A new look on neonatal jaundice.

Out of 6586 live born babies, 736 babies with jaundice were studied from 1st July 1996 to 30th June, 1997, in a city based medical college nursery. Physiological jaundice was present in 8.92% of all live born babies and accounted for 79.89% of babies with jaundice. Breast milk jaundice and prematurity were next common causes responsible for 5.29% each of all cases with neonatal jaundice. Septicaemia caused jaundice in 4.75% cases. Among the babies with jaundice appearing between day 4 and day 7 of life, breast milk jaundice was the commonest cause occurring in 49.25% cases. The last entity surfaced probably due to exclusive breastfeeding recently initiated in the baby friendly hospital nursery.