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Dimapur, Aug. 7 (EMN): The traditional method of sunbathing newborns with jaundice or the myth that eating chicken by the mother causes jaundice in babies were disproved by Dr. Apong Longchar, paediatrician at Nikos Hospital and Research Centre Dimapur, stating that there was ‘no scientific proof’ to it.
Addressing the concern of jaundice in infants, the paediatrician said that ‘newborn jaundice’, which is caused by the increase of bilirubin in blood causing yellow skin and eyes, is common in children and is seen in 60% full term babies and 80% in premature babies.
Jaundice in babies and adults are caused when the red blood cell breaks and produces bilirubin, after which it is filtered in the liver, passes to the intestine and then through the stool or at times urine, he explained.
“It is the same with the adults and the babies but jaundice is common among the babies because the liver at birth is immature and takes two-three weeks to fully mature.
“Newborn immature liver cannot filter out bilirubin well so it is accumulated in the body and produces jaundice. By two-three weeks, the liver gets matured and the jaundice is healed. Newborn jaundice is usually noticed in the first two-three days after birth; maximum peak at the 5th to 7th day and starts decreasing by the 7th to 9th day,” he informed.
Clarifying on the practise of traditional sunbathing, he stated that “babies with neonatal jaundice without other complications will resolve over a few days and weeks without any intervention or treatment because the liver will gradually mature and filter it out. But in some unlucky babies, the jaundice may shoot up very high in the first few days and create problems before the liver can take care of it. Sunlight exposure for 10-15 minutes is not adequate to reduce jaundice and so it’s actually the baby’s liver that slowly started working, not the sunlight,” he stated.
He further clarified that sunlight also has the same blue spectrum light used for phototherapy, ‘so in theory it will work’. But for high jaundice, one needs to expose a baby for many hours which is not possible with sunlight.
“Jaundice will resolve by itself without treatment, so maybe the sunlight exposure and natural healing of jaundice is coincidence more than a real benefit,” the doctor said.
He explained that the risk factors for developing jaundice were high if a mother is ‘O’ blood group and baby is not ‘O’ blood group but is ‘A’ or ‘B’ or ‘AB’ blood group; and if a mother is negative blood group and baby is positive blood group.
Almost 80% of pre-term babies develop jaundice and the risk of developing severe jaundice is high, he added.
‘Delay in starting feed and inadequate feeding increases high risk of developing jaundice. Liver disease, infection, enzyme defect, red blood cell defect are other risks of developing jaundice. Bleeding and blood collection in the scalp or other internal organ is at risk,’ said the doctor.
The paediatrician noted that if jaundice gets high, the bilirubin enters the brain and creates problems.
‘The signs and symptoms of severe jaundice are poor feeding, seizures, fever, and difficulty in breathing. A baby may not have problems initially but later on develop hearing problems, learning disability and cerebral palsy,’ he informed.
He said that ‘jaundice usually starts from the face and slowly progresses down the body as bilirubin level increases and also disappears in reverse from leg to face. The American Academy of Paediatrics recommends that all babies be checked for jaundice before discharge from hospital and at three to five days after birth’.
“If a baby with high risk of jaundice is detected, the doctors perform blood tests to check the bilirubin level and in some places use a special machine on the skin to check the level. If the bilirubin level is high, other tests are conducted if some severe disease is suspected. And if the bilirubin level is high, a treatment is conducted called phototherapy, a common treatment which is not a dangerous therapy. If the jaundice is at a very high level, another treatment is conducted called exchange transfusion where a baby’s blood is slowly replaced with a donor’s blood to wash out the high jaundice,” the doctor explained.
“There is no preventative steps for jaundice and knowing the risk factors will help us to monitor closely and treat promptly and frequent adequate feeding reducing risk of jaundice,” said Longchar, while appealing to do away with the practice of sunbathing for jaundice ‘as it may do more harm than good’.