Why is my baby orange?

1/26/2008

If your child’s skin is starting to turn a color you normally associate with pumpkins, what’s going on? Is it jaundice….or something worse?

It may just be too much of a good thing. Babies sometimes develop an orange-yellow tinge after starting certain solid foods. This minor condition, known as carotenemia, is often confused with jaundice, a more serious condition caused by liver problems or the breakdown of blood cells. While jaundice in the first few days of life is usually normal, when it occurs later in life it should always be investigated. The orange discoloration known as carotenemia is harmless and reversible.

How can you tell carotenemia from jaundice? With carotenemia, you typically see deeper discoloration in the palms, the soles of the feet, and the folds around the nose. Jaundice causes a more even yellowish tinge over the whole body, especially noticeable in the white part of the eyes.

Carotenemia is caused by an excess of carotenes, yellow and orange pigments that are prominent in a variety of fruits and vegetables. Once the offending food is discovered and reduced or eliminated from the diet, the condition resolves quickly.

Typically orange-red vegetables like squash, carrots and sweet potatoes are to blame for turning your baby orange, though other, more unexpected sources of carotenes are sometimes responsible. For instance, dark green vegetables such as spinach and green beans actually contain a lot of carotene, but the pigment is masked by the green color of the chlorophyll that is also present.

Carotenes are absorbed more easily from mashed and pureed baby foods because the plant or fruit cell walls where most of the pigment is stored are broken down during this processing. This now broken-down pigment is more available for the body to absorb from the pureed or juiced fruit or vegetable. I have even seen two children in the past few years who developed this condition from drinking several kid-sized cartons of combination fruit juices a day.

This problem has a simple solution: cut back on the foods most likely to be culprits (see chart). Remember, too much of common red-orange foods like carrots or squash is most often the problem.  It’s always a good idea to vary a child’s diet anyway.

Rarely, carotenemia can be associated with diabetes, low thyroid function or liver disease. If your child’s color doesn’t return to normal in several weeks after cutting back on likely food culprits, let your pediatrician know.

High-Carotene Foods: Squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, papaya, mango, cantaloupe, peaches, tomatoes, prunes, asparagus, broccoli, spinach, green beans, egg yolks, and yellow corn