Jaundice in newborns in Singapore: what it is, what to watch for, and what happens next

Jaundice is common in newborns in Singapore, and most of it clears on its own. The yellow colour comes from a chemical called bilirubin, which is a normal breakdown product of red blood cells. A newborn’s liver is still learning to clear it, so a yellow tint in the first week is the ordinary course of events rather than a problem.

Most newborn jaundice in Singapore needs no treatment at all beyond regular feeds. The two things that do need acting on are a bilirubin level checked at your baby’s 3 to 5 day review, and a short list of signs that mean you should see a doctor.

Below is what neonatal jaundice is, those signs, and the whole path after you leave hospital: the check, the skin reading, the heel-prick blood test, and phototherapy either in a hospital ward or at home. The hospital pages behind it are KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH), the National University Hospital (NUH) and Singapore General Hospital (SGH), read as of October 2026.

What neonatal jaundice actually is

Jaundice is the yellow discolouration of a baby’s skin and eyes that happens when bilirubin builds up in the blood. KKH’s condition page puts it plainly: it happens “when a chemical called bilirubin builds up in baby’s blood”, and it “can occur in babies of any race”.

Before birth, your liver did that clearing job for your baby. After birth, the baby’s own liver takes over, and KKH’s explanation for why newborns get it is that their “immature livers require a few days to develop before it can eliminate the bilirubin efficiently”.

A Straits Times report carried by SGH on 20 January 2025 put a Singapore number on how ordinary this is: jaundice “affects 60 per cent of full-term babies and up to 80 per cent of those born prematurely”. NUH’s page puts the everyday kind, which it calls physiological jaundice, as “common in over half of all newborns”. NUH also gives the shape of it: it appears at two to four days, peaks around four to six days, and resolves by two weeks of age.

Looking for it is a daylight job. KKH says the best way to detect jaundice is to place the baby in good natural light, such as daylight near a window. The yellow usually shows first in the face, and as the bilirubin level rises, the colour “moves downwards to the chest, abdomen, arms and legs”. The whites of the eye may also look yellow.

On darker or tanned skin, visual checks are harder. KKH’s own words: in babies with tanned or darker skin, “jaundice may be hard to detect visually”. That is a reason to lean on the scheduled check rather than on your eyes.

Neonatal jaundice

The clinical name for jaundice in a newborn, the first weeks of life. You will also see it written as newborn jaundice, baby jaundice, or NNJ for short.

Bilirubin

A yellow chemical made when red blood cells break down normally. The liver clears it, and a newborn’s liver takes a few days to get up to speed.

Phototherapy

The main treatment. Your unclothed baby lies under special blue lights, and KKH says it “will lower the bilirubin level”.

Transcutaneous bilirubinometer

A handheld meter that reads bilirubin through the skin without a needle. NUH says newborns in hospital who show signs of jaundice “may undergo a jaundice screening using a transcutaneous bilirubinometer”, often followed by a blood test.

G6PD deficiency

Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase deficiency, usually shortened to G6PD. NUH names G6PD deficiency as one of the risk factors for higher jaundice in newborns. KKH’s page does not mention it at all.

Which signs mean your baby needs a doctor

Most jaundice is mild and completely harmless. KKH says so: “Most infants experience mild jaundice which is completely harmless.” The reason to check is the small number of babies whose bilirubin climbs high, which is why KKH adds that “if the bilirubin level gets extremely high and is left untreated, it can lead to brain damage and hearing loss”.

The first three come from NUH’s list of when to seek medical attention, which pairs “jaundice appears within the first 48 hours of life, progresses rapidly or persists beyond 14 days” with feeding difficulties and low stool and urine output. The stools and the urine come from KKH: “Please consult your doctor if your baby is jaundiced for more than 2 weeks or if your baby passes pale, chalky-white, or clay-coloured stools, or has dark, tea-coloured urine.”

One more, and it is the earliest: a bilirubin level is always needed if jaundice develops before a baby is 24 hours old, KKH says. Jaundice that early is not the ordinary kind.

What happens after you leave hospital, step by step

The Singapore path is short and it has a fixed order. Here it is in the order you will meet it.

1. Before you go home. If your baby looks jaundiced in the first few days in hospital, a doctor may order a bilirubin test or a skin reading. NUH adds that in some cases phototherapy may start before discharge.
2. Book the 3 to 5 day review. KKH: “It is important for your baby to be seen by a nurse or doctor when your baby is between 3 to 5 days old, because this is usually the time when a baby’s bilirubin level naturally peaks.” NUH adds that you may be advised to have your baby’s jaundice and feeding reviewed 24 to 72 hours after discharge.
3. A bilirubin check at the review. What a jaundice check involves, in the words of SGH’s news page: “a light-emitting handheld gadget to measure the yellowness of the baby’s skin, or pricking the child’s heel to obtain a blood sample”. KKH says a doctor “may conduct a test or transcutaneous bilirubin level” if a baby looks jaundiced.
4. A blood test to confirm. NUH calls it “a confirmatory blood test via a heel prick”. KKH says further tests might be needed, depending on the age of the baby, the bilirubin level as well as other factors that predispose the baby to jaundice.
5. Start phototherapy if the level warrants it. In hospital that means lights in a ward. KKH also runs it at home through KKH@Home, for some babies.

Note the two clocks in step 2. KKH frames it as 3 to 5 days of age, because that is when the level peaks. NUH frames it as 24 to 72 hours after you go home.

For a baby who goes home on day 2, both land in the same few days. KKH adds that the timing can vary with the baby’s age at discharge and the advice given then, so follow the date your hospital gives you.

Our guide to mandatory immunisations for newborns in Singapore covers the other thing your baby gets checked for in that first month.

Phototherapy in hospital or at home

Phototherapy is the same treatment either way: an unclothed baby under blue lights that lower the bilirubin level. What changes is where the baby is and who watches.

The hospital column comes from NUH: “Blue-light phototherapy is the primary treatment for hospital-based jaundice. The infant remains under phototherapy lights for approximately 24 hours, with breaks for feeding and diaper changes.” The same page says the treatment “can be administered through overhead lights or a blanket-like device”, that some infants need supplemental fluids, and that “Breastfeeding should generally continue.”

The home column comes from KKH’s project summary for the programme, published on the Centre for Healthcare Innovation’s learning site in December 2025. Its background section is the reason the option exists: “While phototherapy, the standard treatment for NNJ, is typically administered safely in hospitals, it can also be effectively conducted in the comfort of one’s home.”

Neither KKH’s nor NUH’s jaundice page mentions the programme or its numbers. KKH@Home recruited 156 babies across two phases: 22 in the pilot, “saving 40 inpatient bed days and 16.25 days of manpower”, then 134 in the mainstream phase, “saving 200 inpatient bed days and 81.25 days of manpower”. KKH’s summary says the programme “was well-received by parents”, and that families favoured it because it “is time-saving and enhances parental comfort”.

Rarely, phototherapy is not enough. KKH says that on some occasions the level is so high that phototherapy “may not be effective”, and “A special procedure known as exchange transfusion might then be necessary”.

NUH puts the same point: “In rare cases of rapidly escalating bilirubin levels, blood exchange therapy may be necessary to prevent potential brain damage.” Either way it is a hospital decision, made in hospital.

What you can do at home

Three things help at home: feeding often, going to the 3 to 5 day review, and keeping breastfeeding. Three are best left out: sunlight, stopping breastfeeding, and water or glucose water.

Feed often. KKH’s prevention section is short: jaundice “cannot be prevented”, but “you can prevent it from worsening by ensuring good fluid intake for your baby through frequent milk feeds”.

Mild jaundice in the first week “needs no treatment except attention to hydration”. If feeds are going well, you are already doing the main thing.

Do not use sunlight. You will find this advice online, and it is wrong. KKH puts it plainly.

KKH: “Putting your baby under direct sunlight is not recommended. It does not reduce the jaundice level effectively. It exposes your baby to dangerous sunburns, skin overheating, and dehydration.”

Do not give water or glucose water. NUH says water or glucose feeds do not reduce jaundice.

NUH’s list of what raises the risk names breastfeeding challenges in the first week, not breastfeeding itself. The same list names G6PD deficiency, blood group incompatibility, late preterm birth, bruising from delivery, and a family history of severe newborn jaundice.

Breastfed babies can stay yellow longer, and that is the pattern people worry about most. KKH: “In breastfed infants, jaundice often harmlessly lasts for more than 2 to 3 weeks. In formula-fed infants, most jaundice will disappear by 2 weeks.” NUH puts a range on the long version, breast milk jaundice, which “Occurs in a subgroup of exclusively breastfed infants around four to seven days of age and can persist for three to 10 weeks”.

So a breastfed baby who is still yellow at three weeks is often fine. That said, KKH and NUH both tell you to see a doctor once jaundice lasts past two weeks, so book that visit.

Read this list as words instead

What you can do at home

Do

• Feed your baby often
• Go to the 3 to 5 day review
• Keep breastfeeding

Do not

• Put your baby in sunlight
• Stop breastfeeding
• Give water or glucose water

Source: KKH and NUH condition pages, October 2026

If feeding is the part you are unsure about, our guide to increasing breast milk supply covers the mechanics, and our guide to lactation consultants in Singapore covers when a one-to-one consultation is the right call.

Can a phone app check my baby’s bilirubin?

You may have seen BiliSG in the news. It is a smartphone app that estimates a baby’s bilirubin from photos of the baby’s skin. As of October 2026, the public pages on BiliSG still describe it as being tested, not as an app parents can download.

The Straits Times reported on 20 January 2025 that the app, developed by a team from Singapore General Hospital with SingHealth Polyclinics and the national health tech agency Synapxe, was “currently in the testing phase”, quoting Synapxe chief data officer Andy Ta, and that “BiliSG is expected to be commercially available within the next two years”.

Two years from January 2025 runs to early 2027. And the later evidence does not describe a product. SGH’s project summary for BiliSG, published in February 2026, still calls it a diagnostic study “conducted in Singapore between 2022-2024”, where the model “was validated against TSB (Blood Test) readings from 546 neonates across multiple ethnicities”.

In plain words, that study of 546 babies found the app caught every baby whose blood test showed high bilirubin, which the project calls “sensitivity of 100%”. It also flagged some babies whose blood test did not show high bilirubin, which the project calls “specificity of 70%”. A phone reading would still need the blood test to confirm.

Until then, the check KKH and NUH both tell you to book is the 3 to 5 day review with a nurse or doctor.

What to do next

If your baby is feeding well, the next thing to book is the 3 to 5 day jaundice review with your paediatrician or clinic, and to write down the date you left hospital so you can work out when that falls.

One next thing beyond that: feeding often is the part you control at home, and getting help early is the part that works. Our guide to breastfeeding classes in Singapore covers what a class teaches, what it costs, and where to get lactation help after the birth.

We do not give medical care at Mother & Baby Singapore, and this page does not replace your baby’s doctor.

Wei Chun

Founder & Editor

A Singapore parent writing the guide he wished he'd had — practical, calm, and grounded in what actually works.

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