Newborn jaundice (hyperbilirubinaemia)

Yellow skin and yellow whites of the eyes in a newborn, caused by too much bilirubin. Many healthy babies have some jaundice in the first week of life, and it usually goes away. It can also be a sign of a problem.

Also called Neonatal jaundice · Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia

Condition
In this atlas

Overview

Technical summary

Source: the MedlinePlus Jaundice topic (National Library of Medicine), which covers jaundice at any age. The American Academy of Pediatrics 2022 guideline revision on management of hyperbilirubinemia is listed as an identity-only reference; this atlas states no thresholds.

Recognition

The skin and the whites of the eyes turn yellow.

Assessment

Bilirubin can be measured in a blood test (listed by MedlinePlus) or through the skin with a meter; see the bilirubin and skin meter pages.

Burden

Description Evidence stage not applicable Certainty not assessed

Jaundice turns the skin and the whites of the eyes yellow, and it is caused by too much bilirubin. MedlinePlus says many healthy babies have some jaundice during the first week of life and that it usually goes away, but that jaundice can happen at any age and may be a sign of a problem.
Applies to Newborn
- Newborn babies. The sources set no limits of gestational age, birth weight or setting.
- Not stated in the source.
- United States programmes are described by NICHD; MedlinePlus names no country.
- Newborn period
- Gestational age Not reported
- Postnatal age Not reported
Follow-up Not applicable: general health information.
Certainty method
Not assessed

Limitations
Consumer health information from the National Library of Medicine. The MedlinePlus topic covers jaundice at any age, not newborns alone, and gives no bilirubin thresholds or treatment rules. This atlas lists the American Academy of Pediatrics 2022 guideline as a reference only and takes no thresholds from it.

Last checked
Not recorded

Next evidence check due
Not scheduled
Sources and citations (1)
1. Supports Jaundice (MedlinePlus health topic)
  
  Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition Health topic page as fetched on 2026-10-14 (mh-medlineplus-jaundice.html). Only the summary text is used. The page covers jaundice at any age, not newborns only.
  
  Locator
  Summary, paragraphs 1 and 2
  
  How it applies
  The summary text of the health topic.
  
  Retrieved
  2026-10-14T18:24:16Z
  
  Source effective date
  Not reported
  
  Source state
  Current
  
  Snapshot hash
  df09c49c9da86d86a1ff6682da5d6c1aae9c507e2957bbe01dd6eebcb95ae5b0
  
  Reuse basis
  Summaries on MedlinePlus health topic pages are in the public domain, per the MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content from MedlinePlus (fetched 2026-10-14 as mh-medlineplus-usingcontent.html, sha256 31267ce9db016893b80c5665312d92ffc8c34ec86916f84708c353936ba52228). The page bytes are not committed. The credit line is Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Medical Encyclopedia articles (/ency/) and drug monographs are licensed content and are not used.

Clinical links

Each link reports what one cited claim says about one population. "Evaluated for" means studied, not shown to work. These links do not show that anything is effective or right for you.

Claim, not a settled fact Treated by: Phototherapy for newborn jaundice (Claimed to treat, seen from the other side)
Applies to Newborn
- Neonates with jaundice and high serum bilirubin, as discussed in a narrative review. The abstract sets no gestational age or setting.
- Not stated in the source.
- Not stated in the source.
- Neonatal period
- Gestational age Not reported
- Postnatal age Not reported
Follow-up Not applicable: a review.
A 2021 narrative review describes phototherapy as the treatment of first choice for jaundice in newborns, and says it lowers a high level of unbound bilirubin and limits that bilirubin's toxic effect on nerves. The review also says some studies link phototherapy to harms in the short and long term, ranging from red blood cell breakdown to allergic disease, and it calls for an agreed, standard way of giving it.
Limitations. A narrative review, not a trial, so it gives no effect size, threshold or schedule. It sets no population or setting. The source licence is CC BY-NC-ND and this atlas treats the source as cite only, so the statement is in the atlas's own words. Only the abstract was read. When to start phototherapy is set by guidelines that this atlas lists as references only.

Record details

Record id: maternal:neonatal-jaundice
Content hash: d7685944e31c15c13735b48af29602e49288f846a630efdb9a59177bce96c5ae