Why is the newborn's face a little yellow?

Speaking of neonatal jaundice, everyone should be familiar with it. It is a very common neonatal disease. The main symptoms are yellow face and hair. If it is pathological jaundice, it needs timely treatment. Why does a newborn's face look a little yellow? It is usually caused by jaundice. If you don't know much about this, take a look at the introduction below. I believe this can help you.

The newborn's face is yellow, which is jaundice. If the baby has jaundice, the mother should pay attention to observation. Jaundice can be divided into physiological and pathological types. Neonatal physiological jaundice is generally not severe. Its characteristic is that jaundice usually begins to appear 2-3 days after birth. The jaundice gradually worsens, reaching a peak on the 4th to 6th day, and then gradually subsides. For full-term newborns, jaundice generally disappears within 2 weeks after birth, and for premature babies, it generally disappears within 3 weeks after birth. Jaundice is often limited to the face and upper body. When jaundice occurs, the child's general condition is good, with normal body temperature, normal appetite, normal color of urine and stool, and normal growth and development.

Pathological jaundice is caused by disease, which leads to abnormal metabolism of bilirubin. It occurs in a specific period of neonatal life and significantly aggravates physiological jaundice. However, pathological jaundice has some characteristics that are different from physiological jaundice. Jaundice appears too early, within 24 hours after birth. Jaundice disappears too late or lasts too long, exceeding the normal disappearance time, or jaundice has disappeared but reappears, or jaundice gradually disappears after the peak time but then progressively worsens. If the jaundice is too severe, it often affects the whole body and the skin and mucous membranes become noticeably yellow. When checking serum bilirubin, the bilirubin exceeds 12 mg/dl, or rises too quickly, exceeding 5 mg/dl per day. This should be treated promptly.

It can be seen that the harm of pathological jaundice is still relatively large. New parents should know more about the common knowledge about jaundice so that they can discover the signs of illness in their children in time and get effective treatment in the shortest time. After reading this, you should know the answer to why the newborn's face is a little yellow.