[Source:  Medical Xpress]

Paying attention to the color of a newborn’s poop can mean the difference between life and death for babies with the rare liver disorder biliary atresia—the leading cause of liver transplants in children. The disease is almost universally heralded by white or clay-colored stools but is often diagnosed with woeful delays.

Now, research from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center  reveals that a stool color screening card given to new parents and already proven to save lives and improve outcomes in Taiwan, could also mitigate the economic toll of the disease in the United States.

The findings, reported ahead of print in theJournal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, underscore the profound long-term impact of simple interventions, the investigators say, and should spark conversations and action among physicians, health insurers and health administrators toward developing national screening guidelines for biliary atresia (BA).

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