Jaundice!!

Natalie was born without jaundice but during her 1st week routine check, the bilirubin concerntration has gone up to 15.4mg! Pediatrician advised me to cut down on ginger intake and feed her with 90ml of water and return for bilicheck the next day.

Fortunately her bilirubin conc. has dropped to 14.5mg. I went cold turkey - w/o ginger in my diet for the whole week.

That didn't help. her bilirubin conc. had gone back to 15.6mg! Does it mean she has to be hospitalised? Is her immature liver finding it difficult to process the bilirubin which could be a result of lack of oxygen, poor feeding, thyroid deficiency, enzyme deficiency, or her liver is dealing with an infection? I prayed that it's none of the above.

We met Dr. Toh shortly and she suggested for a blood and urine test to be conducted to rule out the possibilities of an immature liver. As they took 2 tubes of blood from her little hand, we could hear Natalie screaming atop her lungs from Dr. Toh's office. Our hearts nearly broke.

We'll be getting the results some time today. Hopefully there is no cause for concern and it might just be the result of breast-feeding jaundice or breast milk jaundice.