When my daughter turned yellow

On landing at Jomo Kenyatta Interantional airport from Khartoum I was so excited that my unborn daughter had waited for me to be back. After two days I took my wife to hospital and Nina was born, at midnight 1st December 2013. She looked as fit as a fiddle despite one factor, my daughter had turned yellow on her skin and eyes. A condition known as Jaundice. Tonight I want to share with you: the causes of jaundice in newborns, the effects of jaundice and management of jaundice in children

1.                  Causes of Jaundice

According to “The Nemours Foundation” a non-profit organizations devoted to children’s health, bilirubin is a waste product of used red blood cells and it causes the yellow color of jaundice. It gives urine its light yellow colour and stools their dark brown colour. That’s why stool is always brown even after eating when ugali. Before birth, the mother's liver removes bilirubin from the baby's blood. But after birth the baby’s liver should do this on its own. However, the newborn’s liver is often immature and can't remove bilirubin quickly enough, resulting to its accumulation and a yellow pigmentation on the skin and eyes, and that is Jaundice.

The laboratory results indicated that Nina’s bilirubin levels escalated took a turn for the worse –to a staggering 340mmol/l a 30% deviation from the norm. According to Hansen et al., a professor in the department of newborns in Oslo University hospital Norway increased billirubin is prevalent among people of East Asia, American Indians, and Greeks but can be prevalent in other regions too and I guess I belong to other regions

2.                  Effects of Jaundice

According to the website of Mayo Clinic, a non-profit medical research group in Rochesta, Minnesota, bilirubin is toxic to cells of the brain. In severe jaundice, bilirubin may pass into the brain, a condition called acute bilirubin encephalopathy. If acute bilirubin encephalopathy causes permanent damage to the brain, Kernicterus is the syndrome that occurs. Kernicterus may result in many complications, among them: cerebral palsy, permanent upward gaze, hearing loss and intellectual impairment. Coming from a paramedical background, my wife and I were well aware of this threat and hoped against hope that our daughter shall break loose from this quandary. According to Bhutani et al., in his pediatric research, there are 250 cases of kanicterus in 1 million births in Africa. We refused to be part of this statistics and believed there was light beyond the tunnel

3.                   Management of Jaundice

Jaundice can be treated by exposing the baby to sunlight if the levels are not severe. Phototherapy can also be done where the baby is placed under special lighting that emits blue-green light of the light spectrum. In some cases the baby may need an exchange transfusion of blood. Which involves withdrawing small amounts of blood, diluting the bilirubin, and transferring blood back into the baby — this is an intensive care procedure

In our case the pediatrician dint gamble with life and recommended a double phototherapy treatment. The medical team was full of vim and vigour to safe Nina's threatened life. To all prospective parents reading this blog, always be vigilant in your future births now that you know the causes of jaundice in newborns, the complications of neonatal jaundice, and the management of jaundice. I left work and camped at the hospital ward to give moral support to my wife, and after 11 protracted days Nina was given a clean bill of health we happily went home to recharge our batteries and see Nina grow.