♥ XanthusL's Little Space♥

♥ Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Xanthus was hospitalised.....

Sad ...( He is on the 3 way UV light, which is in the very left cot. Yesteray night, we went to see him, due to his high jaudice level, doctor even advise to remove his pampers and expose to the light. Really very Ke Lian)

We went to see our PD yesterday, he told us Xanthus's Jaundice level was very high(20.6). I am not really sure how is this being measure. But in order to measure his jaundice level, they actually did a blood test for him. They poked a tiny hole on his left heel and then draw 2 straw of blood from there. Hai ..

When I looked at it, I really felt super sad for him. Cos he only so tiny and he keep crying and crying when they draw the blood from his little heel.

What is jaundice?

Jaundice means a yellow skin colour. They always said this is very common in new born babies, especially in their 1st 3 weeks of life. This is due to too much yellow bile pigment in the blood.

How does this bile pigment get into the blood?

1. Certain no. of red blood ceel in the blood break down and are replaced every day.

2. The broken down red blood cells release a yellow bile pigment.

3. The mature and healthy liver quickly removes the pigment from the blood and changes it into a non-poisonous substance.

4. The non-poisonous substance is passed out of the body with the faeces and urine.

Normally causes of jaundice...

- An immature liver which canot remove and change the bile pigment quickly enough.

This condition is temporary. The baby's liver will soon mature in a few weeks.

- G6PD deficiency

G6PD or glucose 6 - phosphate dehydrogenase is a substance that strengthens the wall of red blood cells.

When a baby is deficient in or lacks G6PD, his red blood cells tend to breakdown easily.

This condition is permanet.

Treatment of baby jaundice.

- If is mild, then will just observe at home and just do some sun bath through the morning or evening's sun.

- If increase or severe, will have to take the baby to hospital for Phototherapy which a special light is used to break down the bile pigment, or

Blood exchange transfusion where baby's own blood with the bile pigment is replaced by donor blood without the pigment.

If there is G6PD, there is several precaution to take note for the rest of his life:

- tell doctor/dentist

- Don't use mothballs

- Don't give traditional medicines, certain herbs and certain beans such as san zi ji, fava bean(bian dou/ kacang parang) and chuan lian(banned in SG)

- breastfeeding mothers should not take any of the abv too much, and cos chemical reactions to the baby through breast milk.

Lucky things, when today we went to see him around 1pm, his jaundice level drop to 12.9. Phew... and he is on the 2 way light. I told my hubby, he seems to go through little tough training in the hospital stay. Then we also go in the right timing, and able to breastfeed him.