How can parents prevent neonatal jaundice?

Newborn babies are prone to jaundice. In many cases, babies can recover on their own, but some jaundice requires treatment. So what are the types of neonatal jaundice? How can parents prevent it?

Infant and child health care is a very important topic at present, especially parents nowadays pay much attention to the physical health of infants and children. Neonatal jaundice is a very common disease nowadays. Since you have neonatal jaundice, you need to do comprehensive prevention. So how to prevent it? In fact, there are many ways for parents to prevent it. Let me briefly introduce them.

How to prevent diseases for newborns? What is neonatal jaundice and how to prevent it? We can observe the degree of yellowing of the newborn's skin under natural light. If it is only on the face, it is mild yellowing. Press the skin of the trunk with your fingers and lift it up to observe the yellowing of the skin. The yellowing of the trunk is moderate yellowing. Use the same method to observe the limbs and palms and soles. If yellowing also occurs, it is severe yellowing and should be promptly checked and treated at the hospital. Let's learn about what neonatal jaundice is and how to prevent it.

Physiological jaundice in newborns can disappear on its own, but pathological jaundice is a group of diseases caused by many reasons, which must be discovered and treated as early as possible. Several common causes of jaundice are: hemolytic jaundice, infectious jaundice, obstructive jaundice, breast milk jaundice, etc. Newborns with severe jaundice should be alert to the occurrence of kernicterus, especially immature infants. The younger the age, the higher the incidence rate. Generally, within 12-48 hours after the onset of severe jaundice, symptoms such as mental depression, drowsiness, weak sucking, decreased muscle tension, vomiting, and refusal to eat milk may appear. If treated in time, they can recover completely.

Regardless of the cause, pathological jaundice can cause "kernicterus" in severe cases, which has a poor prognosis. In addition to causing damage to the nervous system, severe cases can cause death. Therefore, prevention of neonatal pathological jaundice should be emphasized, such as preventing toxoplasmosis and rubella virus infection during pregnancy, especially in the early stages of pregnancy; preventing sepsis after birth; and vaccinating newborns with hepatitis B vaccine at birth. Parents should closely observe changes in their children's jaundice. If any signs of pathological jaundice are found, they should be sent to the hospital for diagnosis and treatment in a timely manner.

Neonatal jaundice can be divided into physiological and pathological:

Physiological jaundice refers to the appearance of jaundice in full-term infants 2 to 3 days after birth, reaching a peak in 4 to 6 days, and disappearing in 7 to 10 days; physiological jaundice in premature infants will appear earlier, higher, and last longer, and may be delayed to disappear in 3 to 4 weeks. Although there is jaundice, generally speaking, physiological jaundice is relatively mild, the bilirubin concentration in the blood is low, and it will not affect the child's intelligence. The child does not feel any discomfort, it is a normal physiological phenomenon and does not require treatment. However, parents should also pay attention to close observation.

Pathological jaundice refers to jaundice that occurs within 24 hours after birth in full-term infants, does not subside within 2 to 3 weeks, or even continues to worsen or reappears after disappearing, or begins to appear within one to several weeks after birth. Because pathological neonatal jaundice may cause other diseases if not treated in time, parents should pay more attention to it and send their babies to the doctor for observation in time if the above symptoms appear.