My 7 days old baby has high bilirubin, which is 14.2 mg/dl... doctor advised her photo therapy... what care should i take?

Hi, If your doctor has advised the baby photo therapy then it means your baby has got jaundice. But it is nothing to worry about as most of the babies get jaundice after the birth as their liver are immature and is slow in processing bilirubin. When my baby was born she too was kept under a special light, which makes bilirubin easy for the liver to process. Photo therapy is nothing but keeping baby under that special light. Apart from this, at your own level, you too can help the bilirubin come down by giving the baby exposure to the sunlight. You can keep the baby on the cot or wherever the sunlight is coming. The best time to do so is the morning sunlight and late afternoon. But make sure that you are not exposing the baby directly under the sunlight. You can expose the baby to sunlight for 20 to 25 minutes everyday till her bilirubin comes down. And do not worry at all, it is a condition that most of the kids have after birth, even breastfeeding kids develop and it becomes fine either by exposing them to sunlight or by phototherapy. Do as your doctor says and relax. :)