A recent study from the University of Calgary has found that increasing numbers of parents are refusing to consent to their newborns receiving a shot of vitamin K at birth, due to fears about possible reactions to the high single dose of the vitamin, as well as the other ingredients that come with it.
Vitamin K is necessary for normal blood-clotting in both adults and children; however, babies are usually born with insufficient amounts of the vitamin in their system, as it doesn’t cross very well from the mother’s blood through the placenta. The mother’s diet does not affect the levels of vitamin K that her baby is born with to any large degree.
Vitamin K is found in green, leafy vegetables and other natural foods, and once babies start eating solid foods at six months, they get the vitamin through their diet. But until babies eat solids, they do not usually have enough of this vitamin in their system — especially when they are exclusively breastfed, as breast milk generally contains very little vitamin K. (Formula-fed babies fare better in this regard, as formulas are supplemented with the vitamin.)
As a result, doctors administer a single shot of .5 mg to pre-term infants and 1 mg to term babies into their leg muscle soon after birth. The shot helps to guard against rare but serious and potentially deadly bleeding that can occur in an infant’s brain or intestines within the first week of birth or as late as 6 months of age.
The study, published recently in the journal Pediatrics, found that along with increasing concerns about possible harm from childhood vaccines, and with the growing number of parents who are delaying or foregoing vaccinations, more parents are also refusing the vitamin K shot for their newborns. This is happening in both Canada and the United States. Children of such parents are 15 times more likely than others, at 15 months, to not have gotten any of the vaccines that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend for all children.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended vitamin K shots for newborns since 1961. Vitamin K deficiency bleeding, or VKDB, has always occurred to small numbers of babies; however, other possible causes of infant death that were more common in the past, such as measles or whooping cough, received much more attention.
VKDB in newborns is rarely fatal, but it occurs during the first week to between .25 to 1.7 percent of babies who don’t get the vitamin K shot. Late VKDB, which can happen up to six months of age, is more rare, but deadlier; it affects 4 to 7 of every 100,000 babies who don’t get the shot. Some 20 percent of these babies die and 50 percent suffer long-term brain damage. (Source: Scientific American.) Babies can be perfectly healthy one day, then suddenly become neurologically damaged or die.
Why Are Parents Concerned About the Vitamin K Shot?
Though serious side effects from the shot are rare, they do occur.
In the early 1990’s, two studies correlated the vitamin K shot with a higher risk of childhood cancers; however, most doctors agree that many studies have since proven no relationship between the shot and cancer. (Source: Stanford University School of Medicine.)
Newborn jaundice was linked in the 1950’s to high doses of vitamin K2 (menadione). As a result, use of this compound was discontinued; newborns now receive vitamin K1 (phytonadione). Vitamin K1 has been linked to jaundice (hyperbilirubinemia) in both pre-term and term infants, but only at high doses (25-30 mg), according to the Stanford School of Medicine. However, some parents are skeptical, believing that the vitamin K shot is in part to blame for the much higher rates of jaundice currently seen in neonatal wards.
Parents are also concerned about the risk of anaphylaxis (suffocation) that can be caused by the vitamin K shot. This only happens rarely, and usually only when administered intravenously; but it can also happen when injected into the muscle. (Source: Stanford School of Medicine.)
Very few infants have also developed hardened patches of skin (scleroderma-like) at the site of the injection.
Last, parents worry about the various chemicals that come with the shot; different manufacturers use different additives, but they are all substances that many parents feel don’t belong in their newborns’ vulnerable systems. That’s in addition to the fact that the vitamin itself is synthesized, and not the natural kind that people get when they eat foods such as vegetables.
What About Giving Vitamin K Orally?
Some parents opt to give the vitamin K to their infants by mouth. This eliminates the assorted chemicals that come with the shots; however, physicians raise the concern that because the oral vitamin is given in multiple doses following birth, parents may forget to give the doses.
In addition, there have been problems with newborns not absorbing the full doses, such as when the baby spits up after eating. There have been infants who got the oral doses and still developed VKDB.
Oral doses must also not be given on an empty stomach, as vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin and should be given after the baby has been breastfed or given formula, for better absorption.
At least some health authorities believe that if breastfeeding mothers supplement their diets with vitamin K, they may not need to give their infants vitamin K supplements. (Source: Dr. Cees Vermeer, Professor of Biochemistry, the Netherlands.)
And some even more nature-minded people believe that if breastfeeding mothers eat plenty of greens (collard greens, spinach, broccoli, etc.), neither they nor their babies will need any vitamin K supplements. This is based on the premise that most mothers’ milk tests low on vitamin K because the mothers themselves are low on the vitamin. If the mother eats plenty of K-rich foods, the levels in her system — and in her milk — will go up. However, many health professionals dispute this belief and insist that breast milk levels of vitamin K remain low, even when the mother gets plenty of the vitamin through foods.
By Cynthia Sanchez. A graduate of the University of Washington, Cynthia has extensive experience writing about health and wellness topics for different media.