Newborn Jaundice

The cut off changes depending on how old the baby is, ie. it changes every few days. From the perspective of a mum whose baby had to go through phototherapy twice (24hours each time), please don’t aim for your baby to go through it. It’s heartbreaking! Her jaundice was severe enough that she needed double (sided) phototherapy.. so she was effectively naked except for the diaper on a hard transparent cot trolley for 48 hours. I couldn’t touch her when she was screaming her lungs out non stop, except every 3 hours when they would allow me to breastfeed her for a short while.. then she went back in again and screamed more. That was 4 years ago, and I still remember the trauma. And although the jaundice level drops rapidly initially after the phototherapy, it still rises again before it gradually comes down. That’s still many blood tests (1 entire month, every few days) even after phototherapy. My second daughter also had jaundice, but she just missed the mark to require phototherapy. I was actually really relieved. We just fed her as much as possible (to overcome breastfeeding jaundice) and also topped up with formula milk, to make the levels go down more quickly. She turned out to have slightly fewer blood tests than my other daughter in the end.