- Vitamin K injections can help protect newborns from serious bleeding problems.
- The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has found that an increasing number of parents are refusing this vaccination.
- Experts believe misinformation is contributing to this decline, but strongly recommend vitamin K injections to prevent irreversible harm.
Since the 1960s, the United States has recommended vitamin K injections for all newborns to protect them from serious bleeding problems that can be life-threatening. However, a team of researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently found that over the past eight years there has been a significant increase in the number of parents refusing vitamin K injections for their babies. More than 5% of parents are currently opting out of this important and protective shot.
We teamed up with two pediatricians to understand what this reduction means for vitamin K injections, what you need to know about the injection’s safety, and why it’s highly recommended.
What you need to know about vitamin K injection reduction
A study conducted by the NIH looked at more than 5 million newborns born from January 2017 to 2024 and the choices their parents made regarding vitamin K vaccination. It includes information from 403 hospitals in all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia.
Researchers found that nearly 200,000 infants were not vaccinated with vitamin K. But even more surprising is the fact that this number has increased over the past eight years, from a 2.92% refusal rate in 2017 to a 5.18% refusal rate in 2024. This corresponds to an increase of 77%.
“People are likely refusing vaccination for a variety of reasons,” said Dr. Charles Hannum, a general pediatrician at Tufts Medical Center. These include misinformation online, lack of understanding of the benefits of vitamin K injections, and concerns about the side effects of the injections, Dr. Hannum says.
As Dr. Candice Foy, a pediatrician and medical director of the neonatal unit at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, points out, vitamin K injections aren’t the only thing parents have become skeptical about in recent years. “Right now, across the board, we’re seeing more parents rejecting their children than ever before,” she says.
This includes prenatal testing for diabetes, group B strep testing, standard vaccinations, and many standard medications. Dr. Foy added that in addition to vitamin K injections, erythromycin ointment, which is a preventive measure against neonatal eyelid syndrome, which can lead to visual impairment and blindness, should be withheld after delivery.
“I’m concerned that a lot of this problem has to do with growing distrust of medicine and misinformation spread on social media,” Foy said. “Many people on social media present themselves with confidence, but the public may not realize that they do not have the appropriate qualifications or experience to provide medical information to the public.”
What is the purpose of vitamin K injections?
The reason why experts recommend vaccinating newborns with vitamin K is because there is very little vitamin K in their bodies. Vitamin K is essential to help blood clot, which protects newborns from internal bleeding.
Importantly, vitamin K cannot be obtained from supplements (including vitamin drops), breast milk, formula, or other foods. “Vitamin K is both edible and produced by bacteria in the gut, but babies don’t get enough vitamin K even when they eat it (breast milk and formula don’t have sufficient levels), and their intestines are too immature to produce it,” Dr. Hannam explains.
Vitamin K injections are a “one and done” treatment. “This can prevent serious bleeding for several months,” says Dr. Hannam. “This is the single most effective way to prevent bleeding due to vitamin K deficiency.”
The effects of vitamin K deficiency during the neonatal period can be severe. “With a vitamin K deficiency, infants may be unable to stop the bleeding in their body and, in extreme cases, may bleed spontaneously,” Dr. Foy says. “This can cause symptoms ranging from mild unexplained bruising to severe brain or intestinal bleeding that can cause death, cerebral palsy, or other impairments in brain development and learning abilities.”
Is there any evidence that vitamin K injections are unsafe?
Overall, there is a lot of evidence proving the safety and effectiveness of vitamin K injections. “We have been using vitamin K in pediatrics for decades and have seen dramatic reductions in bleeding due to vitamin K deficiency,” Dr. Hannam asserts.
Parents who are skeptical about vaccines or who think they are over-vaccinating their newborns may question this shot. However, vitamin K injections are not vaccines. Rather, it is an injection of vitamin K given to newborns, usually in the thigh.
Additionally, some parents are worried because of research in the 1990s that showed a link between vitamin K injections and later childhood cancer development, although it was not proven. As Dr. Foy points out, this was a very small study, and there have been many much larger studies since then, but none have shown this same association.
Who to contact if you have any questions
It’s common and understandable to have questions about medical procedures and medications recommended for small babies. Therefore, if you have further questions about vitamin K injections, you should contact your healthcare provider.
But it’s important to have this conversation well before your baby is born. Unfortunately, a “wait and see” approach won’t work here. Because hitting too late can have serious consequences.
“However, by the time vitamin K deficiency bleeding is recognized and the infant presents to the hospital, it is often too late to do anything to reverse the damage,” Dr. Foy said, highlighting that death, cerebral palsy, and other serious delays are concerns. “That’s why I encourage parents to do everything they can to prevent this from happening and to get vitamin K shots.”
