Photo by Shutterstock/Natalia Karpova After all these years advocating for science, and hammering away at those who deny it, I’m surprised I can still be surprised at how bad anti-science can get. Yet here we are. Babies across the U.S. are suffering from horrific injuries—including hemorrhages, brain damage, and even strokes (yes, strokes, in babies)—because of parents refusing a vitamin K shot. This vitamin is needed to coagulate blood, and without it internal bleeding can result. Vitamin K deficiency is rare in adults, but it doesn’t cross the placental barrier except in limited amounts, so newborn babies are generally low in it. That’s why it’s been a routine injection for infants for more than 50 years—while vitamin K deficiency is not as big a risk as other problems, the shot is essentially 100 percent effective, and is quite safe. Mind you, this is not a vaccine, which contains minuscule doses of killed or severely weakened microbes to prime the immune system.
It’s a shot of a critical vitamin. Nevertheless, as my friend Chris Mooney writes in Mother Jones, there is an overlap with the anti-vax and “natural health” community. As an example, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the Nashville, Tennessee, area, more than 3 percent of parents who gave birth in hospitals refused the injection overall, but in “natural birth” centers that rate shot up to 28 percent. My Slate colleague Amanda Marcotte points out that vitamin K levels in breast milk are very low as well, and that’s the preferred technique for baby feeding among those who are also hostile to vaccines. In those cases, getting the shot is even more critical. But the anti-vax rhetoric has apparently crossed over into simple injections. Chris has examples in his Mother Jones article, and there’s this in an article in the St, Louis Post-Dispatch: The CDC learned that parents refused the injection for several reasons, including an impression it was unnecessary if they had healthy pregnancies, and a desire to minimize exposure to “toxins.”
A 1992 study associated vitamin K and childhood leukemia, but the findings have been debunked by subsequent research. “We sort of came to the realization that parents were relying on a lot of sources out there that were providing misleading and inaccurate information,” said Dr. Lauren Marcewicz, a pediatrician with the CDC’s Division of Blood Disorders. By “sources,” they mean various anti-science websites and alt-med anti-vaxxers like Joe Mercola (who has decidedly odd things to say about the vitamin K shot, which you can read about at Science-Based Medicine). Despite the lack of evidence of harm, some parents are still buying into the nonsense, and it’s babies who are suffering the ghastly consequences. These include infants with brain damage, children with severe developmental disabilities, and more, because of parents refusing a simple shot for their infants. The irony here is extreme: These are precisely the sorts of things the anti-vaxxers claim they are trying to prevent.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a great Web page about Vitamin K: what it is, why we need it, and why babies need it even more so. It will answer any questions you have about this necessary vitamin. If you’re about to have a baby or have had one recently: Congratulations! It’s one of the most amazing things we can do as humans, and I will always remember watching and participating in my daughter’s birth. I would have done anything to make her ready for the world, and for me—for every parent—that includes getting the real facts about health.Vitamin K is scheduled to be injected into babies within an hour of birth. One of their assaults out of the womb and most parents allow it. It’s a vitamin that we are told will save our baby’s life from the deficiency they are born with, so of course we would agree to it. But only because we are fed lies. First, it is a lie that it is needed. Listen to this fear campaign delivered by the CDC: “Babies are born with very little vitamin K stored in their bodies.
This is called “vitamin K deficiency” and means that a baby has low levels of vitamin K. Without enough vitamin K, babies cannot make the substances used to form clots, called ‘clotting factors.’ When bleeding happens because of low levels of vitamin K, this is called “vitamin K deficiency bleeding” or VKDB. VKDB is a serious and potentially life-threatening cause of bleeding in infants up to 6 months of age. A vitamin K shot given at birth is the best way to prevent low levels of vitamin K and vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB).…waiting to see if your baby needs a vitamin K shot may be too late. Babies can bleed into their intestines or brain where parents can’t see the bleeding to know that something is wrong. This can delay medical care and lead to serious and life-threatening consequences. All babies are born with very low levels of vitamin K because it doesn’t cross the placenta well. Breast milk contains only small amounts of vitamin K. That means that ALL newborns have low levels of vitamin K, so they need vitamin K from another source.
A vitamin K shot is the best way to make sure all babies have enough vitamin K. Newborns who do not get a vitamin K shot are 81 times more likely to develop severe bleeding than those who get the shot.” How has humanity survived all this time without this shot? Vitamin K does pass through the placenta, it does get passed through breast milk, and moms eating plenty leafy greens, veggies, fruits, and oils are passing plenty to their babies. Interesting however that certain medications can interfere with vitamin K and deplete it or cause other clotting and bleeding issues. If mom is on IV antibiotics (often the case if she is Group B strep positive during the birth), certain pain medication, or had recent vaccines it could deplete her vitamin K levels or pass through to the baby and deplete the baby’s vitamin K levels. Want to know another thing that could cause bleeding disorders in babies unrelated to the “need” for vitamin K? The Hepatitis B vaccine, also scheduled to be given within 12 hours of birth.
Actually, most vaccines have the same adverse reaction listed in the package inserts, also called thrombocytopenia or ITP. So maybe if we stopped vaccinating babies they wouldn’t be bleeding to death. Beyond the lie that it is necessary is the lie that it is just a safe and harmless vitamin. Here it is, the bold-faced lie in print: “Yes, the vitamin K shot is safe. Vitamin K is the main ingredient in the shot. The other ingredients make the vitamin K safe to give as a shot.” The manufacturer disagrees, this is in the insert: “Severe reactions, including fatalities, have also been reported following INTRAMUSCULAR administration.” Deaths have occurred after intravenous and intramuscular administration. Transient “flushing sensations” and “peculiar” sensations of taste have been observed, as well as rare instances of dizziness, rapid and weak pulse, profuse sweating, brief hypotension, dyspnea, and cyanosis. Pain, swelling, and tenderness at the injection site may occur.
The possibility of allergic sensitivity including an anaphylactoid reaction should be kept in mind. Infrequently, usually after repeated injection, erythematous, indurated, pruritic plaques have occurred; rarely, these have progressed to scleroderma-like lesions that have persisted for long periods. In other cases, these lesions have resembled erythema perstans. Hyperbilirubinemia has been observed in the newborn following administration of phytonadione”. “Studies to evaluate the mutagenic potential have not been conducted with Vitamin K1 Injection. Studies to evaluate the carcinogenic potential have not been conducted with Vitamin K1 Injection.” And direct from the package insert we have the ingredients: Each milliliter contains phytonadione 2 or 10 mg, polyoxyethylated fatty acid derivative 70 mg, dextrose, hydrous 37.5 mg in water for injection; benzyl alcohol 9 mg added as preservative. May contain hydrochloric acid for pH adjustment. pH is 6.3 (5.0 to 7.0).
The shot contains aluminum. Aluminum is toxic when injected. Medscape references 35 published studies discussing the toxic impact of injected aluminum, and those include many skin conditions including eczema, rash, painful nodules lasting years in some cases, and dermatitis, among other conditions. At least 2 British journals confirmed that vitamin K injections significantly increase chances of childhood leukemia, in as many as 1/500. And it is infuriating that the statements pasted directly from the CDC above, ignore, deny, and flat out lie about the risks of this shot. What parents deserve is full disclosure and informed consent. That would not sound like the typical jargon they hear in the hospital such as “Now we are going to give your baby a Vitamin K shot, it is perfectly safe and may save your baby’s life.” It would sound more like: “You have the option of having your baby injected with an acidic formulation of synthetic Vitamin K. We would like to give this to your baby because the Hepatitis B shot we will pressure you to get next to protect against STD’s might cause a severe bleeding disorder.