Jaundice, oh go away!

Masa mengandung dulu, selalu je dengar pasal jaundice or bahasa kita.. demam kuning, it is not a disease and a normal condition for newborn.

I regret tak banyak study pasal jaundice earlier..

NOTE: Isi kandungan entry ini hanya menggunakan term dari layperson.

Walaupun bukan penyakit, tapi kalau baby mengalami jaundice dgn reading yang sgt tinggi, boleh effect brain which is kesannya kita tak nampak sekarang tapi bila our kids dah bersekolah. Most likely anak boleh jadi bit slow in learning etc.
Plus kalau jaundice tinggi treatment untuk mengurangkan kuning dalam darah baby seperti:
phototherapy - anak anda dengan hanya memakai diaper kene dok bawah lampu biru. Boleh menyebabkan baby dehydrated and kulit mengelupas

I also heard, kalau tinggi sangat reaching reading bilirubin 400, mungkin akan kena masuk air to baby's body and worst kena buat blood transfusion.

For a mother, yang kena menyaksikan those treatment happen to her baby.. sangat2 lah menyedihkan..

Kuning tu sebenarnya terhasil daripada proses pemecahan darah merah, ia adalah toksin yang sepatutnya discharge from our body by liver. They call it bilirubin. It happens to adult as well. Tapi for newborn, liver mereka tak mature lagi. So liver newborn tak boleh nak discharge bilirubin as fast as its being produced dari proses breakdown of red blood cells. That's why kita nampak skin baby macam color kuning. In worse case, mata putih and tounge pun boleh nampak color kuning on them. Kuning ni tak terus ada bila baby lahir, maybe hari ke-3 or 4 baru nampak. Start from muka, kalau lagi banyak kuning akan nampak kat badan baby. Selalunya dalam masa 14 hari jaundice akan disappear - assuming liver dah mature enough to discharge bilirubin from blood.

Again, jaundice is normal tapi still kene being cautious. Like my case, hari ke-2 dah nampak baby macam kuning tapi not really sure what to do sampai la nurse came to my house on the 3rd day and advised me to check jaundice kat klinik kesihatan cause dah nampak kuning kat chest baby.

Bila check kat klinik, reading kuning Amir dah 240 - borderline. Untuk hari pertama until tujuh, kalau reading jaundice baby more than 250, baby kena admit and undergo phototreatment to reduce jaundice. 250 dah consider tinggi at this point.
Tapi bila hari ke 8 onwards, 270 baru consider tinggi.

For normal baby, maybe reading jaundice 100-200 - which is normal and what practitioner can advise ialah BF banyak2 so baby akan pass urine and stool. Kuning pun boleh discharge from body dengan cara ni.

Berbalik pada cerita Amir, doc suruh datang repeat check the next day since reading masih lagi borderline and tak perlu admit. Esoknya kami pergi check dengan harapan kuranglah kuning, unfortunately kuning naik to 300! Definitely kena admit. Sedih.

Baru 3 hari bersalin, I stayed kat hospital with Amir since nak kena breastfeed. Only moms are allowed to stay in NICU tu. Ayah boleh tengok dari luar bilik treatment je. Stress nya tuhan aje lah yang tau. Dengan badan yang belum sihat lagi, the pain at stitches. Baby menangis sebab tak selesa duduk bawah lampu. I pray hard that we can go back the next day.

End up 2 malam jugak stay kat hospital. Akhirnya dapat jugak balik rumah tapi hati masih tak senang sebab Amir masih ada kuning, setiap masa monitor like we can detect if kuning get worsen.
Walaupun dah discharge tapi kami still check darah hari-hari, menurun..tapi sikit, reading masih 200++.

2 hari lepas discharge, reading menurun. Hari ke-3 lepas discharge reading naik to almost 300 again! Mengalir air mata. Tak sanggup nak tengok Amir kena dok bawah lampu and hari2 kena ambil darah sampai tangan jadi biru - most of practitioner ambil darah dari kaki, tapi kat Hosp Kuala Pilah ambil kat tangan huhu.

Bila tau kena admit, i refused nak masuk Hospital Kuala Pilah. Saya sendiri pun tak kuat, if i were alone... i dont think i can handle it. So again (macam masa nak bersalin) husband pecut laju-laju to HUKM, all the way dok tengok muka Amir. Memang kuning sangat. mata putih and his tounge nampak kekuningan. Doa n air mata sama-sama banyaknye huhu

Alhamdulilah, wad jaundice kat HUKM much better, room is separate from other, not so cold macam NICU, and ayah boleh masuk bila-bila. Baby cot untuk letak baby bawah lampu siap boleh buai-buai lagi. Perfectly comfortable for us.

Alhamdulillah lagi sekali, the next day kuning Amir dah turun and boleh discharge. Tapi masih kena repeat check darah sebab his jaundice bawah 270 tapi masih dlm lingkungan 200.

Sampai hari ke-14 kuning masih ada. Now they diagnosed as prolonged jaundice. Not require baby to do phototeraphy tapi kena la BF one hour once nak discharge more kuning. For prolonged jaundice, doc nak check further in case it's related to other disease. So they took blood (again?) and urine to perform lab test. Next week, kami akan tahu result. Ya Allah, jauhkan Amir dari sebarang penyakit.

Now at day 24, dari mata kasar tak nampak dah kuning kat muka or badan Amir. Mata putih pun dah jadi color putih hehe ini baru betul. Mintak-mintak la memang dah takde kuning. I am so paranoid.

Phototheraphy at HUKM




Jaundice treatment at kampung

Well, banyak sangat tips kami dengar pasal jaundice. And we tried many of them. Siap ada yang bagi tip A, kata tip B tak betul. Tapi masa orang lain tu bagi tip B, bukan main dia cakap it works wonder. No harm to try anyway. Tapi berhati2 je lah kalau nak try, jgn sampai neglect treatment at hospital (if required). For my case, macam2 tips yang kami try tu tak berapa membantu pun still jaundice Amir naik lagi after discharge for the first time.

Doa kami sekarang supaya Amir is always in a good health.. He's just too small to experience such situation.