publication date: Oct 9, 2007
Parents need to be on the
look-out for the signs of
potentially life-threatening
liver diseases when changing their baby’s
nappy, a national
children's charity urges.
Delays in spotting these
signs and getting early
treatment can lead to the need for a
liver transplant at a young age and could
ultimately cost them their
baby’s life.
The
Yellow Alert campaign, launched by
Children’s Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF), is aimed at
community healthcare professionals and
parents and spells out the
warning signs of liver disease in
newly-born babies.
The
key signs are:
- prolonged jaundice, lasting beyond two weeks after birth;
- pale stools and/or yellow urine (it should be colourless).
Any of these must be
reported to the midwife, health visitor or GP and a
special blood test called a
split bilirubin test must be done to rule out
liver disease.
Catherine Arkley, Chief Executive at CLDF, says: “At least
one baby is born with
liver disease every day in the
UK but we have
no way of telling which baby will be
affected. There is
no specific group
at risk of liver disease. It could strike
any family, anytime, so it is
important that everyone remains
alert to the signs, which are easy to
spot. That is why we are
launching Yellow Alert, which clearly tells
parents and community health practitioners about the
signs and what they should do.”
Ms Arkley continues: “In the
early stages of liver disease a
baby can look and
feed entirely well, which can be
misleading for everyone.
Checking nappies for the
warning signs and responding to
prolonged jaundice may prevent the
human cost we deal with, day in, day out.
“As a
guide, parents should know that a
healthy newborn’s urine is usually
colourless whereas the
stool colour should be English mustard yellow or green in
bottle-fed babies and daffodil yellow or green in
breastfed babies.”
Mark Davenport, consultant paediatric liver surgeon at
King’s College Hospital, London,
reinforces the importance of early
diagnosis: “The earlier a diagnosis is made, the
less damage will have occurred in the
liver and the
higher the chances of
sparing the child from a
liver transplant at a young age. Time is of the
essence when dealing with a condition like
biliary atresia. I
urge parents to speak to their
health visitor, midwife or doctor if they spot any of the
warning signs described by the
Yellow Alert campaign.”
Further information
A leaflet for parents,
Jaundice in the new born baby, is available from CLDF:
- by calling 0121 212 3839
- via email on yellowalert@childliverdisease.org
