Jaundice Vitamin D production. Bilirubin count is lowered through bowel movements and urination, so frequent and effective feedings are especially important. Yellow discoloration of the skin, especially on the palms and the soles, but not of the sclera or inside the mouth is due to carotenemia—a harmless condition. Jaundice itself is not a disease, but rather a sign of one of many possible underlying pathological processes that occur at some point along the normal physiological pathway of the metabolism of bilirubin in blood. When red blood cells have completed their life span of approximately 120 days, or when they are damaged,
Jaundice seen in the newborn, known as "neonatal jaundice", is common in newborns as hepatic machinery for the conjugation and excretion of bilirubin does not fully mature until approximately two weeks of age. Rat fever (leptospirosis) can also cause hepatic jaundice. In hepatic jaundice, there is invariably cholestasis. Defects in bilirubin metabolism also leads to jaundice, as in Gilbert's syndrome (a genetic disorder of bilirubin metabolism that can result in mild jaundice, which is found in about 5% of the population) and Crigler-Najjar syndrome, Type I and II. Laboratory findings depend on the cause of jaundice. Bilirubin transport across the hepatocyte