The Fam

The little guy’s a bit yellow lately. This is apparently quite normal for boys and preemies. It’s caused by an excess of red blood cells in the system that break down. The parts, called bilirubin, are then processed by the liver into bile. In jaundice, the liver usually can’t process the bilirubin fast enough, and the infant may have an excessive number of red blood cells anyway.

Treatment of jaundice is usually with UV lights. Apparently the UV rays do something, but I haven’t been able to figure out what yet. All of the information I’ve found treats is like a “then magic happens” phenomena, but I’m a science geek and want to know more.

Anybody care to enlighten me?