Every single one of my girls has had physiological jaundice. Basically, babies have an excess of red blood cells that need broken down, their livers are immature and the result is a yellowish tinged baby. My third baby Meghan, was in the hospital for almost four extra days under lights in a NICU, while my full term twins were in the hospital for almost seven whole days basking in the glow of ‘the lights.’
Jaundice, if left unchecked can lead to brain damage and a whole host of other serious health problems. The best way to avoid jaundice is to breastfeed frequently on demand which in turn encourages baby to have bowel movements thus getting rid of the excess bilirubin. However, it’s not always avoidable and babies who get jaundice have to be treated with phototherapy. They are also subjected to regular pricks to draw blood to check to see if the bilirubin levels are rising or dropping.
Until now. New technology has made it possible for nurses to get an accurate measurement of bilirubin levels without the pricking. With a price tag of $6,000, the transcutaneous bilimeter makes the jobs of nurses a lot easier because they don’t have to draw blood to get accurate measurements of bilirubin levels in newborns. The device measures the light refraction on the skin without pricking the baby to get an accurate reading of bilirubin levels.
Another advantage is earlier treatment of jaundice. With a heel prick, which is what is typically done to draw blood from a newborn, the blood work is sent to a lab. It can take several hours to get back to the doctor and that’s assuming the doctor is still on call. Obviously different hospitals do things differently, but for the twins, their blood work was done about 16 hours after their birth and because they were otherwise born healthy, the results weren’t read until the doctor came in on Monday. This delayed treatment about 3 days total. While it certainly isn’t life threatening (at least in their case), it could mean the difference between coming home with mom or staying in the hospital for an extra long period of time. The transcutaneous scanner can get immediate results and treatment can be started earlier.
Your hospital is not likely to have one though. . .at least not yet. But I imagine in another 5 years or so this will be the standard way to scan for jaundice.