Dawn and all, I think Dawn is on the right track. If it's true that a majority of babies that are breastfed have bili levels that are 'high' in comparison to adult levels then it seems that there must be something normal about that! Dr. Gardner, at a conference in Sept.2000 spoke to this very notion. He was beginning to think that there might be some protective characteristic in the bilirubin, since so many babies have levels this high. Kernicterus is different, but a bili level that hangs in a 'high'(5-12 or so) range maybe is healthy. I stick to my belief that the creator, whoever it is for you, created us wonderfully and well. It is ours to figure out why we are made this way and not to keep trying to 'correct' the problems we have. (ie, little volume of colostrum at birth so that a baby would NEED(?) supplementing, etc) So maybe this 'high' bili level is really a normal phenomenon. Hmmmm.... I just returned from a Ped Committee meeting here in my hospital. Someone brought up the fact that JCAOH has had their arms twisted by a militant parent group that is concerned(mild term, I guess)about kernicterus and the monitoring of bili levels. So JCAOH is going to be looking this next year into how hospitals keep bili levels down! Where will this leave us? Do I see even more 'medical' need for supplementation? AHHH! Betsy Wells-Gephart RN, IBCLC in Chandler AZ (where it's finally in the 30's! at night) _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp *********************************************** 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