What are the medicines for infant jaundice?

Jaundice is a common skin disease in newborns. It can be said that most newborns will have jaundice when they are born. Generally, it will slowly return to normal over time. Of course, if the newborn has excessive jaundice, it is recommended to use medication to help the baby become healthy and lively as soon as possible. So what are the drugs that can help treat jaundice in infants clinically?

1. Medicine for treating jaundice in newborns

Chinese medicine prescription

Prescription 1: 15g of Lysimachia chinensis, 6g of Gardenia jasminoides, 9g of Artemisia capillaris, 3g of Licorice root

Preparation and usage: decoction

Indications: Neonatal jaundice

Prescription 2: 20g each of Artemisia capillaris and Poria cocos, 15g each of Gardenia jasminoides and Atractylodes macrocephala, 5g of Akebia. Directions: Decoction in water. For patients with dry stool, remove Atractylodes macrocephala and add 5g of Rhubarb and 5g of Citrus aurantium; for patients with fever, irritability, and crimson tongue, add 20g of Rehmannia glutinosa, 15g each of Cortex Moutan and Paeonia lactiflora.

Indications: Neonatal jaundice with damp-heat syndrome

Prescription 3: 10g each of Coptis chinensis, Artemisia capillaris, and Poria cocos, 6g each of Phellodendron chinense, Scutellaria baicalensis, and Gardenia jasminoides. Preparation and usage: Grind into powder and mix with honey to make medicine cake. Stick it on your navel and use a hot water bottle to warm it.

Indications: persistent fetal jaundice, congenital deficiency, and deficiency of both Qi and blood.

Why are babies prone to jaundice after birth? What is neonatal jaundice? Neonatal jaundice refers to a disease characterized by yellowing of the skin, mucous membranes and sclera due to the accumulation of bilirubin in the newborn's body, which leads to increased bilirubin levels in the blood. It is generally divided into physiological jaundice and pathological jaundice.

After the baby is born, he must use his lungs to breathe directly to obtain oxygen. The low oxygen environment in the body is changed, and the demand for red blood cells is reduced. As a result, a large number of red blood cells originally in the newborn baby's body are destroyed and decomposed into unconjugated bilirubin. However, the liver function of newborns is imperfect and the enzyme system is immature. Glucuronyltransferase takes 3 to 5 days for full-term infants and 5 to 7 days for immature infants to mature. They cannot process and excrete excess bilirubin, so it can only accumulate in the blood. This bilirubin acts like a yellow dye, flowing through the blood and combining with the various bilirubin metabolic characteristics of newborns, dyeing the skin and sclera of newborns yellow, thus causing physiological jaundice of the newborn.

Neonatal physiological jaundice: Newborns begin to develop jaundice 2-3 days after birth, which is most obvious after 4-5 days and disappears naturally in 7-14 days. The general condition is good without adverse reactions. This is called "physiological jaundice." Because premature infants have more immature liver function, jaundice will appear later, around the 3rd or 4th day, and will last longer. Jaundice in premature infants can last for 14 days or longer.

Neonatal breast milk jaundice: Jaundice starts 4-7 days after birth and lasts for about 2 months. It is mainly characterized by elevated unconjugated bilirubin and has no clinical symptoms.

Neonatal pathological jaundice: Jaundice appears early, within 24 hours after birth. Jaundice is persistent. It may persist or even worsen 2-3 weeks after birth, or it may get better and then get worse. Severe jaundice may be golden yellow or spread all over the body, with obvious jaundice on the palms and soles, or serum bilirubin greater than 12-15 mg/L. Those with anemia or lighter stool color. Those with symptoms such as abnormal body temperature, poor appetite, vomiting, etc.