The Truth About The Vitamin K Shot in Newborns: Is It Worth The Risk?

Having a baby is serious business. I mean, you’re literally growing a human being and bringing them into this world. And you’re responsible for keeping them out of harm’s way. That’s no joke!

The birthing experience with each of my girls was dramatically different. Truth be told, with my first, I was a hard-core believer in modern medicine. After all, I was a trained RN with loaaaads of experience under my belt and had it drilled into me from day one in nursing school that giving birth was indeed, a medical event, fraught with all kinds of tubes, alarms, and interventions to “help” get that sweet babe from point A to point B. 

With my second, 3 years later, I woke up. BIG TIME. I found myself clear on the other side of the crunchy scale, and with the exception of birthing at home, went rogue on my Western medicine ideals. It was amazing and something I wished I had done with my #1.

The decisions parents-to-be are faced with can be paralyzing. Besides the “analysis paralysis” that goes along with naming the little cherub {Mila, my #1, was “baby” for the first 12 hours of her life}, the choices are endless – many of which must take place long before the little one steps out of the womb.

Diapering systems and co-sleeping arrangements aside, one important decision that must take place is whether or not to give the Vitamin K shot to your baby. First, a bit of background…

What is the Vitamin K shot?

Vitamin K is necessary to ensure normal blood clotting in both adults and babies. There are two main forms of vitamin K. Vitamin K1, found in leafy greens and broccoli, and Vitamin K2, found in organ meats, grass-fed butter, aged cheeses, fermented foods, and egg yolks.

In most babies, the blood clotting mechanism does not become fully established until the 8^th day after birth, therefore babies are deemed to have insufficient levels of Vitamin K.

In some instances, this can lead to vitamin K-deficient bleeding {VKDB}, formerly known as hemorrhagic disease of the newborn {HDN}. VKDB is internal bleeding in the brain and other organs that can occur from 3 to 7 weeks after birth, leading to serious injury, brain damage, or potentially even death. This happens in about 5 out of 100,000 births, and 9 times out of ten, it affects breastfed babies, since commercial formulas are supplemented with unnaturally high levels of vitamin K {source}. Scary stuff.

While this is a truly controversial subject, I believe the low vitamin K levels babies are born with is nature’s master plan {a form of biological wisdom, if you will}, since a hemorrhage occurring in a newborn after a normal birth is rare. However, hospital births provide more potential for traumatic injury to occur, particularly if forceps/vacuums are used or the baby is born via c-section.

To prevent VKDB, newborns routinely receive a vitamin K shot shortly after birth. The question remains, is this “routine” shot really necessary?

My beef with this “routine” practice 

Now believe me, the last thing I want to do is put my sweet little babe in harm’s way and at risk for these rare, yet frightening consequences. Here’s the problem with this “routine” practice:

1. The vitamin K being administered via injection isn’t the natural stuff you’re going to get from your side of sautéed kale {loaded with coconut oil} or eggies and kraut. Nope. It’s synthetic vitamin K, also known as “phytonadione”. Synthetic anything is bad news.
2. The standard dose of vitamin K being administered moments after birth is off the charts, 20,000 times the necessary dose {source}. Twenty. THOUSAND. Times!
3. Adding insult to literal injury, the injection may also contain preservatives that can be toxic to delicate, young immune systems.
4. Inflicting pain immediately after birth has the potential to cause emotional damage and trauma to a sweet, unassuming newborn {that has just been yanked from the warm, cozy womb}. Some will argue that newborns don’t “remember” these sorts of things or worse, barbaric circumcisions, but I beg to differ. I’d rather not chance it.
5. Any invasive procedure that pierces the skin, such as an injection, is an open invitation for infection at a time the newborn’s immune system is uber immature.
6. The liver of a newborn does not begin to fully function until 3 or 4 days after birth. This means that the ability to detoxify the insanely large dose of synthetic vitamin K is seriously hindered.

Is the vitamin K shot necessary?

While the injection itself may be questionable, at best, for the above reasons, it should be made crystal clear that without question, newborns absolutely, positively need to have normal levels of vitamin K. Having said that, the shot is not the end all, be all answer to normalizing these levels and preventing the devastating consequences that can occur. There are safe, non-invasive ways to do this. 

Next, I’ll be sharing safe and natural alternatives to the vitamin K shot, so you can make the most informed decision for your babe. Read that here. 

Wanna Pin this? Click here.