Why does jaundice cause itchy skin?

The skin of many newborn babies turns yellow a few days after birth. In fact, this is caused by jaundice. Jaundice is a disease with a high incidence in newborn babies, but most of the time jaundice is physiological jaundice, so parents don’t need to worry too much that this symptom will disappear on its own. However, some parents found that their babies had itchy skin after suffering from jaundice. What's going on?

Why does jaundice cause itchy skin?

The yellowing of the skin and sclera of the eyes caused by increased bilirubin in the human body is called "jaundice". Bilirubin is a product of the aging and death of red blood cells in the human body. If there is too much bilirubin and it exceeds the processing capacity of the liver, the liver cells' ability to process bilirubin will decrease, and bilirubin cannot be excreted from the body, it will cause jaundice.

Jaundice is found in infants 24 hours after birth and disappears naturally within 14 days without other symptoms. It is called physiological jaundice. 50% of normally born children will have physiological jaundice. For premature infants, the incidence of physiological jaundice is even higher, reaching 80%.

Pathological jaundice is caused by various causes. Some diseases are quite serious and can threaten the life of children. Such as neonatal hemolytic disease, neonatal sepsis, neonatal hepatitis, congenital biliary atresia, etc. Neonatal hemolytic disease is the most common jaundice disease. It is caused by the incompatibility of blood types between the newborn and the mother, which leads to the destruction of fetal red blood cell aggregation and hemolysis, causing anemia, edema, hepatosplenomegaly, and hyperbilirubinemia. Patients with congenital biliary atresia appear normal at birth, but 1-1 week after birth, their skin begins to turn yellow, which gradually worsens. The yellow is darker and slightly brown-green. Western medicine calls it green jaundice, while traditional Chinese medicine believes that it belongs to the category of Yin jaundice. Another major characteristic of this disease is that the stool is grayish white.

Due to the increase of bilirubin in the blood caused by bile duct obstruction, the bile salts in the blood stimulate the sensory nerve endings of the skin and cause itching. When the patient experiences itchy skin, he should not scratch the skin with his hands to prevent local infection after skin damage. You can gently scrub with warm water to relieve itching symptoms