Anti-Vaccine Trend Has Parents Shunning Newborns' Vitamin Shot
Anti-Vaccine Trend Has Parents Shunning Newborns' Vitamin Shot
By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, July 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- With the recent U.S. measles outbreak, the issue of vaccine refusal has received growing scrutiny. Now doctors are calling attention to a similar problem: Some parents are shunning the vitamin K shot routinely given to newborns to prevent internal bleeding.
The consequences of that choice can be severe, pediatric specialists say. Infants can quickly become deficient in vitamin K, which can lead to dangerous bleeding in the intestines or the brain.
"If you refuse the shot, you're rolling the dice with your child's health," said Dr. Robert Sidonio Jr., a hematologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at Emory University in Atlanta.
Vitamin K is necessary for normal blood clotting. In older children and adults, bacteria in the gut produce much of the vitamin K the body needs. But that's not the case for infants.
And breast milk does not supply enough vitamin K -- no matter how careful a mother is about her diet, Sidonio said.
"All the kale in the world won't do it," Sidonio added.
That's why, since 1961, U.S. newborns have routinely received a vitamin K shot before they leave the hospital.
But some parents have started saying no to the shot. In 2013, while working at Vanderbilt University's children's hospital, in Tennessee, Sidonio saw several cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding in succession.
It turned out that none of the infants had received their vitamin K shot. Ultimately, Sidonio and his colleagues encountered seven cases of vitamin K deficiency over an 8-month period -- with five of those infants suffering gastrointestinal or brain bleeding.
An investigation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found an "alarming" trend, Sidonio said. Among parents whose babies were born at private birthing centers near Vanderbilt, 28 percent had refused the vitamin K shot.
It's not clear how common such refusals are nationwide, because there are no tracking systems for them, Sidonio said.
But the trend is not confined to Tennessee. In the latest issue of the Journal of Emergency Medicine, doctors in Ohio describe their own encounter with vitamin K deficiency.
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, July 6, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- With the recent U.S. measles outbreak, the issue of vaccine refusal has received growing scrutiny. Now doctors are calling attention to a similar problem: Some parents are shunning the vitamin K shot routinely given to newborns to prevent internal bleeding.
The consequences of that choice can be severe, pediatric specialists say. Infants can quickly become deficient in vitamin K, which can lead to dangerous bleeding in the intestines or the brain.
"If you refuse the shot, you're rolling the dice with your child's health," said Dr. Robert Sidonio Jr., a hematologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at Emory University in Atlanta.
Vitamin K is necessary for normal blood clotting. In older children and adults, bacteria in the gut produce much of the vitamin K the body needs. But that's not the case for infants.
And breast milk does not supply enough vitamin K -- no matter how careful a mother is about her diet, Sidonio said.
"All the kale in the world won't do it," Sidonio added.
That's why, since 1961, U.S. newborns have routinely received a vitamin K shot before they leave the hospital.
But some parents have started saying no to the shot. In 2013, while working at Vanderbilt University's children's hospital, in Tennessee, Sidonio saw several cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding in succession.
It turned out that none of the infants had received their vitamin K shot. Ultimately, Sidonio and his colleagues encountered seven cases of vitamin K deficiency over an 8-month period -- with five of those infants suffering gastrointestinal or brain bleeding.
An investigation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found an "alarming" trend, Sidonio said. Among parents whose babies were born at private birthing centers near Vanderbilt, 28 percent had refused the vitamin K shot.
It's not clear how common such refusals are nationwide, because there are no tracking systems for them, Sidonio said.
But the trend is not confined to Tennessee. In the latest issue of the Journal of Emergency Medicine, doctors in Ohio describe their own encounter with vitamin K deficiency.