Neonatal Hepatitis
The term "neonatal hepatitis" simply means inflammation of the liver in an infant. Thus, neonatal hepatitis may be a symptom of many types of liver disease that affect infants.

Often, however, the term neonatal hepatitis is used as a diagnosis, replacing or used interchangeably with "idiopathic neonatal hepatitis" to describe inflammation of the liver occurring in early infancy that cannot be attributed to a specific known cause of liver disease. The information on this page describes neonatal hepatitis when it is used as a diagnosis. The causes of neonatal hepatitis are not well understood but possibly include virus infections, the immaturity of the infant’s liver, and stress on the liver caused by other health issues in infancy.