Symptoms:

The main symptom is a yellow color of the skin. The yellow color is best seen right after gently pressing a finger onto the skin. The color sometimes begins on the face and then moves down to the chest, belly area, legs, and soles of the feet.

Sometimes, infants with significant jaundice have extreme tiredness and poor feeding.

Signs and tests:

All newborns should be examined for jaundice at least every 8 to 12 hours for the first day of life.

Any infant who appears jaundiced in the first 24 hours should have bilirubin levels measured immediately. This can be done with a skin or blood test.

Babies should be assigned a risk for later developing jaundice before they leave the hospital. Babies are classified as low risk, low intermediate risk, high intermediate risk, or high risk. Many hospitals do this by routinely checking total bilirubin levels on all babies at about 24 hours of age.

Further testing varies on the infant's specific situation and test results. For example, the possible cause of the jaundice should be sought for babies who require treatment or whose total bilirubin levels are rising more rapidly than expected.

Tests that will likely be done include:

• Complete blood count
• Coomb's test
• Measurement of levels of specific types of bilirubin
• Reticulocyte count

The level of albumin in the baby's blood may also be checked. Low albumin levels may increase the risk of damage from excessive jaundice.