How high does jaundice reach before it invades the brain?

Jaundice is a very common disease in newborn babies. Regarding jaundice, many parents who have children should know that jaundice is a disease that basically every baby will suffer from, but because the baby's physique is different, the time of jaundice occurrence is also different. Basically, jaundice has no effect on the baby's body, but some parents worry that their baby's jaundice level is higher than the average and will affect the baby's brain. Is that true?

The impact on the brain cannot be judged solely by the jaundice value, but if the jaundice value exceeds 20mg/dl, it must be taken seriously. The impact of the jaundice value needs to be judged in combination with the baby's birth time and the jaundice index. If the baby develops jaundice within 24 hours after birth, timely diagnosis and treatment is required. Generally, the jaundice level of newborns reaches its peak when they are 4-6 days old. If the baby's jaundice shows no signs of subsiding after a week, it should be considered as pathological jaundice, which may cause brain damage.

2 How to determine the type of neonatal jaundice by index

1. Physiological jaundice appears two to three days after the birth of the newborn and reaches its peak four to six days later. In this case, the normal value of neonatal jaundice is between 2mg/dl and 12mg/dl.

2. When the neonatal jaundice index is above the highest value mentioned above, that is, when it exceeds 12 mg/dl, or when the neonatal jaundice index rises too quickly, exceeding 5 mh/dl per day, the newborn may have pathological jaundice.

1. There are too many red blood cells in the newborn's body. After the red blood cells are destroyed, too much bilirubin is produced. Bilirubin is the direct cause of jaundice, so the newborn will have high jaundice.

2. The metabolism of bilirubin requires the participation of liver enzymes in the liver. The liver function of newborns is not very perfect, which leads to insufficient secretion of liver enzymes, resulting in untimely excretion of bilirubin and high jaundice.

3. The excretion of bilirubin requires the participation of the bile duct. The bile duct function of newborns is not yet perfect, so bilirubin accumulates in the body and cannot be excreted in time, resulting in excessive bilirubin and high jaundice.

4. Bilirubin can also be excreted from the feces, but the meconium of newborns is relatively viscous, which makes the excretion of bilirubin not very smooth, resulting in excessive bilirubin in the newborn's body, leading to high jaundice.

5. In addition, the incompatibility of blood types between mother and child can also cause bilirubin to accumulate in the newborn's body and cannot be excreted. In addition, pathological jaundice may be caused by neonatal diseases, such as neonatal asphyxia, premature birth, infection and other factors. Bacteria can cause excessive neonatal jaundice.

6. Breastfeeding can also cause bilirubin to accumulate in the body of newborns, resulting in high levels of jaundice in newborns.

1. Lighting:

Exposure to light on the skin can cause a chemical reaction in the bilirubin flowing through the skin's capillaries, thereby reducing the bilirubin content in the blood and eliminating jaundice. For common jaundice, light therapy is usually all that is needed. The advantages of phototherapy are that it is safe, cheap, and every hospital or every doctor can do it; the disadvantage is that jaundice decreases slowly, and if the jaundice index is too high, it will not be of sufficient help.

2. Blood transfusion:

A more straightforward way is to extract all the blood containing high bilirubin from the newborn's body and replace it with fresh blood containing normal bilirubin. If the jaundice index rises too quickly or is too high and there is a concern that brain cells may be damaged, blood transfusion may be needed to reduce the jaundice in a short period of time. However, blood transfusion is not completely without side effects. If the replaced blood is not suitable, jaundice will persist; if the blood is drawn too quickly, the newborn may go into shock; if sterile measures are not taken sufficiently during the blood transfusion process, bacteria may invade the blood and cause neonatal sepsis.