What is "phototherapy"?
Phototherapy is given when children reach certain levels of jaundice. Now, for every day old you are you are, it takes a higher level of jaundice to be in order to be concerned about it. So, in the first couple of days the level is usually less than ten and we want to see it less than ten. Then, when you get greater than 72 hours of age we are concerned if the level is greater than let's say 17 or 18, and those are the times that we would consider using lights. What the lights do is they shine on the baby, and it's called phototherapy. Usually there are two lights: a lamp that goes over the baby, and a biliblanket, which is a light blanket that the baby lays on. The more surface area of the body that is exposed to the lights, the better. This phototherapy breaks down the bilirubin, the jaundice in the blood, and helps get rid of it more easily. One of the things that the parents can do to get rid of mild jaundice is actually feed their baby in a windowsill and get indirect sunlight, which does the same thing; undressing the baby and having as much of their body exposed to the sunlight as possible. The eyes often look very yellow. That's actually the last part of jaundice that goes away, and that can even last many, many weeks even after the jaundice is getting better.
