A mother called me today, not with a lactation question, but with a color
question. Her little 3-week old baby is yellow--very yellow. She has yellow
tears, and yellow urine. Her urine output levels are very good (at least 6
very wet diapers with a couple each day wetting the clothing) and there is
not a strong urine smell. Her stools are once every other day now and the
stool is yellow, thick, pasty, seedy, and occasionally green.

She had a bili count of 14 at day 5 and it has been decreasing steadily
since that time.  Her yellow-ness is on her trunk and legs, not her eyes
and face. She has breastfed 4 other children and with the others any leaked
milk was just milk-looking. With this baby the leaked milk is thick and
sticks to her bra.

She says that it looks like colostrum.

Her baby has Down Syndrome, which I don't think is an issue here, but I
wanted to put it out in case the fact is of relevance. Her weight gain is
good.

Have you seen a baby be yellow in this way? If so what was the significance?

Thanks for any help that you can offer.

Pat Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Mailto:[log in to unmask]

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html