Call the doctor when the yellowing appears on the first day. Don't forget to nurse the baby every 2 to 3 hours to help clear up the excretion of excess red cells. The baby's skin should be moist and healthy looking. Baby's skin is extremely sensitive. Bathe the baby once or twice a week without using soap during the first months.
Some mothers uses mild baby soap and massage the baby with calendula oil before each bath.
Apply olive oil during the first week when cleaning the baby's buttocks to prevent meconium from adhering to the skin and causing excoriation. Using cotton diapers would help enable mom to check if the diapers have been dampened or not. Look for baby's stools to change colors from black-green to mustard yellow which occurs when the baby is getting breast milk. The black-green meconium stools are the sterile contents of the intestinal tract. Only after ingesting milk does the new infant have the normal bacterial flora of the human alimentary canal.