Can a newborn with jaundice still be breastfed?

Before birth, the fetus grows in the mother's womb, which is a low-oxygen environment relative to the atmosphere. Like people living in plateaus, the baby's red blood cells increase to increase the amount of oxygen carried by the blood. After birth, the baby begins to exchange gases with the atmosphere through the lungs, inhaling more oxygen, and a large number of red blood cells become redundant, which decay in the body to form bilirubin, a substance that causes jaundice. Therefore, the baby's skin will turn yellow.

Neonatal jaundice is artificially divided into physiological and pathological types. Pathological jaundice requires phototherapy, intravenous albumin infusion, or even blood transfusion. Phototherapy is the most commonly used medical method for jaundice reduction in hospitals. It is a physical therapy and is quite safe. For breastfed infants, breast milk may contain an enzyme that causes some infants to have jaundice for a long time, even up to 2 to 3 months. As long as the jaundice is not severe, breastfeeding can continue.

The severity of infant jaundice has nothing to do with the duration of jaundice, but only with the degree of jaundice. If the jaundice index is not higher than 18 mg/dL one week after birth, breastfeeding should be continued. Jaundice in some breastfed infants can last up to 2-3 months. Do not doubt the correctness of breastfeeding just because of jaundice. Only when some breastfed infants develop hyperbilirubinemia do they need to stop breastfeeding for a few days. Whether neonatal jaundice requires phototherapy is closely related to the degree of jaundice and the time of birth.