"Small for Dates" Infants have Lower Average Serum Bilirubin Concentrations than Normal Low Birth Weight Infants of Similar Weight

Abstract

Many factors are known to influence physiologic jaundice in premature infants. However no studies have been reported of the effect intra-uterine growth retardation or malnutrition has upon the average serum bilirubin concentrations in "small for dates" infants. It has been a policy in the nurseries of the University of Vermont Hospitals to do serum bilirubins on all low birth weight infants (2,500 gm or less) on the fourth to sixth day of life. Any infant with a positive Coomb's test or clinical evidence of A.B.O. incompatibility was excluded from this review.