderate jaundice is not harmful, and most babies get rid of it within a few weeks. Supplementation is probably not necessary in most cases.

[TwinKristi]

Originally Posted by songbird516 Nurse as much as possible. The suggestion about vitamin D certainly can't hurt, although I hadn't heard it before. My first wasn't jaundiced in the least but my second was, for about 5 days. We just nursed a bunch and laid him in the sun. I think that many breastfeeding relationships are damaged from overreactions to normal newborn jaundice. Mild to moderate jaundice is not harmful, and most babies get rid of it within a few weeks. Supplementation is probably not necessary in most cases.

I was always told Vit D isn't transferred from mother to child en utero or through milk but there's no risk in taking it anyway.
I must agree, our Ped was very hands off about it. Our 3rd literally looked like a pumpkin he was so red & yellow. Haha! But with #4 we had a much more conservative Ped who had no idea about breast milk jaundice. SMH!

[Buena]

I read mother's should drink milk thistle