Prolonged jaundice simply means the baby is still jaundiced after 2 weeks, which is cause or concern because normal neonatal jaundice should disappear after 2 weeks. Jordan still looked yellow then so we took him for a blood test at the emergency ward of Hospital Kajang on his 16th day. After the blood test, his bilirubin level was at 11.4 which is still above 10. So I was put on the wheel chair for the 2nd time and pushed all the way to SCN, where we were warded for phototherapy earlier. At SCN, Jordan’s blood was again taken from his hand, (which already has many holes) and they also required a urine sample. I met the lady who was my roommate after I gave birth and her baby was in the ICU awaiting heart transplant! Gosh.
Anyways, we waited for a long time as Jordan cried his lungs out at the back. The doc then came back and told us Jordan spilled his urine all over her and she’s gonna need to take another sampple. Is Jordan competing with Josiah who did the same thing when he was born? Anyways, so I sat there and nursed Jordan for a while so that he can accumulate more urine. After that, they finally took the sample and we were asked to go to the Hospital’s children’s specialist clinic in a week’s time.
So, yesterday we brought Jordan to the clinic, which is the purple building at the hospital and is so small it looked like a toilet from outside. There were already lots of people when we arrived at 8.50pm. We took a number and waited. During the wait, Jordan had to change his diapers up to 3 times! There wasn’t even a changing room so we just need it on an unused counter while other parents look on, probably with disgust. Then finally Jordan’s name was called after more than 1 hour, his weight was taken (4.4kg) and height (58cm). Then we went into the doctor’s office, which was like a big room with 4-5 docs. The doc gave us the good news that Jordan was cleared of any jaundice related diseases, a big sigh of relief. His skin was still yellow so she told us it’s just breastmilk jaundice but she wanted me to continue breastfeeding. Thankfully, as I know some docs will tell the mums to stop breastfeeding. She said that the jaundice will eventually clear by itself.
So we really thank God for answering our prayers and the prayers of the saints, our friends. 🙂 However, yesterday onwards, Jordan start to love crying non stop so no choice, I had to stuck a pacified into his mouth. It did help to give me some relax time but I won’t be using it too much as I don’t think he likes it a lot either. I just didn’t want to keep feeding him at every cry as the milk is too much and his tummy is so big and he kept spitting out.
I think I told you that Alyssa had jaundice too. Her highest reading was almost 15 but she wasn’t given the phototherapy because the reading stopped increasing after that. But the jaundice did prolong for few weeks and she was yellowish until she was almost 2 months old. The doctor told me that it happens to breastfed baby. I am not sure if it’s because of the same reason. Alyssa started crying a lot when she was around 3 weeks old and her body would be stiff and straight (looks like in pain). Later only we realized she had gas in her stomach. Doctor here advised me not to eat quite a lot of food because they will cause gas in baby,especially cabbage, broccoli, legumes, strawberries and citrus fruits. I also found out myself that herbs that I took during confinement actually is the main culprit. I still cant take bak kut teh!! We also rubbed her stomach to help her pass gas and poop.
a baby of a close friend of mine has very bad jaundice and passed one month. It got so worrying (and lots of poking for blood test too), until she stop bf for one week.