>>Why are there suggestions that the milk should be treated? For years at
>>the hospital at which I work our peds have told the Mums to just keep
>>breastfeeding.
>
>I understood that doctors sometimes want to confirm that it's "just"
>breastmilk jaundice - not some kind of pathological jaundice - and do so by
>taking baby off mom's milk for a day or two to see if the bili drops.  The
>heat-treating seemed to me a way to let mom stay in control of the whole
>affair and use her milk thruout.  Or is my first premise wrong?

I suspect there is some confusion about the meaning of the term
"breastmilk jaundice". Many midwives and doctors in my area use the term
to mean the normal, physiologic jaundice that many breastfed babies get
at about day 5 due to the milk not having come in and the baby not
nursing very frequently after the birth. This type of jaundice is
usually "kept an eye on" and no one seems terribly bothered. Sometimes
they do check the bilirubin levels just to discount other causes, but
there is rarely a problem.

I have read there is another sort of "breastmilk jaundice" that is rare
and occurs about about day 10 (I do not know the medical term for this).
Something about the mother's milk inhibiting the breakdown of bilirubin
in the baby? I gather this is more an annoyance than a serious problem,
unless complicated by other kinds of jaundice. I can understand how a
doctor might think that depriving such a baby of breastmilk for a day
might help diagnose this condition. Is it possible they are assuming
this type of true "breastmilk jaundice" far too often?

Btw, when my baby was treated for pathologic (haemolytic) jaundice, my
Ped said he never used formula on such babies.
--
Anna (mummy to Emma, born 17th Jan 1995 and Alice, born 11th Sept 1996)
Email: [log in to unmask]  Web Page: http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna