What Gina Friars remembers most about her first son at birth was his suntan. "[He] must have inherited my love for the sun," she told relatives and friends when they visited the hospital to see her baby. "He isn't pale or red like the rest of the babies. He looks almost bronzed."

Friars of Woodbury, N.J., was proud to claim the "golden boy" of the nursery as he own, but his pediatricians didn't admire the "tan." Instead, they diagnosed Jason with jaundice, a usually harmless condition that affects 50 to 70 percent of all newborns. Fortunately, Jason's "golden glow" cleared up after a few phototherapy treatments, during which the baby had to spend time under special sunlamps (like mother, like son, indeed!).

Although it is common, jaundice is often commonly misunderstood. First of all, jaundice – the yellowish appearance of the baby's skin or the whites of her eyes – is not a disease itself, rather a symptom of some other problem.

"Most jaundice is actually hyperbilirubinemia," says Dr. Gary Edelstein, a Manhattan pediatrician. "That's just a technical way of saying the baby gets yellow. Generally, the appearance of jaundice indicates that the baby has an increased breakdown of red blood cells. It could mean that the pathway for the elimination of the bilirubin is immature, so the liver becomes overwhelmed."

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