Vaccines are not the only extraordinary medical advancement that some Americans have recently begun to question or reject. According to newly released research, an increasing number of newborns in the United States are being deprived of a simple yet lifesaving medical supplement—one that is proven to shield them from dangerous, sometimes fatal, bleeding episodes. Physicians at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have meticulously analyzed medical records from newborns under their care and beyond. Their investigation revealed an unsettling pattern: in recent years, a growing proportion of infants have not received the routine intramuscular injection of vitamin K administered shortly after birth. This omission, they believe, is largely rooted in a rising wave of parental refusals. Dr. Kristan Scott, the study’s lead author and a neonatologist at CHOP, noted that an increasing number of parents appear to view the vitamin K shot as unnecessary or superfluous—a perception that has no basis in science or clinical experience.
Vitamin K plays a crucial biochemical role within the human body. It is indispensable for producing several proteins responsible for clotting blood and preventing potentially catastrophic internal hemorrhages. While adults and older children typically derive adequate quantities of the vitamin through both dietary intake and synthesis by gut bacteria, this biological system is immature in newborns. Infants enter the world with only minimal reserves of vitamin K, and it can take several months of feeding on solid foods before their bodies naturally reach sufficient levels. Breast milk, though an optimal source of nutrition in many respects, contains only trace amounts of vitamin K and therefore cannot fully prevent deficiencies. This physiological gap can predispose babies to vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB), an uncommon yet profoundly serious condition. When bleeding occurs internally, especially in the brain, VKDB can lead to irreversible neurological injury or even a fatal stroke.
Recognizing these dangers, professional organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics have recommended since 1961 that every newborn receive a single dose of vitamin K at birth. This brief and well-tolerated intervention has virtually eliminated VKDB in the United States for decades. However, CHOP researchers began to observe a troubling countertrend in recent years: anecdotal reports of families declining the injection appeared to be increasing. To determine whether this observation reflected an isolated pattern or a nationwide shift in behavior, the investigative team turned to EPIC Cosmos, an extensive database that aggregates health records from care systems across the country. Drawing on data from approximately five million newborns between 2017 and 2024, the researchers identified a marked upward trajectory in refusal rates. Within that seven-year period, the percentage of newborns who did not receive vitamin K rose from 2.92% to 5.18%, representing a striking 77% relative increase.
Although the newly published findings in JAMA do not pinpoint a specific cause behind this surge in refusals, the data strongly suggest that this rising phenomenon is not tied to changes in clinical guidelines, which have remained consistent. The evidence instead points toward shifting parental attitudes. Some of the hesitancy may be a lingering aftereffect of the COVID-19 pandemic, which eroded public confidence in certain medical and governmental institutions—sometimes for understandable reasons, but often due to misinformation and conspiracy narratives. For example, the anti-vaccination movement gained renewed visibility and influence during that period by propagating destructive myths about mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, presenting them falsely as unsafe or biologically altering substances. Though this broader distrust of science likely played a role, the researchers noted that rates of vitamin K refusal had already begun climbing in 2019, suggesting that vaccine skepticism is not the sole factor.
It is also plausible that some parents are mistakenly conflating the vitamin K shot with vaccines, perceiving both as unnecessary interventions. Even in the absence of direct confusion, there appears to be substantial overlap between those who decline vitamin K supplementation and those aligned with anti-vaccination rhetoric. Regardless of motivation, the real victims of such choices are the infants themselves. As Dr. Scott succinctly emphasized, refusing vitamin K is essentially a gamble with a child’s life, an avoidable risk considering the shot’s proven ability to prevent devastating complications. What is at stake is not an abstract medical principle but the tangible health and safety of newborns—lives that depend on a preventive measure established, tested, and refined for more than six decades.
Tragically, this is only one facet of a broader and deeply concerning pattern in U.S. child health. In a related recent development, a government advisory panel—reconstituted under the guidance of health secretary and known vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—chose to overturn the long-standing recommendation that all infants be routinely immunized at birth against hepatitis B. The convergence of these decisions underscores a growing vulnerability in American public health, where scientifically grounded recommendations are increasingly being dismissed or undermined by misinformation. The vitamin K shot, while minor in form and remarkably safe, represents something far larger: the erosion of trust between evidence-based medicine and the very individuals it seeks to protect.
Sourse: https://gizmodo.com/more-parents-are-refusing-vitamin-k-for-their-newborns-heres-why-thats-a-bad-idea-2000696870
