jaundice

[honeydomehlon]

So my baby boy is jaundice. the levels were never dangerous- they just wanted to keep an eye on them. The pediatrician told me to get an appt. on Monday. when the dr. was out Monday I scheduled for the Fri before.

Well, the poked his heal and had to get a good amount of blood- I hate that.

So Doc says, lets do the same thing - Sat, Sun and Mon and Im sure we won't have to do anything and levels will be normal Monday.

So....why are we testing all of these times if we aren't going to have to "do anything" ? So I declined and said I would monitor his symptoms. (color and making sure he is eating enough and flushing his system)

Well he is a champion nurser so Im not concerned but doesn't it seem like they just wanted to pad the pockets a little?

This is the same Dr that told me if I did an alternative vax schedule then my baby could die and that if he gets a fever as a newborn they will without question do a spinal tap and cath him. Seems extreme to me.

We do a alternative vax schedule and did with our daughter as well. she is fine!

I need to find a better Pediatrician that I can trust.

Ok, mostly just a rant, sorry. By the way - I am actually the happiest Mom in the world with a sweet little 5 day old baby...you just can't tell in this post.

[kismetbaby]

Ugh. We had similar experience with ds. Want to be safe, but I hate all the intervention and the badgering (esp about vax!). And that heal blood draw is awful.

Trust your gut mama!

[Hands&Fire Pottery]

Oh gosh... I remember all the jaundice discussions with DD... so stressful! I was scared to death.

[Mama_Destiny]

Ugh, those heel pokes are aweful! With Ds, we had to admit him when he was two days, he was under the lights for 5 days, and I cant tell you how many times he was pricked. They would draw the blood then by the time they got it to the lab, it would be dried up, so they would have to do it time and time again. I'm scared this one will go through that too. Dd1 did, but we did the lights at home, and she didn't get pricked near as often. Dd2, I just watched her at home and did natural sunlight. I may do the same this time, depending on the original levels. With DS my Dr and the lactation consultant were going at it about giving ds formula, or to continue bfing. That sucked. It was nice to have someone there to help fight against supplementing!

[Nagshead]

My new baby is jaundice too. Level was 11 at three days old and 14.2 at five days. Doctor said he still looks fine and to keep nursing like crazy which we have. I think he is looking a lot better today at 7 days old. We did do the heel prick at day three

[PurpleRina]

I would agree that it sounds like time for a new pedi. Since there is such a poor level of trust with this doc, it's all too easy to have a difficult time trusting why on earth he would want to test those 3 days in a row. Seems a little much, but difficult when there is already so little trust.

[Lady_B]

The firs time they did the heel prick on dd is was super fast. The second time she started crying and dh started flipping out because it was taking forever to get the sample. She had to do the blanket for the rest of the time we were there.

[momof3boys1girl]

oh no mama yes i would def get a new pedi. Also is there any sunlight during the day? My mw advises when babies are born to put them next to an open window as much as possible and it helps prevent/cure jaundice.

[vittoriosmom]

My little man was slightly jaundiced but the pedi said he should get over it and nursing will help.He said he doesn't want to torture him with blood tests unless he looks really yellow... He is now 9 das old and looking better.

[honeydomehlon]

Thanks Mamas. We live in a small town and so our close pediatricians are limited to a group of 4 that are very aggressive. Plus, there was only one I really liked and that's who we saw and she has now made me think otherwise which is too bad.

Today for his one week appt. I took him to our family Dr. instead and she thinks he is looking good but since the level was up before we are going to the nursery today for one test. Which is fine...I just didn't want to do 4.

FYI I did a little research online and found that a liver cleansing tea may be helpful IF MOM DRINKS IT not baby of course. And baby would get the benefits through the breast milk.

So I brewed a cup of dandelion root tea yesterday and diluted it drank it over 3 cups or so and will plan to do that same today.

I have been putting him in a sunny window with a diaper on for about 30 minutes or so a day. Some Dr.s are not recommending this anymore because there were parents out there putting there kids in a screened window in warmer months and the baby was getting sunburned. We live in Indiana where it's quite cold but we have good sunshine right now so he is not getting sunburned through the glass window.