> Brenda Phipps wrote:
> <<That "Neonatology on the Web" website which you sent is very good, and I
> plan to post it, but I have a question: In paragraph 10, it states-
> "breast-milk jaundice occurs in almost two-thirds of all brestfed
> infants". Is that true? Seems high to me. >>

And later Chris wrote:
> The article on jaundice and bf by Gartner and Herschel in Pediatric
Clinics
> of North America (48:2, 389-99) says, "In contrast to artificially fed
> infants, at least two thirds of all breastfed infants have serum bilirubin
> concentrations that exceed the adult normal level of 1.5 mg/dL ...during
the
> third week of life..."  I figure that Larry Gartner knows if anybody
knows!


Lactnetters,
This confuses me.  I'm not doubting the information but I need some help
understanding this.  Breastmilk is the physiologic & biologic norm and a
full two thirds of breastfed infants have "high" serum bilirubin levels
during week three.  That makes me think there is some evolutionarily
adaptive reason for the elevation.  If two thirds of a population falls in
the "high" range doesn't that make it the norm?  Before formula and testing
for these sorts of things were two thirds of all babies developing
complications from jaundice?  Is anything over the adult normal level
considered high?  Which brings up another question question for me.  I've
always heard the levels given in whole numbers, with some becoming concerned
at about 15 but more recent guidelines suggesting 27 or 28 a more
appropriate range to become concerned.

Dawn in Austin

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