Meconium contains (according to my old Taber's): "salts, liquor amnii, 
mucus, bile and epithelial cells."  Meconium doesn't actually contain red 
blood cells, just the by-products of their breakdown, one of which is 
bilirubin.

Babies drink amniotic fluidand anything in it (like skin cells) , baby 
digests and stores up waste in the colon.  The bile contains bilirubin. 
More bilirubin is made as baby breaks down excess blood after delivery. 
That also goes into the intestines/colon.

If baby doesn't stool, the bilirubin tends to be reabsorbed thru the 
intestinal walls back into the blood stream, where it goes to the immature 
liver (who doesn't want to process bilirubin yet), so the bilirubin gets 
dumped into the blood stream, leading to jaundice.

Enough teaching today, have to go make dinner :-) Pat in SNJ 

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