It filters impurities out of the blood including medications, the breakdown products of dead cells, and the normal waste products of cells. It then packages this waste in the form of bile. The bile travels out of the liver through some tubes called bile ducts into the small intestine where it can then travel out of the body. It is the bile that gives stool its color. This color may be green, brown, or yellow or any combination thereof.
Biliary atresia is a rare disorder of infancy.
For reasons still unknown, about 1 in 15,000 babies are born without complete bile ducts. These infants have livers that are working to purify the blood, but then the bile has no way of travelling down into the small intestine. This causes the bile to back up in the liver. One of the pigments of the bile, called bilirubin, then begins to leach into the bloodstream causing the skin and whites of the eyes to turn a yellowish-green. This is called jaundice.