Home › In-Home Phototherapy for Newborn Jaundice in Tucson
Newborn Jaundice · Tucson
Yellow skin and rising bilirubin? Let’s manage it without a hospital stay.
Jaundice is common and very treatable. When your baby needs phototherapy, we can often manage it at home with professional phototherapy and close monitoring, so feeding stays on track and your family stays together.
How home phototherapy works
If your baby’s bilirubin needs treatment, we set you up with professional phototherapy to use at home. We use the Skylife system, which is actually more powerful than many hospital units, along with the GE BiliSoft, so your baby gets effective treatment without a hospital stay. You pick up the unit in clinic, we show you exactly how to use it, and we follow your baby closely with bilirubin and weight checks until levels are safely down. We coordinate with your pediatrician throughout.
For many families this means treating jaundice effectively at home and avoiding a costly, disruptive, and stressful hospital readmission, while keeping breastfeeding going.
Sometimes a pediatrician simply asks us for a quick bilirubin check, often on a weekend, when there isn’t time for a full feeding evaluation. We’re glad to help with that fast, and because jaundice and feeding go hand in hand, we’ll set up a follow-up for the feeding side, in office or at home, so nothing important gets missed.
How we decide whether treatment is needed
Whether a baby truly needs phototherapy is a clinical judgment, not a single number. We follow national medical guidelines, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, and weigh several things together:
- A transcutaneous bilirubin (TCB) reading, a quick, painless light check we do in the office
- When it’s helpful or clinically indicated, a serum bilirubin level from a simple in-office heel-stick, a tiny sample with results back in a few hours
- Your baby’s age in hours and their birth history
- Blood-type compatibility between you and your baby, which can affect bilirubin
- Feeding, weight, and other risk factors
We weigh all of it against the guidelines to decide whether phototherapy is genuinely warranted, and when, so your baby is treated when it helps and spared when it doesn’t. We manage this care through the weekend and coordinate closely with your baby’s pediatrician the whole way.
What a jaundice visit includes
- A bilirubin check and review of your baby’s trend and risk factors
- A feeding observation and weighted feed when it helps, since feeding drives bilirubin clearance
- Home phototherapy setup and teaching when it’s indicated (we use the Skylife and GE BiliSoft systems)
- Daily monitoring and a clear endpoint for therapy
- Coordination with your pediatrician
Questions parents ask us
Can you really treat jaundice at home?
Often, yes. When bilirubin is in a range that’s safe for home phototherapy and your baby is feeding, home phototherapy plus close monitoring can treat jaundice at home and help avoid readmission. We make that call carefully and coordinate with your pediatrician.
Do you deliver the equipment to my house?
Most families pick the unit up at our clinic, where we set it up and teach you to use it. We then follow your baby closely until levels come down.
How will I hear about results, and how fast?
Bilirubin management depends on timely results, so please stay reachable by phone during treatment. We call with results and any plan changes the same day, and that call may come from an unfamiliar number, so please pick up.
Does phototherapy mean I have to stop breastfeeding?
No. Feeding effectively is part of treating jaundice, so we protect breastfeeding while the light therapy does its job and help with any feeding problems contributing to the jaundice.
How long does treatment take?
It varies by baby and starting level. We monitor daily and stop as soon as bilirubin is safely down, giving you a clear plan and endpoint rather than guesswork.
Worried about your baby’s jaundice?
Book a visit and we’ll check bilirubin, watch a feed, and set up safe treatment, often without a hospital stay.