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Most of the infants with breast milk jaundice can be observed.
The jaundice will decrease over the next one to six weeks and will resolve.
A trial off maternal milk for 24 to 48 hours has been advocated
for these infants.
Stopping breastfeeding for 24 to 48 hours usually results in a
fairly marked fall in their bilirubin level.
Their livers are now mature and they can excrete the bilirubin,
so once you remove the substance in the breast milk that is increasing
reabsorption of bilirubin,
the levels fall.
This will produce a more rapid decrease in the
bilirubin level than observation,
but may disrupt breastfeeding
enough to cause the mother to terminate breastfeeding.
Patience is a virtue with these babies,
and the jaundice will disappear even though breastfeeding is continued
(
Kemper, 1989
).
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