bilirubin

My  nephew is 4 days old and his bilirubin level is 16. My sister took him to the hospital and they said it was not high enough to treat. Isn't this level pretty high? I thought they treated any thing over 14.
Thanks

[peekawho]

It also depends on the age of the baby. Higher bilirubin levels in older babies may not be as serious.  I'm sure they are checking the level again in a short while to be sure it is going down.
If it continues to rise, they will probaby treat with the lights.  If it stabilizes or drops, they won't.

[AndiJ78]

My son had a bili level of 15.7 at 3 days old. The docs suggestion: take him outside (this was early nov in the Pacific NW) lift his shirt and expose his belly to the sun for 1 or 2 minutes. I'll be danged if it didn't work. It helped us avoid the bili lights.

[pertykitty]

if he is a preemie they can go down then rise again, it is dangerous to be left untreated, expose to sunlght and she needs to get the baby to eat eat eat so he can poop out the bilirubin.  both mine were jaundiced and required lights.

[Tanker Chic]

Jacob's was 12 at 2 days old. They let us leave the hospital but said it was a good idea to expose him to some sun light in a window.  they also said to call the pedi if it got any worse.

[Cheyenne_08]

my son was 9 weeks early, but he spent a long time under the lights! He was in the NICU and was put on the lights at a few hours old, and remained under them for days....for some reason the number 8 is sticking out to me...I don't know if that was the goal for him or what, but for some reason I think they wanted his to be 8...but I am saying that without any idea for certain so don't quote me