Babies and jaundice?

Question

My son was diagnosed with breastfeeding jaundice, and he doesnt have it anymore because his doctor put him on formula and advised me not to breast-feed anymore, but i was wondering if i started back with the breastmilk would his jaundice return?

He'll be 2 months on the 23rd and at first he was very yellow but now he looks perfectly fine and hes been on formula for almost 4 months and ive breastfed him like maybe 4 times

hes been on it for 4 weeks.....my mistake. not months

Answer 1

Get a new pediatrician. My daughter had it too. My Dr told me to feed her one oz every hour to clear it up. Within 2 days it was all gone.

I was breastfeeding at the time also.

Answer 2

I concur with the other women. You had really bad doctor advice, so start breastfeeding again. Find another ped.

The only time where formula works better than breastmilk is when jaundice is quite high (we're talking levels where transfusion may be required). This is a more serious form of jaundice and even then, combining breastmilk with formula is perfectly acceptable. Finally, in cases where jaundice is caused by RH disease, yes, a specific formula is preferred, but babies are returned to breastmilk fairly quickly.

Answer 3

How long has he been on formula???
If it's been more than a few days you may have to suppliment while your supply builds, but if he is only a few days old, get him on the breast as often as he lets you to get your milk flowing. The jaundice may return but it is not harmful. If baby is unwell then consult with a pediatrician/doctor that supports breastfeeding.

There is no reason why you should have been told to stop breastfeeding. Don't feel bad, you've just had some bad advice.

Check out the link below... it's a great resource for breastfeeding mothers.


Find a lactation consultant and find a new Dr.

Successful breastfeeding is hard enough without a Dr undermining your efforts.

Answer 4

Your doctor gave you bad advice. You don't have to completely wean the baby to get rid of the jaundice. If you do have to use formula, most doctors advise just doing it for 24 hours. However, if the baby was breastfeeding well and often, there wasn't a need to wean or even use formula, expecially if you were using lights. How high did the levels get? My son's levels got to almost 25, and I only ever gave him about 12 ounces of formula before deciding to go back to the breastmilk because he wasn't taking much of the formula. He was using the paddle and the blanket. It took about a month to get the levels down, and he spent about 7 or 8 days under the lights.

I say start breastfeeding again, and take the baby off the formula. And request the bili lights if his levels start going up again. THere is really no reason to continue the formula more than 24-48 hours.

Answer 5

Absolutely NOT it won't return. Your doctor is a freaking IDIOT and needs to be set straight.

You do not stop nursing for jaundice. You don't. Your doctor was wrong. YES you can continue to breastfeeding, not only can you, but you should. You can also tell that stupid doctor to go back to medical school and come back when he's pulled his head out of his butt (that's a medical term, right?)

Both of my breastfed babies had jaundice. The cure for jaundice is to breastfeed MORE.

This makes me so angry to hear that there are some stupid doctors out there that are still giving out that advice. Can I come with you to your next appointment and smack him upside the head.



"Breastmilk jaundice is normal. Rarely, if ever, does breastfeeding need to be discontinued even for a short time. There is not one bit of evidence that this jaundice causes any problem at all for the baby. Breastfeeding should not be discontinued "in order to make a diagnosis". If the baby is truly doing well on breast only, there is no reason, none, to stop breastfeeding or supplement with a lactation aid, for that matter. The notion that there is something wrong with the baby being jaundiced comes from the assumption that the formula feeding baby is the standard by which we should determine how the breastfed baby should be. This manner of thinking, almost universal amongst health professionals, truly turns logic upside down. Thus, the formula feeding baby is rarely jaundiced after the first week of life, and when he is, there is usually something wrong. Therefore, the baby with breastmilk jaundice is a concern and "something must be done". However, in our experience, most exclusively breastfed babies who are perfectly healthy and gaining weight well are still jaundiced at 5-6 weeks of life and even later. The question, in fact, should be whether it is normal not to be jaundiced and is this absence of jaundice something we should worry about? Do not stop breastfeeding for “breastmilk” jaundice."


"Breastmilk jaundice is defined as serum bilirubin greater than 10 mg/dl in the third week of life, when other organic and functional causes have been ruled out. It is sometimes diagnosed by feeding the baby other milk in addition to, or in place of, breastfeeding to see if the bilirubin level drops. This method of diagnosis is controversial and may not be necessary. (Riordan & Auerbach 1999) Dr. Jack Newman feels that an interruption of breastfeeding to diagnose breastmilk jaundice is "completely unjustified." (Newman & Pitman 2000"

"Jaundice is lessened by improving breastfeeding effectiveness and frequency...Breastfeeding should usually be continued during jaundice treatment. "

Answer 6

Depends on the cause of the jaundice. Most jaundice does respond readily to the billi blanket. Some does not and may require additional treatment. The light of the billi blanket helps the body remove substances from the blood. I'm mostly only familiar with the jaundice caused by RH incompatibility and this is nearly always treated with transfusions because it does not respond to light treatment.

Answer 7

I had a preemie baby with jaundice. She had to spend two nights under the bili lights but no one told me to stop breastfeeding and we didn't, until she was almost 2 years old. The jaundice went away without any formula.

This is very outdated advice and I'd advise you to get a new doctor.

Answer 8

No it shouldn't.My daughter also had breastfeeding jaundice (it's very normal) But I never stopped breastfeeding. Once her jaundice went away, it never came back. Lay him in a sunny window for sun light to help with his jaundice

Answer 9

OMG that happened to me, please ignore your doctor, it's not your breastmilk. They blame the breast milk but it's not really going to make much of a difference. My daughter was hospitalized for 3 days under lights and they would not let me breast feed her. It was terrible, I found out later it didn't matter, they just wanted to see how much was going in and coming out. Seriously most babies are a little jaundice, but you can still breastfeed, start pumping for now and once the baby isn't yellow go back to the breast if you feel more comfortable listening to the doc, but honestly that sounds like crap.

right on to the woman below me, I would also like to smack your doctor!

Answer 10

They usually only advise you to cut down on breastfeeding for a little while, not stop alltogether, and then you go right back to it 100%. My daughter had newborn jaundice, but I never stopped nursing her, I just took her out in the sunlight for a little while, and she was fine when they checked a few days later.

Answer 11

You need to fire that doctor breast MILK jaundice is almost never dangerous, in fact recent studies have shown it protects the baby's cells from damage.

No form of jaundice ever requires weaning, and except in cases where jaundice is caused by insufficient milk and the problem is not corrected in a timely manner NO supplementation is ever helpful: not formula, not sugar water, not ANYTHING.

If you do stop breastfeeding for 24-48 hours to get rid of that lovely jaundice that is protecting your baby the jaundice will NOT come back once you go back to breastfeeding.

http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&ref=1243
Jaundice Helps Babies!
A startling study published in the November 25, 2002 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences tells how scientists at Johns Hopkins University proved that bilirubin, the pigment that turns jaundiced skin yellow, is actually a powerful antioxidant – capable of protecting a baby’s cells from damage. Like fever, jaundice was once seen as a problem. Now we know that at normal levels fever and jaundice are both friends – part of the body’s healing mechanism. They might signal an urgent problem, so neither fever nor jaundice should be ignored in a baby. Also, if the levels are too high they can cause problems themselves, so fever and jaundice sometimes need urgent treatment. Nevertheless, like fever, jaundice can be a baby’s friend, almost like a layer of flexible inside armor, keeping the baby safe.

http://www.kellymom.com/newman/07jaundice.html
o-called Breastmilk Jaundice

There is a condition commonly called breastmilk jaundice. No one knows what the cause of breastmilk jaundice is. In order to make this diagnosis, the baby should be at least a week old, though interestingly, many of the babies with breastmilk jaundice also have had exaggerated physiologic jaundice. The baby should be gaining well, with breastfeeding alone, having lots of bowel movements, passing plentiful, clear urine and be generally well (handout #4 Is My Baby Getting Enough Milk?). In such a setting, the baby has what some call breastmilk jaundice, though, on occasion, infections of the urine or an under functioning of the baby's thyroid gland, as well as a few other even rarer illnesses may cause the same picture. Breastmilk jaundice peaks at 10-21 days, but may last for two or three months. Breastmilk jaundice is normal. Rarely, if ever, does breastfeeding need to be discontinued even for a short time. Only very occasionally is any treatment, such as phototherapy, necessary. There is not one bit of evidence that this jaundice causes any problem at all for the baby. Breastfeeding should not be discontinued "in order to make a diagnosis". If the baby is truly doing well on breast only, there is no reason, none, to stop breastfeeding or supplement with a lactation aid, for that matter. The notion that there is something wrong with the baby being jaundiced comes from the assumption that the formula feeding baby is the standard by which we should determine how the breastfed baby should be. This manner of thinking, almost universal amongst health professionals, truly turns logic upside down. Thus, the formula feeding baby is rarely jaundiced after the first week of life, and when he is, there is usually something wrong. Therefore, the baby with so-called breastmilk jaundice is a concern and "something must be done". However, in our experience, most exclusively breastfed babies who are perfectly healthy and gaining weight well are still jaundiced at five to six weeks of life and even later. The question, in fact, should be whether or not it is normal not to be jaundiced and is this absence of jaundice something we should worry about? Do not stop breastfeeding for “breastmilk” jaundice.



http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&ref=100
Here the jaundice is often not visible until the baby is a week old and then reaches its peak during the second or third week. Breast milk jaundice can be caused either by enzymes in mom's milk that deactivate the baby's enzyme for dealing with bilirubin or by fatty acids in mom's milk that the baby processes as a priority over processing the bilirubin.

Whichever the cause of breast milk jaundice, if the mother continues to nurse her baby, the jaundice will decrease and disappear on its own, but this may take 3 to 10 weeks. If the mother stops nursing for 1 or 2 days, substituting formula, the bilirubin levels will drop rapidly. They will not rise again when the nursing is resumed.

Permanent damage or ill effects from breast milk jaundice is extremely rare. Phototherapy (lights used to lower bilirubin) may be used if the level of bilirubin is above 20 mg/dL. In breast milk jaundice, stopping breast milk for 1 to 2 days can help the bilirubin level drop rapidly. However, pediatricians and neonatologists generally agree that most babies who are well enough to feed may continue to feed on breast milk. This is true even when the bilirubin level is high enough to require phototherapy.

http://www.breastfeeding-basics.com/html/jaundice.shtml
There is a third type of jaundice called late-onset, or breastmilk jaundice. This type of jaundice shows up during the second week of life, and peaks around the tenth day or later. It affects a very small percentage of infants (between 2% and 33%, depending on how you define “jaundiced” – usually a level of 5-10mg/dl). The bilirubin count can remain elevated for weeks or even months, but will eventually level out at adult levels of 1mg/dl. The diagnosis is usually made in a healthy, thriving infant, and only after all the pathologic causes of jaundice have been ruled out. Often, this type of jaundice runs in families, and breastfed siblings are likely to be jaundiced as well. No one is sure why this type of jaundice occurs, but there seems to be something in some mother’s milk that increases the reasbsorption of bilirubin, or decreases the liver processing of bilirubin. When the baby is temporarily given formula, either as a substitute for, or along with mother’s milk, the levels drop quickly, rising again as the baby returns to total breastfeeding. Even though we are not sure of the cause, what is important to remember in cases of late-onset jaundice is that the baby is not harmed in any way by continued breastfeeding. There has never been a case of kernicterus associated with this type of jaundice, or any detrimental after effects. Because we know the well-documented benefits of breastfeeding, the baby should not be denied the advantages of breastfeeding, given the fact that the slightly elevated bilirubin levels will soon return to normal levels without any intervention. Once pathologic causes are ruled out, nursing should continue. Sometimes babies are taken off the breast for 24-48 hours just to make the diagnosis of breast-milk jaundice, though this is seldom necessary. If your healthcare provider wants to go this route, and the levels drop significantly, then breastfeeding should be resumed.

Slight Yellow Tint May Be Protective for Newborns
http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/jaundiceGood.html

High milk lipase activity associated with breast milk jaundice.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&uid=6782543&cmd=showdetailview&indexed=google