More babies in US are dying after parents refuse vitamin K shots: Study - The Straits Times

While vitamin K is not an immunisation, it is among the shots given during the first hours of a newborn’s life.

NEW YORK – Parents of newborns in the US are rejecting once-routine vitamin K shots at an increasing rate, and the number of babies who experience the potentially deadly bleeding that it is designed to prevent is on the rise, a new study shows.

The proportion of infants who did not get the injection rose to 6.8% in 2025, more than double the 3.1% rate recorded in 2017, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Children who did not get the vitamin shot had a significantly higher risk of bleeding by the time they were 6-months-old, including bleeding in the brain and gastrointestinal tract. They were also more than twice as likely to die during birth hospitalisations with bleeding, the study found. 

The findings come as scepticism is on the rise about long-established public health measures, including vaccination.

While vitamin K is not an immunisation, it is among the shots given during the first hours of a newborn’s life.

Some parents, who want a “natural” alternative, reject it over concerns that it will not benefit their children, is toxic, will cause pain or trigger an allergic reaction, according to researchers led by Kevin Dysart, who is from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s division of neonatology. 

“These are real numbers of children who are impacted by a bleed of some sort who also had not received vitamin K, and that’s pretty devastating,” Anna Morad, a doctor who runs the newborn nursery at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, said.

The vitamin K shot was implemented universally in 1961 to prevent newborns from developing severe vitamin K deficiency bleeding, which can be fatal in about 20% of cases. The deficiency hinders blood clotting and can lead to dangerous bleeding and neurological disabilities. 

For every 114 newborns that do not get a vitamin K shot, one will develop bleeding in their first six months of life, according to the study. The researchers tracked 5.2 million infants from all 50 states to draw their conclusions.

“This is known, established science, so this study adds to the abundance of evidence for it,” Morad said. “My question is, what’s going to move the needle for families?” 

An editorial released with the study called for those involved, from pediatricians to public health agencies and manufacturers like Pfizer, to work together to educate families and create accessible pathways for oral alternatives. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not currently track cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding and notes that vitamin K shots are safe for newborns. BLOOMBERG