Parents & Caregivers
Infants and young children need extra care: their livers are less mature, jaundice rises faster, and they can't tell you when they feel sick.
Key safety steps
- Tell every doctor, dentist, nurse, and pharmacist about your child's G6PD status — at every visit.
- Do not store baby clothes, blankets, or diapers with mothballs (naphthalene).
- Avoid henna on a newborn's skin. Avoid camphor-based balms, oils, and vapor rubs.
- Watch closely for jaundice in the first week of life. Ask about extra bilirubin monitoring.
- Routine vaccinations are safe and important — they prevent infections that themselves can trigger hemolysis.
- Avoid fava beans, including in baby foods, family stews, ful medames, and bean flours.
- Breastfeeding mothers should also avoid fava beans and trigger medications, since some can pass into breast milk.
- Keep a written list of safe and unsafe medicines on the fridge and in the diaper bag.
Call your pediatrician or go to urgent care if your child:
- Looks more yellow than usual
- Has dark urine
- Is unusually pale
- Is very sleepy or hard to wake
- Feeds poorly or refuses to feed
- Has a high-pitched cry or arches back
- Has any of these after a new medicine, illness, or exposure
Common infant-specific dangers
Mothballs (naphthalene)
Even stored baby clothes have caused severe hemolysis. Remove all naphthalene from the home and from relatives' homes where the baby visits.
Henna on skin
Avoid completely in newborns. Has caused life-threatening hemolysis.
Camphor products
Avoid camphor balms, oils, and vapor rubs on infant skin or near the nose.
Vitamin K
Modern phytonadione (K1) given at birth is safe. Older synthetic menadione (K3) was a known trigger and is no longer used routinely.
Last reviewed: May 2026 (next review: May 2027) • Sources include CPIC pharmacogenetic guidelines, NIH/MedlinePlus, WHO, AAP, NCBI Bookshelf, and peer-reviewed literature.
This resource is educational and does not replace care from a licensed clinician or pharmacist.