One of the very first things on a doctor or midwife’s to do list after the birth of your baby is an injection of vitamin K. The purpose of this shot is to assist the newborn with blood clotting capabilities in order to prevent the very rare and slow problem of bleeding into the brain in the weeks after birth (risk in about one in every 10,000 live births). The shot also is a supposed safeguard in case your car is involved in a car wreck on the way home from the hospital or birthing center with newborn in tow. Even a mild injury to a newborn could be life threatening if blood clotting capability is not adequate.
At first blush, allowing the vitamin K shot seems to be a no brainer. Safety of this precious, helpless little being is of paramount importance and questioning the necessity of this shot seems ludicrous. Since questioning the unquestionable is something I seem to have a knack for, let’s have at it. Is the vitamin K shot really of any value?
Let’s start with the vitamin K used in the shot itself. Is it a natural form of vitamin K such as would be found in leafy greens (K1) or butter (K2)? No, it is a synthetic vitamin K – generic name phytonadione. Synthetic vitamins should be avoided as they can cause imbalances in the body and have unintended consequences. For example, synthetic vitamin A actually causes the type of birth defects that natural vitamin A prevents!
How much synthetic vitamin K is in the shot? Shockingly, the national standard mandated by most states for US hospitals to administer is over 100 times the infant’s RDA of this nutrient. Since studies have linked large doses of vitamin K with childhood cancers and leukemia, this large dose of synthetic K administered within minutes of birth seems questionable at best.
The fact is that medical science still does not know that much about the metabolic fate of vitamin K. Little to no unmetabolized vitamin K shows up in urine or bile. This is disturbing given the fact that vitamin K is a fat soluble vitamin and therefore has the potential to accumulate in body tissues. More disturbing is that the liver of a newborn does not begin to function until 3 or 4 days after birth. As a result, this little being has very limited to no ability to detoxify the large dose of synthetic vitamin K and all other the dangerous ingredients in the injection cocktail including:
- Phenol (carbolic acid – a poisonous substance derived from coal tar)
- Benzyl alcohol (preservative)
- Propylene glycol (better known as antifreeze and a hydraulic in brake fluid)
- Acetic acid (astringent, antimicrobial agent)
- Hydrochloric acid
- Lecithin
- Castor oil
The manufacturer’s insert included with the shot includes the following warning, “Severe reactions, including fatalities, have occurred during and immediately after intravenous injection of phytonadione even when precautions have been taken to dilute the vitamin and avoid rapid infusion …”
If that isn’t enough to scare you, Midwifery Digest, Vol 2 #3, September 1992 estimated that the chance of your child developing leukemia from the vitamin K shot is about one in 500! This means that the risk of developing leukemia from the vitamin K shot is much higher than the risk of bleeding on the brain which the vitamin K shot is supposed to prevent!
Does any of this make any sense to you? It makes absolutely no sense to me. How could anyone say that this shot is safe and effective for newborns?
How about this for an alternative – eat lots of leafy greens in the weeks before your due date (I drank a cup or two of nettle tea every day in the final weeks which is loaded with vitamin K1) to make sure your blood is high in vitamin K and of course, this will transfer to your baby as well. Make sure you breastfeed your child as the probiotics in breastmilk will seed your baby’s digestive tract with the right type of good bacteria which will produce naturally occurring vitamin K immediately after birth.
Skip the shot, eat your greens. Now, THAT makes some sense.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
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{ 88 comments… read them below or add one }
I followed this advice for my second, if only I had known this info for my first. The difference is night and day. His liver was unable to detoxify along with Hep B at birth and we have been dealing with that ever since. Thanks for helping others become more aware!
Hi anonymous, these types of problems can be helped with the GAPS diet, it heals and seals the gut, which is where all these issues originate x
Thank you. This information is very timely for me, since I am due to deliver a baby boy in a little over a week. My daughter did not get the shot. I think the midwives only recommend it to cover their liabilities. I wonder if they know about the leukemia connection.
I found your blog through BlogFrog. Great post. I skipped the Vitamin K shot (and so much else)with my son, based on important information like this. Keep up the great work! I look forward to seeing you around the BlogFrog community!
All the Best,
Lori (theBlogFrog)
this was awesome information…now I will know what to do when baby #3 comes! thank you
The link between leukemia and vit K has not ever been proven. This is seriously out of date information. There was one study showing that which has never been able to be recreated. In other words, it is not proven. I do not see where you have in your essay information regarding hemorrhagic disorders of the newborn, most of which are fatal and are nearly 100% preventable by the vit. K shot. I am a home economist by training, as was my mother and my daughter is a R.D./L.D. so she is as well. I am also a licensed midwife/CPM. Please give your readers all the information. Hemorrhagic disorders are very serious and are not to be so lightly dismissed.
Why fix something that isn’t broken to start with? The placenta contains huge amounts of Vit K yet none of it transfers to the baby. Is this a flaw in our design? I don’t think so. There is obviously a good reason it doesn’t transfer, just because we don’t know why yet, doesn’t give us the right to pump it into them (along with a whole lot of other poisons) at 100 times the dose that is *required* (who pulls the magic RDA out of their backside anyway? There are so many RDA’s that are ridiculous at best out there. But I digress…)
HD of the newborn happens to a very tiny group of babies, who have trauma at birth (and let’s face it, who causes most of birth trauma these days?? um let me think, interventions, Dr’s, Ob’s, Paed’s, even some pushy medically minded midwives who have no clue about the true workings of birth.. But I digress again!) and then of that very tiny group of traumatised babies, most will recover with no treatment.
The chances of this actually happening is soooooo small, to poison EVERY baby is ludicrous at best, CRIMINAL at worst.
If there is Vit K in the placenta, then it would make sense that some mammals eat their own placenta. My mom cooked my placenta as a old Chinese tradition for me after birth and I thought it strange yet intriguing… I loved the idea and the taste so much, I ate my subsequent ones.
Camellia, the purpose of this blog is provide readers the OTHER side of the story, the one that they won't get from their doctors or hospital nurses/midwives. The chance of hemorrhagic disorder is so incredibly small – is it worth injecting poison into every single baby that is born? I think not. Why don't you advise your pregnant clients to eat leafy greens or even take a vitamin K supplement instead of giving every newborn a shot that contains antifreeze and carbolic acid among many other toxins? The risks inherent in the vitamin K shot are infinitely greater than the rare hemorrhagic disorder you describe. There is a link between vitamin K and leukemia – perhaps it hasn't been proven to your satisfaction with only one study proposing the link, but it has to mine. There is obviously serious damage that will result to a newborn getting injected with the poisons in this shot with no functioning liver to detoxify it. Common sense is the order of the day here, not more propaganda and fear from the AMA that "your baby might DIE if you don't have this shot". We Moms are SO OVER the fear tactics of the medical community and the use of fear to manipulate our actions with regard to our children. We are making our own decisions now. Move over honey, there's a new game in town.
A pediatrician I interviewed before my daughter was born said to me
"well maybe when you're older, you'll learn to research things, unfortunately that may be too late for your daughter…this could kill her"
Well, guess what…my daughter survived!!! (but I'm the idiot)
Sarah, I would love to try to get a hold of you via email. I have a new resource blog for moms by moms that i would love to have this or any other post of yours on. Please email me at kitekoop AT gmail DOT com. Thanks!
A recent Dr. Mercola newsletter states that the link between leukemia and the vitamin K shot has been disproven since the study I cited back in the 1990's. The vitamin K shot should still be avoided for the other reasons I discussed due to its toxic ingredients and potential long term effects on the newborn. Mercola concurs with this assessment and here is the link to the full article.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/03/27/high-risks-to-your-baby-from-vitamin-k-shot-they-dont-warn-you-about.aspx
Telling the mother to take a Vitamin K supplement or telling her to eat lots of leafy greens doesn't help because Vitamin K doesn't cross the placenta. That's why 1 in 10 0000 babies have hemorrhagic disease, because they aren't born with any of the mother's vitamin K and their bacterial flora isn't developed to synthesize its own vitamin K yet.
but I can still understand your concerns about the shot. Just wanted to make that point clear.
My research and personal experience indicates that vitamin K does indeed cross the placenta .. why wouldn't a vitamin cross the placenta? All other forms of nutrition, many toxins, and drugs do!
we did oral k2 because my son had bruising at birth, 3 divided doses, but how the heck does “your personal experience” tell you that vitamin k crosses the placenta? That’s just a ridiculous thing to say. Not everything does… if the molecule is too big, it won’t pass. there are likely some good biological reasons for babies to be born deficient in vitamin k… but when a baby is born in a traumatic birth (too fast, too slow, or in my son’s case, big head making its way through a pelvis that didn’t want to yield after an asynclitic pitocin labor) for whatever reason, then yes, K supplements make sense. We would have skipped the first dose if he’d been bruise-free, but he wasn’t.
I used a liquid vitamin K for my children when they were born, administered orally. This needs to be given multiple times for optimum effectiveness. This is what was recommended to me.. Give 2mg by the oral route at following the first feeding, another 2mg at days 3-7. If no second dose is given during the first week, repeat the 2mg oral dose at 2, 4 and 6 weeks. If a second dose is given during the first week, give a 2mg oral dose at 3 and 5 weeks. If the baby vomits within 1 hour of any oral dose, the dose should be repeated.
Hallo and thanks for your discussion. May I ad, that research in the 1990 found, that Vit. K does cross the placenta!! But the placenta does protect the Fötus from artificial (and poissened) Vit. K in high amounts.
In most medical and pharmaceutic readings you get only half of the information, guess why?
Heres a part of the study:
The amount of vitamin K1 was higher in the treated infants than in the nontreated infants. Although there was no difference in the amount of vitamin K1 in the blood of the mothers who received IM or IM and oral doses combined, the infants born to mothers receiving the combined IM and oral vitamin K1 had higher vitamin K1 levels. Therefore, vitamin K does cross the placenta slowly and in small amounts. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Read more: http://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Health/Placental-transfer-of-vitamin-K1-in-preterm-pregnancy-A-prospective-evaluation-of-bone-mineral-chang.html#ixzz0nSgAUr8B
My conclusions are, that the placenta is a highly "intelligent" organ, that gives the baby all it needs: Eat enough greens or have a green smoothie every day, before and during pragnancy, and while breast-feeding
(sorry for my english, it`s not my mother-language)
I totally agree, I passed on Vit K with both of my kids, both natural births in hospital though. Something I thought quite interesting at our hospital birth with my daughter, they didn't say a thing about me choosing to decline the vaccines, probably since Florida has a prominent religious exemption for vaccines, but the part that got my goat was that they were in a tizzy about me writing a form that stated I would not be allowing the antibiotic eye drops/ointment based on my religious beliefs…and it had to be "religious". I thought that was the most odd. Esp seeing as my midwife knew me quite well and knew I was not at risk for any infections etc…and was having a natural birth…of course her thing was it was fine by her but it was the "hospital" policy…still completely stupid to be so up in arms about a waiver for eye drops but all non-nonchalant about the vax. My son's hospital didn't say a thing about either…and they are in the same town, and the hosp my son was at is the one with more high risk patients, the other is supposedly a more natural birth friendly hospital. go figure.
I am due on Sunday and have decided to go with the liquid vitamin k drops. The one I got has high quality vegetable oil in it. Is that safe for newborns?
Hi Tanya, Congratulations!! You must be so excited. I am not familiar with liquid vitamin K drops as I used herbs like nettle to get my vitamin K up before delivery. Just make sure they are not synthetic if you are going to go with them.
Check your state laws. In New York we were required to give the shot. Oral K was not available in our birth center. We were also warned that to refuse the shot would bring on a visit from social services. Unfortunately we had to give the shot to our daughter though they did allow us to delay it for 59 minutes for some uninterrupted bonding time. At least we can still legally refuse the hep B vaccine at birth!
I was shocked when my otherwise very naturally-minded pediatrician strongly urged the K. So I looked into it. What I found was that there's no link to leukemia, but the shot is an outrageously horrible idea for all the reasons you mentioned.
The drops, however, done properly as described in many places on the internet, work beautifully. Our ped wrote me a Rx for one that was in almond oil, nothing else. I still didn't feel the need to use it, but my research also showed that since K is made by gut bacteria, and baby gets that at birth from his mother (or whoever holds him first if a C-section!), many babies today will *not* have good gut bacteria.
If you know you have good gut flora (no bloating, digestive problems, neurological disorders, candida, in you or any of your children), and have a natural birth, your baby should be able to produce appropriate amounts of K beautifully.
If you do *not* know this – I'd strongly consider looking into the oral K regimen with a natural preparation. It's one of the only "interventions" I'd consider for my newborn, and it's very, very gentle, done by mama herself with only a dropper. If you decide not to do it, be sure to know the signs of the beginnings of hemorrhagic disease, a rare (but happens once/day in the US, statistically) but potentially fatal complication.
Oh, and if you circ, you just gotta do the K.
Very interesting article..nice information..Keep posting.
I am SO glad we skipped the Vit K shot for our daughter! I had done no research at all and was just going with my gut! I am so glad I listened to my instincts!
I also beefed up on vit K naturally by drinking tea. I did a mix of raspberry, nettle and hibiscus and drank it all day long for about a month before I gave birth. I really the tea mixture helped my labor go quicker and my uterus shrink back very quickly too, as well as boost iron and vit k.
This has given me so much to think about! Both my children had the vitamin K shot and as I am now pregnant with baby #3 my husband and I might need to have a rethink!
From The Infant Survival Guide, which I highly recommend:
The amount of Vit K injected at birth is 20,000 times the needed dose. Additionally, the injection also contains preservatives which are known toxins to the infant. Large doses of Vit K are a cause of jaundice in the newborn. Colostrum, which precedes breastmilk, is rich in Vit K. Thus, an infant who is breastfed immediately at birth will receive a natural source of Vit K, in most cases significantly raising the Vit K level. Birth is an overwhelming sensory experience for the baby – it has never before been cold, hungry, blinded by light, nor felt the touch of cloth or the pull of gravity. Sticking a needle into a baby’s body and inflicting pain isn’t the best way to allow the sensory system to gradually adjust to the outside world.
I think this is the best reply to the original post – lot of people, including perinatal care providers, don’t realize that the newborn’s system is mapping all that his sensors are experiencing. I have seen babies given the vit K shot and I tell you that the horrendous scream and deep, purple lips cry that turns silent is something that I would never get out of my mind. I think we are all forgetting the fact that the newborn soon (within days) starts producing Vit K in his gut. We are also forgetting that the study that quotes the occurrence of the HD of the newborn does not distinguish between the type of births that each infant had … for example, how many women out of the sample were induced, augmented – increasing the uterine pressure, fiddled with, made to be in the bed and on their backs – compromising the baby’s normal decent into and through the pelvis, and of course early cord clamping – not getting all the blood the baby should normally get, and early vaccinations causing all sorts of damage in the body, including the brain.
If there was a significant trauma at birth due to for example forceps or vacuum assistance, I might consider it but otherwise the shot does more damage to the babe, on so many levels, than the possibility of bleeding to death in the brain.
I also would not choose the oral vit K. I don’t believe in the safety of it. There should not be anything but colostrum or breastmilk going routinely into a baby’s immature gut, especially no synthetic pharmaceuticals. I believe it must throw the balance off quite a bit with unknown consequences. There must be a reason why we are born with immature guts and with low blood vit K levels and only gradual levels of self production!
With my first one I opted for oral vit K – she’s had gut problems, food sensitivities, and eczema from the start, and also weak teeth, even when fully breastfed and me eliminating any dairy and soy from my diet before birth, and virtually no wheat.
With my second one I opted out completely – very healthy and strong digestion.
With my third one I will opt out completely as well.
Thanks for this post! I encourage everyone to do some research on this topic, especially if they are going to have a baby! There are REASONS why nature does what she does! Vit K levels in babies ARE very low before birth. Vit K is linked to fast cell growth – which is why it can cause cancer. Clotting factors other than Vit K are created by the baby JUST before birth … these things all have purposes, even if science has not found them yet! Colostrum, which breastfed babies get before the mother’s milk comes in, is loaded with Vit K. Also, the hindmilk has higher levels of Vit K than the foremilk, so empty each breast completely when you nurse. (Most babies who have problems with bleeding have those problems due to undiagnosed liver conditions.) If, after doing some research, you still decide to supplement with Vit K, then please use the oral solution … babies don’t need to be jabbed – it hurts them and teaches them that this world is not a friendly place. Here is another article which gives more information on Vit K … http://drbenkim.com/vitamin-K-shot-baby.html
Thank you so much for this post on Vit K. It has lead me to further research and investigation. Reading the comments always helps too. What a great community of readers you have to go along with your fabulous blog! Great information all around. I am expecting my first baby this summer and navigating into the birthing world has been an eye-opening one. There is sooo much to learn for new moms attempting to bring new life into this world as naturally and healthfully as possible. Hippocrates was right: “Let food be thy medicine.” Fortunately, I’m already a big green smoothie and salad eater but I’m going to certainly double my efforts and increase my intake of fermented foods and be sure not to miss my daily cup of Prenatal tea! Thanks again!
Almira – HealthyRepublic\’s last post: Biodegradable Shoes
With all the things that we know we don’t understand I almost cannot believe that anyone on this planet, especially the “educated”, ever thought that injecting healthy newborn babies with foreign inorganic substances ever thought it was ever ok to do so but knowing what I know now about industry “standards” unfortunately and dishearteningly I can. What a shame! Ignorance is definitely not bliss. Thank you tremendously for the wisdom you impart, Sarah. I am going to question everything I don’t fully understand and trust my own instincts. Better safe than sorry. Greed is truly a monster!
I have always thought that not much vit k would cross the placenta because if it did, wouldn’t the cord blood clot? Just a thought..
And gut health and good gut bacteria is by far THE MOST IMPORTANT factor in keeping anyone healthy, period.
Sarah, is it enough to take butteroil (contains lot of vit k) as mother, or should/could it be given to the baby itself from the beginning when he/she is born? Because this is also part of the homemade formula, why not giving it to the baby from the beginning, even while breastfeeding?
First I’d like to say its not that I don’t trust your information as valid but am curious if there is more research based articles I could show my husband or mother in law who was previously a nyse as my family had no problem with me questioning the born but they both do not and I just wanted to see if you had any advice on what to show them in ways of different studies on post pregnancy procedures and also if you could recommend a specific probiotic to take while pregnant. Thank you
Hi Sarah, thanks for all your information. I love reading your blog! I posted the link to your post on the Vit. K shot on my facebook page and had a friend write in with the following:
The studies linking it to cancer she mentions in the article seem to have been discredited. Also saying all synthetics are bad because vitmin a was, seems like a generalization. Also concerns me that she cites no sources.
I was hoping that you would respond to his concerns so that I can post that on my page as your response….thanks in advance!!!
Hi Sarah,
I first want to say that I love your site (I’m a subscriber via googleReader), and I love having access to how so many people are implementing Weston A. Price. I would like to share my story in case in the hope that it may encourage people to reconsider supplementation of Vitamin K (whether oral or intramuscular). Before my son was born, I had read several articles like this one – saying that as long as you have the right lifestyle (diet, birth practices, etc.), you don’t need the Vit K shot. Well, I did all that and my son almost died from Hemorrhagic Disease of the Newborn, also known as Vitamin K deficiency.
First of all, let me say that we eat a fully Weston Price diet, including lots of healthy fat, especially butter, and meat from grass fed cows, we eat NO processed foods of any kind and generally limit our sugar intake (only from natural sources, almost no refined sugar). I feel that we have a very healthy diet and gut flora. I had my second child this past June – a homebirth – and declined all interventions (erythromycin, Hep B, and Vit K). I had no idea about Hemorrhagic Disease of the Newborn; I thought Vit K was given prophylactically in case forceps were needed or there was some sort of trauma at birth that might cause internal bleeding. I had not researched Vit K as much as I had Hep B (I am anti-vaccine in general) and erythromycin (I know I don’t have an STD, so why interfere with healthy bacteria in the eyes and possibly cloud new baby’s vision). I figured that God knows what he is doing, so we don’t need to interfere. I have since read that HDN, also known as Vitamin K deficiency, is a “disease of modern civilization” and that our diets aren’t as rich in this important nutrient as God intended them to be. Weston Price himself made a big deal about the importance of Vitamin K. I had also read that as long as you don’t cut the umbilical cord until after it stops pulsing, enough blood will transfer and the level of clotting factors will be fine. So, in accordance with the midwives standard practice, we did delayed cord clamping and cutting. We also had NO drugs or interventions of any kind during labor or delivery.
At one month old (technically, this is “late onset Hemorrhagic Disease of the Newborn”), my son had an intracranial hemorrage, which caused him to stop breathing while being helicoptered to a Children’s Hospital. Then he had a craniotomy (an extremely dangerous operation for a baby so young since it is very easy to bleed out on the table with no way to pump the blood in fast enough), which he survived by the grace of God. However, he has very significant injury to his brain, including vision impairment and developmental delays. Since he’s only seven months old, it is too soon to tell whether he will ever be able to walk or talk, be we are hopeful that God will completely heal him. It just doesn’t seem right that he should have to suffer for a decision that we made.
I also have read that HDN is typically an undiagnosed liver problem. I can assure you that his blood has been extensively tested and it does not seem to be the case for him. All his factors are normal, we have no family history of liver or blood diseases, and his liver function tests are normal. Based on everything we can tell, this is a simple case of HDN that could have been completely prevented with a shot at birth.
I agree that whole food sources of vitamin are much better than synthetic (I do not take synthetic vitamins), and I also agree that the ingredients in the shot (as in vaccines) are very troublesome. But I don’t think that the VIt K shot undermines the natural immune system like vaccines do, so we will give Vit K to future children. I would choose whole food Vit K in a shot if that was available or maybe even the oral Vit K.
Another thing to note, in the Mercola interview with the Vitamin K expert, Dr. Mercola seems to summarize by saying that the shot is completely unnecessary. I don’t think that is an accurate summary of what his guest actually said. He said the oral would give the necessary dose, so the shot isn’t the only way. I think it is important to note that the expert emphasized how important giving Vit K to newborns is, considering the chance that the baby has HDN.
I think a parent could forego the shot, but would need to vigilantly test the baby’s clotting factors for the first few months of life to be safe. My son’s factors were fine at birth. His blood clotted quickly for the mandatory genetic testing when he was a few days old.
I would like to add this comment simply to say that there is quite a bit at stake, so please don’t skip the shot unless you will supplement in some other way or at least regularly check the baby’s clotting factors for a few months.
Thanks for this info. More than 25 years ago I researched this before the birth of my first child. Turns out the research on Vit K was done decades ago, on very low income women in Detroit who actually lived in the hospital for the last few months of their pregnancy. Considering the state of hospital food in the 1950′s, and that green leafy vegetables were likely not a main part of the food served, and that we still don’t fully understand how Vit K is used and don’t have a very good way to measure it, the resulting recommendations must be considered pretty worthless. I totally agree — we should ALL be eating our dark green leafy vegetables, especially when pregnant, so you can skip the shot and have a healthy baby!
This shot is not given intravenously to infants. The only time it’s given intravenously is to adults with coumadin problems. This is one of the most unresearched and misinformed articles read in a long time. You should really do some actual research before you give medical advice to countless women.
I agree! If you make factual statements like that, provide a bibliography so others know where you got your information so you don’t cause panic.
“Even a mild injury to a newborn could be life threatening if blood clotting capability is not adequate.” IMO, vitamin K administration has less to do with what-could-happen-on-the-way-home and more to do with iatrogenesis (complications brought about by medical procedure). Let’s consider what does or could happen to your baby in hospital…
* Vacuum extraction (causes hematoma on baby’s soft head).
* Accidental/unavoidable nics or larger cuts during cesarean.
* Heel stabs.
* Blood draw(s).
* Sepsis workup.
* Circumcision.
More research would be needed, of course, for me to prove this hypothesis, but I think it’s easy to see its viability based on this information alone.
I read that it’s good if the child suffered trauma in birth or is expected to get a circumcision. I had a girl and she didn’t get the VitK shot.
REAL vitamin K, orally, is a great alternative – given at birth, 1 week, 2 weeks, and 4 weeks. We did it at birth and 1 week with both our kids, didn’t do the additional ones as it was obvious that they did not have bleeding issues. The real stuff is green, and isn’t made by big pharma
My son was born with a relatively large hematoma on his head from his rush to get out. The midwife asked if I wanted the K shot. I asked her to read to me the ingredients, when she got to aluminium, I declined. The hematoma was gone in hours nonetheless. And yes, I was getting a good amount of K and K2 from my diet!
we did oral vit K drops which are common in the UK and perfectly accepted by our dr. even though I had to order them special through a naturopathic doctor
this can be vital for some babies especially since they lack intestinal bacterial, so mom’s need to know what those risks are and who might truly need it. There is an oral version that can be taken several days after delivery in smaller doses that will provide the same effect.
my first two didnt have any vit K and my third had a bilateral cephalohematoma (with a fast homebirth!) and we did oral vit K.
WE skipped. We have three healthy children
I have also read that the volume of kit K in the shot is hugely excessive, like 10,000x, is synthetic, activly interfers with with natural production and increases the risk of lukeamia not to mention the flat out dangerous ingredients. xxxxx
I read that Nettle wasn’t good during pregnancy… But are you saying it’s alright during the last few weeks?
For me being a healthy eater and breastfeeding there was no way my 5 babies were having the Vitamin K shot – I made sure I ate foods rich in Vit K around the time I was due – just in case
I just had my third child. I wanted to avoid this shot and all others, including the eye ointment. Interesting if I declined vit K and eye ointment I was told the nurses would be required to call Child protective services on us. I think this is a new thing, I’m not sure if it was just for the hospital were i delivered, city or state wide. I was not happy about this. my midwife said her patients who declined anyway did have CPS contact them as soon as they arrived home.
Blood clotting naturally occurs in babies after they are born (spiking near 8th day!) It is truly God’s design…that is when Jewish babies were to be circumcised.
It’s illegal to decline the vit k shot in NY
I tried… the only way I can decline is is I sign a form declining ANY medical intervention even if it is necessary… I’m not comfortable signing that 
I was asked by the nurse, “Why don’t you want the shot? You DO know it helps prevent bleeding” so instead of throwing facts at her right after delivery, I said, “Oh I know but I want to wait.” She told me again about the bleeding as if humans normally just bleed. No one ever thinks that if bleeding was such a major issue, why are there more humans today than ever?
Here in Canada it is mandatory, even midwifes have to administer it. If they don’t follow the rules they might lose their right to practice!
We had planned on declining the Vit K shot with our second, but when she was born with a surprise birth defect which resulted in 4 hours of being worked on before being transferred to a NICU (where she spent the next 8 weeks), we decided to go ahead with it before they took her. I don’t think it’s necessary for typical babies, but have no regrets about my little girl getting it.
So, i wonder if just to eat more kale, collards, spinach and such would suffice to eliminate a K shot. then mothers milk would allow for the nutrients?
We’ve declined the shot for our babies as well, our midwife suggests taking alfalfa supplements the last couple weeks of pregnancy to boost your stores. Cheap and painless.
We skipped it, and the eye ointment, and everything else:)
CPS can come. Most CPS workers won’t pursue a non-case since they are already too busy with caseloads involving real harm and neglect. Do what you think is best and, if they show up, bring baby to the door and show them baby is safe and thank them for their concern and apologize for the over-zealous reporter. It will be a rare incident where they will take it further in the obvious face of no harm. Of course, this is not legal advice, just what I would do.
Lindsay Graves- I have had nettle tea throughout three of my four pregnancies. I think it is the root that is unsafe, the leaves are safe. I take it with Alfalfa herb, Red Raspberry leaf, and Oat Straw.
We skipped it too and everything else and man did we get pressured non-stop until we left the hospital.
Thanks for the post. We’ve been on the fence about Vitamin K, but now I think we’ll definitely skip the shot!
I think its overkill for formula-fed babies but as I exclusively breastfed I was afraid my baby would not get enough. But its not for everyone and parents will need to look at their own individual situations to decide. For me the shot was a good choice.
My 1st had a hematomia and my 3rd was posterior with his face bruised. I didn’t think the shot was an option with those issues.
Babies have very little vitamin K in their bodies at birth. Vitamin K does not cross the placenta to the developing baby, and the gut does not have any bacteria to make vitamin K before birth. After birth, there is little vitamin K in breast milk and breastfed babies can be low in vitamin K for several weeks until the normal gut bacteria start making it. Infant formula has added vitamin K, but even formula-fed babies have very low levels of vitamin K for several days. This article is flawed in numerous ways
I researched vaccines extensively before delivering my first baby, a boy. I had a birth plan all written out to make sure he didn’t get any shots or eye drops. I had failed to read up on the vitamin k shot though, and when my doctor refused to circumcise without the shot, we went ahead with it. My son is almost six and doing just fine. But I wish I had known. I would have waited eight days or so and then had it done.
We declined it but if the birth had been a difficult one, we would have given oral K. Our reasoning for not giving it is that if ALL babies are born with low vit K, then perhaps there is a reason for that!
I trust that mother nature wouldnt stuff something like that up. Babies are obviously meant to have low levels of vit K for some reason, perhaps that we dont understand. If breastmilk has low levels no matter how much vit K you eat then they arent *meant* to have it. I think maybe this has to do with allowing your baby to get all of their blood by not clamping the cord to soon, then they should have enough clotting factors to get them through until their body starts to make vit K. However if your baby is badly bruised there may be a need for it.
Please not that vitamin K is a VITAMIN, not a vaccine. Hemorragic disease of the newborn is preventable with the injection of vit k. I had all three of my babies get the injection while I held them and breastfed. They didn’t even flinch. And they are just fine. No leukemia, no hemorrhage etc. vitamin k IS a naturally produced vitamin in the gut once the bacteria are present…takes up to two weeks. There very well could be a natural reason for some babies to suffer from hdi but it’s probably more of a tragic unfortunate occurrence completely avoided by one small injection. Hold your babies skin to skin, even after a cesarean, let them cuddle and taste you, develop the beginnings of their flora and for goodness sake, breastfeed! I would encourage everyone to get their information from reputable sites, books etc. enjoy your babies as best you can and ask for help when you need it. Being a parent is tough. I hope no ones baby dies from hdi or is severely injured because parents are making an “informed choice” from a chat room or blog and not reading actual research and studies. Ask for help from doctors and get second and even third opinions. Then make your informed choice.
Two other very good “remedies” for vitamin k is yogurt before baby’s birth and shepard’s purse tincture after birth. In each of my babie’s birth’s, the blood in the pan gelantized after a couple minutes. Now that’s clotting!
Is it true that in the case of a male child his clotting factor is highest on day 8? Biblically speaking, a male baby was circumcised on the 8th day. Perhaps there was a reason for that, too.
Great article and discussion! Would you be willing to share your sources for this information?
Thanks!
Hi! Great article – I would like to add though, that I have read many articles saying that if the umbilical cord is left intact until it is finisahed pulsing, that it provides the baby with all of the vitamin K that it needs! Will be linking this to my links page at http://www.raisingnaturalkids.com!
Wow, thank you for all this info. My daughter just have a baby a little over a month ago and the mid wife asked if we wanted the shot. We said approved for the reasons at the beginning of your post
Now it’s time to pray.
I am so glad that I am choosing to do a home birth here in a couple months and afterwards don’t plan on giving any shots. This is so terrifying. Thank you sooo much for putting the info out there.
They sell flavorless vitamin K drops for infants here in Europe. Do they sell them in the states as well?
They make money from the shots at birth, and then they make money from the subsequent disease that it causes. That’s what our “health care” system in this country is designed to do. They don’t care about you. They care about your money!!
I have a 4-day-old son. He’s in NICU because he keeps having breathing apnea issues. They think his lower jaw is undersized. Well, I rejected the Vit K shot and the Hep B shot right off the bat. But the Ped pushed and pushed and pushed about the Vit K. Said with everything going on w/ him, he needed the shot more than usual infants. I held him off for a couple of days, but hubby finally said he thought we should just give in and I was too tired to argue. Within a day, he was on lights for jaundice. UGH! If only I could go back in time. At least the Hep B is non-negotiable. He didn’t even really push for that one. Weird!
This is why GOD commanded circumcision on the eighth day. That is when the infant is able to clot and not blead excessively. The Creator always knows best!
Kate Johnson: “I trust that mother nature wouldnt stuff something like that up. Babies are obviously meant to have low levels of vit K for some reason” – mother nature really messed up childbirth, actually. Unsure if you’ve ever had a child – I certainly haven’t – but it involves squeezing a baby out of an opening far too small for a baby. In response, you feel intense pain (unless you have the drugs, obviously) and the bones in your baby’s head are all pushed out of alignment.
Not to mention the fact that your baby is born with an appendix which is probably vestigial, and a tailbone which is definitely vestigial.
Mother nature loves screwing with babies; don’t assume that low vitamin K must be “for a purpose” because your baby is born with loads of complications with no purpose at all.
Sarah, I’m a childbirth educator and just tell my students to do LOTS of research before deciding whether or not to do the shot, oral, or refuse. I think the research is interesting, and agree that 1 in 500 is very scary. But I do have a question. Is there any research out there to show a “control” group? ie. How many babies who don’t get the shot end up developing leukemia? Thank you for the thoughtful article.
When you skip the Vitamin K shot, you really need to skip circumcision. These shots were primarily instituted to keep mutilated infants from bleeding to death. They kind of mandated them for both sexes for safety reasons, because they never ever wanted a boy to be circumcised without it leading to death from bleeding out. It was viewed to be most fool proof to mandate it (sometimes by law) for all newborns. Given the fact that some parents are semi-crunchy (eschewing shots yet embracing RIC) and hospitals are doing less circumcisions pushing this refusal of Vitamin K and continuing with genital cutting could prove to be very lethal! Eliminating Vitamin K must accompany leaving newborns remaining strictly intact!
One of the primary reasons that these shots are so heavily pushed in our society is never truly for the benefit of the child. We have a medical industry that prides itself on how much they can make and how little they can do. Fundamentally, the Vitamin K injection is given to all babies, but boys who are lined up like sheep to have their’ genitals altered suffer the most. Since the infant body doesn’t start production of Vitamin K until the 8th day of life, it would be wise to forego male genital mutilation (A.K.A. circumcision). When there is no medical need, medical intervention should not be permissible by law, especially ones that are sexist in nature as one gender is protected from alteration upon request since 1996. Bottom line, if it isn’t broken, stop trying to fix it or you’ll find nature working against you.
The incidence of leukemia is 16 per 100,000 for whites per the CDC website. I don’t know where the 1:500 number comes from but it doesn’t make sense.
Also those studies were from the 1990s and have been refuted. The midwifery article is also from the 1990s.
“Severe reactions, including fatalities, have occurred during and immediately after intravenous injection of phytonadione even when precautions have been taken to dilute the vitamin and avoid rapid infusion …”
It is given IM not IV. There aren’t many reactions in giving it IM. I would much rather give my child the shot so they don’t bleed to death.
Hi,
Didn’t read all the comments above.
As addition to the post, I would like to mention that delaying clamping the cord would contribute the healthyness of the newborn, making sure he gets all the blood he needs with all the vitamin K included.
This is an important factor…
So i quote:
“Skip the shot, eat your greens” and delay the cord clamping “. Now, THAT makes some sense.”
Thanks for this article’
Lilach, Israel
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