New jaundice guidelines urge care
Wednesday May 19th, 2010
Babies with jaundice need to undergo proper testing to ensure their health is not at risk, NHS advisers said today.
Babies should be checked carefully for jaundice in their first days and proper tests conducted.
Jaundice
is a common symptom in babies and most come to no harm - but some may
develop long term disability or liver disease.
The guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommend using phototherapy when jaundice needs treating. Serious jaundice can be treated by a kind of blood transfusion or by multiple phototherapy.
Dr Fergus Macbeth, director of the NICE centre for clinical practice, said: "The majority of babies will develop jaundice in their first week of life and it will be generally harmless in most cases.
"Although the condition does have the potential to become serious, it can usually be easily treated with timely and appropriate medical care. This guideline will ensure that happens. It does recommend some changes to current medical practice but only when it is shown to be in the best interests of the baby."
Gail Johnson of the Royal College of Midwives welcomed the guidelines.
She said: "Decisions around the diagnosis and treatment of jaundice in newborns can be challenging. The new toolkits and guidance will help to offset the difficulties of judging when to maintain observations (in newborns) or when to intervene.
"They will help to ensure consistent and improved practice by midwives and other health professionals and enable them to provide better and more timely care."
Dr Janet Rennie, a consultant neonatologist at University College Hospital London, who helped draw up the guidelines, said: "This new guideline should have a significant impact on the diagnosis and treatment of neonatal jaundice, by proposing changes to current practice."
* A second report today warns that infants lose their innate protection against measles sooner than realised.
Babies gain immunity from their mothers - but this starts to wear off after about two months, according to an analysis published by the British Medical Journal.
The Belgian researchers say that after six months, more than 95 per cent of babies had lost immunity. Researcher Elke Leuridan, of the University of Antwerp, calls for research into whether vaccination can start at an earlier age than 12 months - especially during measles outbreaks.
British Medical Journal on-line May 19 2010
Tags: Child Health | Childbirth and Pregnancy | Europe | Flu & Viruses | Nursing & Midwifery | UK News
Printer friendly page