What is Vitamin K and should my baby have it ?

Vitamin K is critical for a baby’s blood system to clot and stop any bleeding. Newborn babies tend to have very low levels of Vitamin K and this is thought to be because it does not cross the placenta very well. Once a baby is born, they soon begin to make Vitamin K but in a few rare cases this is not soon enough.

Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding (VKDB) is a rare but preventable disease which occurs in around 5-20 per 100,000 babies born. Around half of the babies who develop VKDB will die or sustain brain damage due to bleeding into the brain.

Giving a baby Vitamin K after birth almost eradicates this risk entirely reducing the
incidence to 0.9 per 100,000 births.
Is my baby at risk?
Babies that we know to be more susceptible will have been born to mothers who are on
certain drugs.

Who have had particularly traumatic births (Forceps or Ventouse).

Babies who have been bruised at delivery.

Premature babies.

Babies with liver problems.

But my baby isn’t high risk?

In about a third of all VKDB cases, there was no prior warning, and so sometimes it is impossible to know which babies will suffer and why.

Should it be given orally or by injection?

Giving your baby Vitamin K by injection reduces the risk even further (0.3 per 100,000 births).

However, the results of a research paper in the early 1990s made having Vitamin K by injection an unpopular choice when an increased risk was found to developing Leukaemia following the Vitamin K intramuscular injection.

After this finding other countries replicated the study and none came to the same conclusion. Other countries recommend that Vitamin K is still give by injection.

If you do decide to have Vitamin K orally and you are breastfeeding then your baby will require further doses at 7 and 28 days old.

Bottle fed babies require one further dose at 7 days.

Although it is highly recommended that your baby has Vitamin K after delivery, it is a decision for you and your  partner to make together, along with how it is administered.

Vitamin K will never be given without your verbal consent.

Discuss your options with your midwife and remember to always report any unexplained bleeding immediately. 

Claire Parry RM January 2007