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What is Biliary Atresia?
Biliary Atresia is a rare liver condition. It is a disease of the bile ducts that only affects infants. Biliary Atresia occurs in roughly 1 child per 10,000 births in the UK.
It means ducts in the liver become narrowed, blocked or are completely absent.
This causes bile to build up in the liver which results in scarring of the organ.
There is sadly no cure and the only effective treatments are surgeries such as the Kasai procedure or a liver transplant.
The main symptoms of Biliary Atresia are:
- Pale poo - George's stools were almost completely white, the colour of milk, and not the usual yellow colour that newborns tend to excrete;
- Yellow urine - unlike adults a baby's urine should be completely colourless. George's urine was always a deep yellow/brown colour;
- Prolonged jaundice - George's jaundice had not faded by the time he was 2-3 weeks old;
- Constant hunger - no matter how much milk we gave George he was always hungry. He would feed every 20-30 minutes and drink almost a whole bottle of milk at just 2 weeks old. Due to his poorly liver he wasn't absorbing anything so he was never full;
- Distended tummy - George was slightly swollen in the stomach area. This was due to his liver being swollen.
If you are concerned about your child experiencing any of the symptoms above please seek medical advice immediately.
The Children's Liver Disease Foundation are on hand to provide more information. You can visit their website using the link below.
