Billy Ruben, No I've never heard of him either.

Thanx 4 The Fish

First emergency, the Public health nurse this week (there have been three) decided that because of Ben's Jaundice he could have a high Billiruben (SP?) level. This is apparently quite common in Breast fed babies as a protein that is in breast milk but not in formula, binds to the biliruben protein. This can lead to jaundicing that can go off over a couple of months.

This was noticed by the first nurse who came and she recommended taking water and glucose between feeds to break it down. Next day, different nurse told us not to worry about it and not to give him the glucose solution. Nurse who arrived today (different again) was adamant that he should be brought to A&E immedietely and have his levels checked as it could be serious.

Arrived at A&E and waited for 3 hours to be seen. A very friendly Doctor explained why there was no reason to be upset and that the public health nurse had panicced us unnecesarily. (Sarah was in a proper state over it all) They took some blood, amazing how loudly the little guy can scream, and put a plastic bag over his penis to get a Urine sample. Then sent us back out to the waiting room while waiting for the blood test results and for him to fill the bag.

HIs biliruben level is within acceptable limits though he may have to be taken off breast milk for a couple of days in order to break it down a bit, aside from that he is fine. The best/funniest bit of advice we got was to keep him out in direct sunlight coz light through the window will do him no good, now I dunno what the weather is like around where any of you guys live but if Ben were to be exposed to direct sunlight here in C'bar then it is more likely that he'd get frostbite than his jaundice clearing up

Anyway that's this weeks crisis over with.

BTW a quick thing before I go, for all those parents who do not know (me being one till yesterday), breast fed boys (probably girls too) often develop quite large breasts because of the female hormones that are ingested with the breast milk. So if your boy gets big boobies, there is no cause for alarm, according to the Nurse, just don't squeeze or press on them though coz milk could come out. (Seriously that's what she said)

Promised a pic didnt I...