Toby (and anyone else who's interested): My only experience with a thriving baby with a high bilirubin is my first son. I breastfed him for the first 48 hours, then ended up on Flagyl for 7 days because of an abscess in my episiotomy/pudendal site (ouch!), and had to "pump & dump" until 24 hours after I stopped the med. (This was 11 1/2 years ago, & I didn't know enough to lobby for an alternative med). Fortunately, he went back to the breast after that--NO nipple confusion here!--but he was a "touch" jaundiced when we left the hospital @ 5 days old. I kept saying, over the next few days/weeks, that I thought he was getting yellower, but my friends & family kept insisting "It's his Italian heritage (my husband is full-blooded Italian)". When we finally saw the ped. for a 1 month checkup, she IMMEDIATLEY greeted me with, "That baby's jaundiced--why didn't you call me?" After a panicky trip to the hospital for a bili check, his results came back with a total bili of 17. However, because he was SO alert, had gained over a pound, and the direct bili wasn't high, the ped. said she felt it was "breastmilk jd". She said I could take him off breast for 2 days, & if the level dropped that would confirm her diagnosis, but she felt personally he'd been away from the breast a week already, & she didn't feel it was necessary to deprive him again. (Before you all stand in awe of this "progressive" ped., she also told me that if he nursed past 6 months, he'd still be nursing in kindergarten!--We of course re-educated her by the time he weaned at 18 months!) Anyway, I chose to follow her (& my) instincts & continue nursing. We did a bili check every 2-3 weeks, until it finally started dropping at around 3 1/2 months. It never went over 17. Now, the big concern with prolonged high bili levels is brain damage and developmental delays, right? Well, at age 11, he just tested into a gifted program with an ESTIMATED (their standard scores didn't go high enough!) IQ of 194!!! Of course, maybe the "developmental delay" is the fact he still can't (won't) ride a bicycle..... Anyway, hope this anecdote is reassuring for you & your mom. Don't have any direct cites for this, but I believe 20 is the cut-off recommended for a prolonged elevated bili. Also, how soon after birth, and how severely the baby's feeding and activity patterns are affected, is more important than actual numbers. In our case, the "hidden blessing" in all this, is it's much easier to tell baby pictures of our two boys apart, since the second one wasn't jd. We jsut tell people that "the pumpkin kid" is our firstborn! Happy WBW to all! Carol