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Transcript of “An easy way to avoid neonatal jaundice”
Moving out of the womb into the big wide world, involves a mammoth change in physiology. One of the most momentus transitions that happens at birth, is the switch from being nourished via a feeding line, to having to do ingestion and then digestion from scratch.
Getting off to an early start helps.
Ideally, baby should be loading up the digestive tract with colostrum soon after birth. The colostrum is custom designed to get the GIT tract on line.
One of the first tasks of the baby’s gut, is to expel the waste products that have accumulated in the intestine during development. This green goo, better known as meconium, is a potential health risk, if it isn’t moved out.
The reason…………… it is loaded with bilirubin.
Low levels of bilirubin are harmless. But, higher levels, referred to as hyperbilirubinemia, can be disasterous, because the bilirubin starts to spill over into the brain – where it causes TROUBLE.
Typically, the first sign of trouble is code YELLOW.
Quite literally, baby takes on a yellow tinge – this could ruin baby’s first photos, but in and of itself, is not a big worry. It does hint that baby is having trouble clearing the intestinal tract and might need some help.
It’s quite expected
The jaundice is not surprising – it has to do with normal physiology.
50 % of full term infants, show signs of neonatal jaundice. In preterm infants, it’s close to universal.
Pop baby under the lights
The “light” therapy, gets to work unconjugating the bilirubin – which means it can finally LEAVE the building.
Being able to UNCONJUGATE efficiently, is one of the things, baby guts aren’t good at doing.
It is not a failure of the baby’s gut per se, it just UNCONJUGATING is not something human guts do. Human guts rely on bacteria to deconjugate the bilirubin, into urobilin, which can then be excreted.
Since newborns don’t come ready made with a trillion little helpers – the run into trouble.
Remember, a big part of gut maturation involves acquiring this team of bacteria and it is imperative, baby, acquires “the right team”, which can be a little challenging if baby is born by c-section and not breast fed.
A newborn has LOTS of bilirubin on board and very few bacteria available to help out.
Fortunately, light can also perform this all important reaction, but phototherapy might not be IDEAL.
The trouble with phototherapy
It’s simulated SUN TANNING and baby’s skin is delicate.
This can lead to short term problems, such as skin rashes and transient bronzing of the skin and there is some science that suggests, exposing delicate skin to bright lights, can increase the risk of skin cancer later in life.
Plus, a SUN TANNING baby is not where he/she is supposed to be – in the arms of MOM.
So is there an alternative ?
This is what a team of Japanese researchers set about finding. The team went TRADITIONAL, before the advent of BIG lights, baby massage was used to avoid these YELLOW moments.
The rub-a-dub way
The team tested just how effective infant massage was at stopping neonatal jaundice.
Only healthy full term babies, which were being breast fed, were enrolled in the study. All the babies were born at the Sekizuka Hospital between September 2006 and November 2006. Babies that arrived on the first day of the study, were assigned to the massage group, babies arriving the next day, were assigned to the business as usual group and so on. In total 42 babies were included in the analysis.
- 20 received a 15-20 minute massage twice daily, for the first 5 days after birth. The messages were given about an hour after their morning and midday feeding.
- 22 received no special treatment
The massage was performed by the nursing staff, all of whom had received training from a licenced massage therapist. The massage technique used was an adaption of Touch Therapy, a technique developed at the University of Miami in the mid eighties.
It stimulated stooling
The big difference between the two groups was how much pooping went on.
The massaged babies produced on average 4.6 stools on day one and 4.3 stools on day 2. This was a lot more pooping than the business as usual babies, who on average produced 3.3 stools on day 1 and 2.6 stools on day 2.
The increased pooping had a knock on effect on the bilirubin levels.
More pooping, increased the excretion of the bilirubin, effectively lowering the levels in the blood.
And this resulted in less need for phototherapy.
All it takes is………….
A tender touch
You don’t need the nursing staff at the hospital, to massage your baby – it is something any Mom can do. With two hands, some oil and a little know how……………. you can give your baby’s gut a helping hand with getting the sticky green meconium goo out.
And, as an added bonus, your fingers will be sending junior the message of LOVE.
A muscle rub down does more than just foster a good mood, at the cellular level, a muscle massage is able to fight inflammation and invigorate muscle fibres
After feeding, your baby spits up a big mouthful onto you or the floor. The spitting is followed by CRYING. The spitting and crying is taking its toll on you………………..
Breast milk is filled with all the nutrients a developing human needs. But, not all the nutrients in this SUPERFOOD are things that junior can use.
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