How Vitamin K Affects Your Newborn Baby

Vitamin K

Offered routinely to all newborn babies as protection against Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding (VKDB), vitamin K is administered either by injection or in an oral preparation, depending on the policy of your maternity unit and on you and your partner's preference. The risk of VKDB occurring in a well, full-term baby is estimated at 1 in 10,000, yet the potential seriousness of the condition has led to a supplement of vitamin K being offered to all newborns.

VKDB is a condition whereby your baby can spontaneously suffer from some internal bleeding. There are two categories of VKDB: "early bleeding", which can occur during the first week of life, and "late bleeding", which may occur when your baby is between 1-12 weeks old. Symptoms include unexplained bruising, nosebleeds, and bleeding from around her cord area, through to invisible hemorrhaging within the area of her brain, which can have serious implications. Jaundice that lasts for more than two to three weeks can be a sign of liver disease, which has also been linked to many babies that develop internal bleeding.

Vitamin K is necessary for your baby's blood to clot effectively but she is born with only a minimal supply: the level of vitamin K is lower in babies than in adults but research has not yet discovered the reason for this. Artificial milk is fortified with vitamin K and therefore the risk of internal bleeding is low in babies who are bottle fed. Although research has not yet investigated any possible side effects that might be caused by large doses of vitamin K. However, evidence does suggest that the greater risk of VKDB to breastfed babies is due to Insufficient feeding over the first few days rather than to a deficiency in breast milk. Breastfeeding well "on demand" from birth will encourage your baby's Internal system to begin making vitamin K naturally. If she is not able or keen to feed well from the breast during the first 48 hours it is more likely that she will be at risk of developing VKDB.

SIDE EFFECTS OF VITAMIN K

A small study in the 1980s suggested that there was a link between babies that had been given vitamin K by Injection and an increased risk of childhood leukemia. Further research did not confirm such a link, but there was a simultaneous rise in the uptake of the oral preparation. Other side effects include the small degree of pain suffered by your baby and, more rarely, bruising, bleeding, or infection at the injection site, and the wrong dose or drug being administered.