Should Your Baby Get the Vitamin K Shot?

Many moms go into the hospital with a birth plan. I loved making this for my hospital birth and it allowed me to feel in control throughout my labor and delivery. Some mama’s know some of the things they would prefer, but some other routine practices might slip the minds of new mothers. One routine practice I did a lot of research on was the vitamin K shot. After short deliberation, I chose to opt out.

Why is Vitamin K Necessary?

Vitamin K is an essential nutrient necessary for responding to injuries. Newborns are born deficient in vitamin K and we know that it regulates normal blood clotting. In newborns, adequate Vitamin K levels are needed to prevent Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding (VKDB), a rare but life-threatening condition that can cause uncontrolled bleeding, sometimes into the brain. It is important to know the three main deficiency that can occur.

Several factors contribute to the low levels of vitamin K in newborns: First, the maternal supply of the vitamin doesn’t cross the placental wall easily. Second, the immature liver of the newborn (particularly in premature infants) not only can’t store much vitamin K but also doesn’t use it well.

The vitamin K injection is not a vaccine. However it has been the subject of some controversy because, like vaccines, it injects the infant with foreign substances and chemicals that challenge the infant’s immature system. The vitamin K shot uses a synthetic form of the vitamin and the dosage given is much higher than the recommended daily dosage for adults.

Three types of Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding:

• Early VKDB presents within 24 hours of birth. It is “almost exclusively seen in infants of mothers taking drugs which inhibit vitamin K. These drugs include anticonvulsants (carbamazepine, phenytoin and barbiturates), antituberculosis drugs (isoniazid, rifampicin), some antibiotics (cephalosporins) and vitamin K antagonists (coumarin, warfarin). “

• Classic VKDB presents between day 1 and day 7 of life and is associated with delayed or insufficient feeding. It usually affects the gastrointestinal tract, skin, nose, gums, umbilical stump and circumcision site, if applicable.

• Late VKDB presents between week 2 and six months, with the majority of cases occurring between 3-8 weeks of age. Late VKDB has the highest mortality rate of all types and is more likely to lead to neurological damage, but it is also the most rare.

(source 1)

Is Breastmilk High in Vitamin K?

We see that vitamin K is relitively low in nursing mothers. But that doesn’t mean that our diets cannot provide adequate vitamin K to our babies through breastfeeding. In an incredible study, Dr. Weston A. Price studied the diets of traditional cultures, he discovered what he called “Activator X,” which was found in the special foods “given to pregnant and lactating women, as well as to the maturing boys and girls, in preparation for future parenthood.

Interestingly, “When Dr. Price analyzed the foods used by isolated primitive peoples he found that they provided at least four times the calcium and other minerals, and at least TEN times the fat-soluble vitamins from animal foods such as butter, fish eggs, shellfish and organ meats.” (source) In other words, their Vitamin K intake was probably at least ten times higher than ours.

Natural Forms of Vitamin K

There are two types of vitamin K that we get from food sources. K1 is found in leafy greens, broccoli, brussel sprouts and other fruits/vegetables. K2 is found in animal products like liver, egg yolks, aged cheeses, butter and even fermented foods that contain live bacterial cultures.

There are ways to increase vitamin K in the breastmilk. Eating or supplementing with foods that are high in fat soluble vitamins and high fat foods like butter, fish and eggs will help promote healthy levels of vitamin K in the breastmilk.

Vitamin K DOES cross through to the placenta. According to this study, there seems to be a “highly vitamin K2 specific transport system in the human placenta.“ Vitamin K2 transports across the placenta at a higher rate than K1, and activity increases toward the third trimester.

Some researchers have stated their belief that newborn Vitamin K deficiency is likely to be the result of three factors: inadequate dietary intake by the pregnant mother during the last trimester of pregnancy, the fact that babies do not have established gut flora (which produces Vitamin K internally), and inadequate intake by baby after birth.

Even better news: colostrum. Colostrum – the first milk newborns receive right after birth – contains significantly higher levels of Vitamin K than mature milk. (source)

In other words, unrestricted feeding in the first hour after birth (which is facilitated by skin-to-skin contact) and in the first few days of life may serve as a “quick infusion” of Vitamin K if the mother is eating a nourishing diet and/or taking supplements to ensure she has adequate levels.

The Shot

Is the vitamin K shot really of any value? 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!

The manufactured product also includes 9 milligrams (mgs) of benzyl alcohol, which targets the immature liver and may lead to jaundice or, rarely to shock, cardiac or respiratory distress, and seizures.^{8 9} Finally, in the early 1990s two studies out of the U.K. suggested that there might be a link between the synthetic vitamin K shot and childhood cancers such as leukemia.¹⁰ Although health officials report that no further investigations showed a link between vitamin K shots and childhood cancers,¹¹ parents continue to be concerned.

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. Another fact to take into consideration 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.

Benefits of the Vitamin K Shot:

• It is very effective at reducing VKDB.

Risks of the Vitamin K Shot:

Severe reactions, including fatalities, have occurred during and immediately after intravenous injection of phytonadione [synthetic Vitamin K] even when precautions have been taken to dilute the vitamin and avoid rapid infusion ….

Safe Alternatives

Make sure your blood is high in vitamin K and of course, this will transfer to your baby as well. Does vitamin K pass the placenta? It most certainly does as do all the fat soluble vitamins (source).

Another important point is to 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.

In this study, researchers supplemented moms with Vitamin K-1. What they found was that this increased levels of both K-1 and K-2 in the mother’s breast milk. Unlike other forms of supplementation which focus on just K-1 (synthetic or natural), breast milk contains two forms of Vitamin K.

It is amazing to note that most mammals consume their placenta after birth. Could it be that the placenta contains Vitamin K? I did not encapsulate my placenta with my first child, but I did with my second. After the initial shock of actually consuming my placenta, I felt it was beneficial for many reasons, but I would like to note that I craved and scarfed down a lot Vitamin K rich foods following my first two births. I will share more on my journey with placenta encapsulation later.

Supplementing with Oral Vitamin K

According to this study which compared newborn oral Vitamin K regimens in Australia, Germany, The Netherlands and Switzerland, a “daily low oral dose of 25 micrograms vitamin K1 following an initial oral dose of 1 mg after birth for exclusively breast-fed infants may be as effective as parenteral vitamin K prophylaxis.”

In other words, after a 1 mg dose on the first day, a low dose of 25 mcg per day starting at 1 week through 13 weeks may be as effective as the shot. Many parents prefer this method because it is not painful to the child and does not involve potentially toxic emulsifiers and preservatives.

I chose this option for my first born son. Mainly because they would not circumcise him unless he has adequate supplementation of vitamin K. With my daughter, I opted out of vitamin K supplementation all together and followed the guidelines of my midwife and continued to have a healthy diet high in fat and leafy greens.  Here are some great guide lines for a diet rich in vitamin k recommended by Weston A. Price. This diet for pregnant and nursing mothers emphasizes Vitamin K2 rich foods.

We also chose to wait to circumcision our son after we let his vitamin K levels build naturally. Circumcision is often performed while clotting factors are still becoming fully established. Although  boys typically have fewer clotting factors in their blood at birth than girls (source) the hospital will not preform this if you opt out of the vitamin K shot.

With all the decision we have to make as mama’s for our little babies, I found this one decision to be one I contemplated for a while with my first son. Since I had him in a hosptial, I knew they would push back on my decision – but all I had to do was sign a form.

It is important to remember I am just a mama who feels it necessary to question what is truly best for my children. I do not have a medical degree and it is so important you make the decision you feel is best for you and your baby. I hope this post will shed light on the facts that the vitamin K shot can have consequences and when a healthy diet is consumed, can be unnecessary.

Blessings,