Abstract

Background and Objective: jaundice and hyperbilirubinemia are enumerated as common and most often benign problems of the neonates. One of the major risk factors of unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia of the neonates is being fed solely on mother’s milk, especially in cases that breast-feeding is not carried out appropriately and the infant undergoes a large deal of weight loss. The objective of the present study is the determination of jaundice-induced dehydration frequency in the several-week-old neonates hospitalized in Shahid Motahhary’s educational and treatment center of Orumia County in 2014. Materials and Methods: the present retrospective study investigated the files of all the infants who had been hospitalized with jaundice, kernicterus, sepsis and dehydration diagnosis since the beginning of 2014 to the end of the year and the data were analyzed in SPSS, version 22. Findings: in the 652 files investigated, 505 cases belonged to term infants (77.5%) 102 (20.2%) of whom had weight losses over 7% and dehydration; out of this number, 57 (55.9%) were boys and 45 (44.1%) were girls; 66 infants (64.7%) had been born through C-section and 36 infants (35.3%) had been born through NVD practices. Out of the 102 infants with weight loss, 52 (51%) had sodium levels below 145 for a prevalence rate of 7.1% and 66 (48.9%) had sodium levels above 145 for a prevalence rate equal to 13.06%. Out of the 505 term infants investigated, 154 (31.2%) had abnormal Na levels (over 145MEq/l) and no weight loss was evidenced in 88 infants (17.8%) and 66 infants (13.4%) had hypernatremia plus weight loss. Conclusion: the higher frequency of dehydration in Shahid Motahhary’s educational treatment center of Orumia County as compared to the other Iranian studies performed in Tehran and the high prevalence of weight reduction for over 10% (49%) can be due to the insufficient information of mothers referring to this center regarding the importance and method of breastfeeding during the first week after birth and/or mother’s refraining from consulting the milking problems like breast problems that need correct instruction, appropriate culture-building and follow-up visiting of the mother and the infant and the determination of the frequency of these problems is suggested as a future and further research.