Neonatal Jaundice Management
Newborn jaundice affects 6 out of 10 babies born in the UK and 8 out of 10 premature births, making it one of the most common conditions experienced by newborn babies.
Babies affected can develop the following symptoms shortly after birth:
Yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes
Dark urine and light-coloured faeces
Unusual levels of drowsiness
Feeding difficulties
High-pitched cries
Here at QED Scientific, we are trusted partners for everything you need to diagnose, monitor, and treat neonatal jaundice. Our specialised product range includes jaundice meters and neonatal jaundice phototherapy tunnels.
Neonatal Jaundice Management Products
Jaundice Meter BM100
Phototherapy BCO50
Phototherapy BC350
BM-100 series jaundice meters from QED Scientific
To aid with the diagnosis and monitoring of newborn jaundice and to avoid the distress associated with the heel prick blood test, choose hands-free monitoring with jaundice meters.
There are two BM-100 series jaundice meters available:
BM-100A
Ideal for use out in the community for midwives visiting newborns at home and when USB transfer is not needed. It features:
Life span of more than 150,000 scans
Long battery life with 2000 measurements per full charge
Storage of patient information and results
Self-calibration
3-inch colour touchscreen display
2. BM-100C
This model should be used in instances where patient ID can be scanned and data transferred via USB. In addition to the features of the BM-100A, it also has:
Bar code/QR reader to scan nurse/midwife and baby identification
USB data transfer
Therapy options for neonatal jaundice
High-quality neonatal jaundice treatment can prevent NICU admissions, prevent blood exchange transfusion for newborns, and ensure faster discharge from hospitals.
The market-leading options for phototherapy for neonatal jaundice, severe jaundice, and breastfeeding jaundice include:
BCO50 Mobile Phototherapy
For ease and convenience, this award-winning phototherapy for neonatal jaundice provides fast yet effective treatment, operating at optimum wavelength. This neonatal phototherapy offers:
32 super blue LEDs with light adjustability, ranging from 0-100% and 50,000 hours of lamp life
Marking and examination lights
50 x 25cm active treatment zone with 1-999 hours treatment time and down counter
Treatment end alarm
Skin temperature probe and high and low skin temperature alarms
Fully rotatable head modules
This phototherapy for newborns also comes with an adjustable height stand and a 3.5-inch colour touchscreen control, enabling easy control over the treatment, including adjusting and setting treatment parameters and viewing treatment information.
BC350LCD Tunnel Phototherapy
As an intensive 360°C phototherapy for newborns, this delivers treatment quickly and effectively to allow increased mother and baby contact and faster hospital discharge.
This neonatal jaundice treatment provides:
16 LED therapy bar with adjustable light intensity from 0-100%
Both upper and lower lamps for large skin surface exposure and to reduce treatment time
Air and skin temperature measurement with three separate alarms
Nellcor™ Sp02
5-inch touchscreen display to adjust and set treatment parameters and show patient information
This particular phototherapy for newborns also has an in-built USB port with software provided, meaning patient data and information can be stored and easily transferred onto patient records.
Neonatal Jaundice Management
For most babies, newborn jaundice will pass by itself within a few weeks and doesn't require treatment.
However, for the 1 in 20 babies that are diagnosed with neonatal jaundice caused by vastly increased bilirubin levels in the red blood cells (severe jaundice) neonatal or newborn jaundice treatment is considered necessary.
This is also true for preterm infants and babies with breastfeeding jaundice.
To ensure successful neonatal jaundice treatment, interventions should aid with:
Prompt diagnosis
Stopping the development of severe jaundice
Keeping preterm infants and neonates comfortable
Diagnosis can be easily achieved with a transcutaneous jaundice meter - a non-invasive device that sits on the baby's skin to measure bilirubin levels, offering a much kinder and less stressful method of testing than heel prick blood collection.
By directing white light onto the baby's skin to measure the specific wavelengths returned, the jaundice meter becomes an essential tool for diagnosing, measuring, and recording neonatal jaundice.
If severe jaundice is diagnosed thanks to increased bilirubin levels in the baby's red blood cells, neonatal phototherapy is prescribed.
Phototherapy is a non-invasive specialist light treatment that helps the baby's liver break down and remove the excess bilirubin from the baby's blood, lowering the serum bilirubin level, and subsequently eliminating newborn jaundice.
Phototherapy is the preferred treatment for abnormal bilirubin levels, versus an exchange transfusion - which uses a blood transfusion from a compatible donor to rapidly lower bilirubin levels in red blood cells - as it is much less invasive and causes minimal stress to delicate infants.
Lower bilirubin levels with jaundice meters and phototherapy tunnels with QED Scientific
For reliable and high-quality options that help with severe jaundice diagnosis and treatment without the stress of exchange transfusion on preterm infants, why not contact the team at QED Scientific?
With decades of experience as medical equipment suppliers for the NHS, we offer personalised recommendations that balance cost and performance.
You can call us on 01663 735 494 or fill in the contact form below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Frequently asked questions
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For many newborn babies who are exclusively fed with breast milk, there is an increased risk of developing newborn jaundice.
Hence the names breast milk jaundice or breastfeeding jaundice.
However, parents shouldn't be too worried. This is because:
The baby's jaundice can still pass by itself in 12 weeks or less without intervention
If the baby's jaundice does not pass and specific jaundice treatment is prescribed, the benefits of breast milk still outweigh any associated risk factors.
The baby might just need extra fluids and more frequent feeds at this time.
If needed, treatment using a phototherapy machine and a jaundice meter remains the best way to treat newborn jaundice - even in cases of breast milk jaundice.
Without the potential stress of heel prick tests and an exchange transfusion.
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To avoid misdiagnosis and prescribing unnecessary treatment, medical professionals need to be sure that neonatal jaundice is sufficiently serious enough to require intervention.
To do this, they can use:
Heel prick blood tests
Jaundice meters
Both allow for clear and accurate diagnosis of raised bilirubin levels in red blood cells - but only one requires the removal of the baby's blood.
As such, where possible, medical staff will use jaundice meters - or a bilirubinometer - to measure how light is reflected off the skin to diagnose.
To order jaundice meters for your site, please feel to reach out to the team.
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Babies born prematurely and those fed with breast milk exclusively can sometimes develop severe jaundice that doesn't pass by itself.
In these instances, phototherapy interventions may not work or work quickly enough to help the baby's liver lower serum bilirubin levels.
If this happens, a complete blood transfusion can be the only way left to lower the level of bilirubin in the blood quickly - because the donor blood will not contain bilirubin, which lowers the overall levels.
However, this is only really used as a last resort in cases with very high bilirubin levels.