Abstract
Although Breast-feeding (BF) predisposes to late onset neonatal jaundice, its relationship to physiologic jaundice is controversial. In 135 consecutive full-term Coombs ⊖ babies, the prevalence of jaundice (serum Bili>10 mg% in the 1st 4 days) was 38.4% in the BF, and 10.3% in the artificially fed (AF) (P<.001). While ABO set-up raised the risk of jaundice, parity, sex,delivery mode, and ethnic background did not.
A subset of BF babies had their 4th day volume of intake measured by summing pre-cibal/post-cibal weight differentials. The validity of this intake estimate was assessed in AF babies by comparing it to the nurse's visual estimate of intake volume. The correlation between the two measures was .91 (P<.001). BF babies with intakes of <80cc/kg on the 4th day had a frequency of jaundice of 47%, as compared with 26% in BF babies with intakes >80cc/kg(NS).The milk intake of BF babies on the 4th day of life correlated inversely (r =-.31, P<.05) with the volume of glucose water supplementation in the first three days.
Deficient nutrition, possibly encouraged by excess ingestion of glucose water, may play a role in the higher rate of physiologic jaundice seen among breast-fed babies in our study.
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Kuhr, M., Paneth, N. & Lee, Ks. 582 FEEDING PRACTICE AND NEONATAL JAUNDICE. Pediatr Res 15 (Suppl 4), 537 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198104001-00595
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198104001-00595