breastmilk jaundice (another repost)

Here's another repost - this time from Jen Tan of next9 and Mom Exchange.  read her original post here.  it's about how her baby was really dark and/or yellow. he had breastmilk jaundice.  what's that?  well, read on and find out =)  thinking back,  all my boys (including joachim) were dark and then only turned white after a few months... i was able to breastfeed all throughout the "darkness".

i don't think it occurred to the pedia or to anyone else that they had breastmilk jaundice... in any case, the kids are fine =)  ate says that my babies are born dark and then lighten over time, but looking at the pictures, i realize it's not the case.  my boys are born white, then they darken until they're almost orange or dark brown.  after a few months, they lighten again.  it's pretty cool, actually... the color was how i differentiated gabe from rafa when they were born (aside from size).  rafa was darker - maybe because he was bigger than gabe.  anyway, here's her post =)

Well, when Kevin was born, he was the same.

He was dark, because of jaundice, his pediatrician said. She said I could give him water or --- just "wait it out" as it'll fade in time.

As a peer counselor of LATCH, I've received lots of inquiries regarding jaundice. How some pediatricians have recommended that the mom stop breastfeeding while the baby is jaundiced or to offer water. For those of you who are wondering, this is why babies are jaundiced:

"The newborn baby, however, often becomes jaundiced during the first few days because the liver enzyme that metabolizes bilirubin is relatively immature. Furthermore, newborn babies have more red blood cells than adults, and thus more are breaking down at any one time. If the baby is premature, or stressed from a difficult birth, or the infant of a diabetic mother, or more than the usual number of red blood cells are breaking down (as can happen in blood incompatibility), the level of bilirubin in the blood may rise higher than usual levels." (quoted from http://www.bflrc.com/newman/breastfeeding/jaundice.htm)

And it seems, there really is "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. 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." (quoted from BFLRC.com).

Anyway, just to prove to you how my Biolink baby looked and how his progression was from "dark" to "light", click here for the pictures.