Babys First Year Blog
Jaundice (No Poo) – Part 2
photo courtesy of thrasher dave, flickr
Read Part 1 of our story here.
We arrived at the children’s hospital ER and were admitted very very quickly. The nurse wanted to take his vital signs. As soon as he put the thermometer in Tate’s bum, he pooped. And then he pooped some more. The poor kid let out more yellowy runny poo than a diaper would have ever been able to handle. We were so relieved we started laughing and smiling. The tears that had been nearly constant finally stopped.
We were so relieved and so sure we would be checking out of the hospital as soon the doctor saw us.
We were taken to another room for the baby to be examined. A crew of 8 different people came in while the doctors spoke to us. They decided that they should draw his blood and put in an IV just in case our baby’s bilirubin levels were elevated. It took the nurse three tries to get the IV in and it was all I could do not to cry out in pain for him. At one point I looked over and there was a drop of his blood on the floor. My heart ached so much I though I might die.
They started him on the light treatment and we waited for the results. The test results indicated that his level was too high (18.4) for us to leave the hospital. Then they told us that we were going to stay in the hospital overnight, possibly a full 24 hours. All I could see was money signs. I was so relieved we came in because his levels really weren’t healthy, but terrified at what the financial implications might be. Hadn’t we just racked up a huge hospital bill on Tuesday giving birth to the little guy? I’m on unpaid maternity leave, and make most of the money at our house, how were we going to pay for this?
They moved us to a room for the night. It contained a light table for Tate to lay on and two large blue lights. They strapped goggles on his little eyes to keep them from getting damaged by the light. The only accommodations they had for us were a fold out lounge chair and a glider. I tried to sleep in the fold out “bed” while our baby was treated and Steve tried to get some rest in the glider. We were only allowed to remove Tate from the lights for 30 minutes at a time, every 3 hours to nurse him. He started to fuss in the night and he had already been removed from the lights as much as the doctor would allow. My sweet husband stood by our baby stroking his legs for at least an hour to try to calm him. By morning, we were emotionally exhausted.
The nurse took his levels again at 6:00 AM, and we were relieved to hear they had dropped to 11.7. We waited to be discharged from the hospital. It took the doctor several hours to come in, and when she did she informed us that Tate had a positive result on the Coombs test. Which as far as we understood means that because my blood type is O+ and Tate’s is A+, there was an extra complication. The antibodies in my blood were attacking his red blood cells, which in addition to his lack of bowel movements, was contributing to the jaundice. They told us it was quite possible that we might have to come back to the hospital because his jaundice was more likely to return than with other infants.
Luckily, they did decide to discharge us and our sweet babe has been steadily improving ever since.
Living through this experience gave me so much respect for parents of babies with big medical problems. How could I possibly deal with my baby in the NICU? I could barely stand to watch my baby sit in a glorified tanning bed for a night. It’s really incredible how connected our heart strings are to these little people we didn’t even know just a few weeks ago.
Babble’s Newborn Care Guide: Skincare for Jaundice, Acne, Rashes, and More!
Go Back To Babys First Year Blog
10 Comments
[...] Read Part 2 of our story here. [...]
Jaundice (No Poo) - Part 1 | Babys First Year Blog commented on Jun 07 11 at 6:13 pmJessica commented on Jun 07 11 at 12:37 pmI feel your pain. My baby had RSV at 3 weeks old. We went to the ER in the middle of the night when his fever spiked to 101. They did a full sepsis workup on him which included chest xray, UA, IV, blood draw, and a spinal tap. Yep, a spinal tap on a 3 week old. We were asked to leave the room for most of it (and I was okay with that, there was a nurse there who had a newborn herself so she was really sweet with my son). We ended up spending 2 days in the hospital with the little guy on oxygen and being monitored. He is 4.5 months old now and very healthy, but I will never forget the fear and pain of watching him go through that! I hope all stays well with your sweet baby.
Carrie commented on Jun 07 11 at 1:20 pmI’m surprised they didn’t send you home with a biliblanket. Jaundice is serious and too many hospitals release babies before they can be sure the bilirubin levels will stay safe. Check out this site on the CDC, it may scare you, but we all need to know about the consequences of not taking Jaundice seriously. SUNLIGHT is NOT the answer. http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/jaundice/index.html
Liz commented on Jun 07 11 at 1:39 pmWe just went through the same thing when our son was born. I still remember the clinic calling with his bilirubin results from his 1 week appointment. They had said 18 was high, and the results were 20.9! I was in shock and then they asked us to be back at the hospital in 20 minutes. I just started bawling, I had to “return” my 5 day old. 2 days of ‘tanning’ and only being allowed to hold him 20 minutes every 3 hours, his levels final were down to 10.7 and we were allowed to check out. After leaving the hospital, I think the worse part was hearing everyone say ‘oh so and so’s baby had jaundice too’, like it wasn’t a big deal. I’m sorry if my story makes you feel the same. Two months later though I still feel like jaundice stole my newborn’s first week.
Rosstwinmom commented on Jun 07 11 at 2:28 pmI’m so sorry! You did great though. As another mom who’s had a baby in the ER, I know exactly how you feel. Just try not to relive it–it only happened once! Go back to enjoying your sweet baby.
Meagan commented on Jun 07 11 at 3:13 pmThis is more or less exactly what we just went throught this weekend, though I think it was less nerve racking for us since we had a long hospital stay to begin with (two days were more like three because the little guy put off being born till just after midnight). So no ER visit, and we had a bed across the hall to get some rest. Still… definitely broke out sobbing when he had to be under the UV lamps for a whole day… then felt guilty about it because my baby was more or less healthy and so many parents sit watching babies who need so much more than purple lighting.
MLB commented on Jun 07 11 at 4:55 pmWe had the same Coombs issue with all three of ours. After our second child had to be readmitted at five days old, we switched pediatricians. For our third, he had phototherapy immediately in the hospital and went home with the biliblanket. Much better than readmission and his levels never got as scary-high as his older brother’s.
Kate commented on Jun 07 11 at 10:23 pmMy babe was never admitted for his jaundice although he had daily bilirubin testing for a week. I know how hard it is being in the hospital for your child, though.. my son spent 3 days/nights in the hospital at 8 weeks due to a stomach virus that they thought was meningitis. Like the first commenter, he had to have a spinal tap. He also had 4 different antibiotics running through 2 different IV’s and all sorts of vital monitors stuck to his chest, belly, and feet. It will be ok, I’m sure! It can be scary, but we can be crazy strong for our babies.
Desiree commented on Jun 08 11 at 2:42 pmMy daughter is 8 days old and had the same issue. That picture makes me wanna cry all over again, because that’s what she went through last week. She’s great now, home, eating, pooping, not yellow – but leaving her there crying in that thing, ripped my heart out.
Emily commented on Jun 12 11 at 1:58 pmWe are going through jaundice at our house right now too. Our babe is 6 days old, and though luckily we avoided actually being re-admitted to the hospital, daily blood tests at the hospital, wearing a billiblanket 24/7 for (so far) the last 3 days, daily visits and calls to the pediatrician (including one frantic middle of the night call when we couldn’t even wake the baby to get him to feed and he was limp and lethargic), I can’t believe what little info and warnings hospitals give parents when they bring their newborns home.
And you’re right, I too feel like jaundice took a lot away from the first week of bringing our first baby home. And hearing people say “most babies have jaundice, it goes away on it’s own” makes me insane.
Add your take:
Note: Babble is a supportive, diverse community. We encourage a range of opinions,
but any unduly hostile comments will be removed.
Comments are delayed up to 15 minutes
Lauren Jimeson 
Lauren Hartmann 
Emily Elling 
Meredith Carroll 
Emily Malone 
Molly Thornberg 
Selena Burgess 
Casey Mullins 
Madeline Petersen 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
10