Untreated, it can cause dire consequences. It makes the baby sleepy. It makes the baby irritable and the baby doesn't feed well. Hospitals are receiving a new alert to be aware of a link between untreated jaundice and brain damage. While rare, the number of cases is on the rise.
Doctors say it's because babies go home quickly from the hospital.
Babies can be treated for jaundice at home with portable phototherapy, like the biliblanket, that goes under the baby's clothes. Once it goes down to the baby's arms and legs, then it's definitely getting too high. Only a blood test can tell you for sure if your baby has jaundice. That's why parents should always call their pediatrician if they notice these symptoms. In an alert issued to the nearly 5,000 hospitals it evaluates, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations said doctors are seeing a re-emergence of a rare condition called kernicterus in newborns.