The second we find out we are going to have a baby all we want to do is protect them. At the same time the second they are born doctors immediately want to inject our perfect bundles of squishy joy with a variety of things. One being vitamin K. But why are they doing this to seemingly perfectly healthy babies and what exactly is it!?
Let's first look at what's going on in baby's body directly after birth. ..
Ok so in order to absorb vitamin k we have to have fully functioning biliary and pancreas systems, which new babies do not have. (The biliary system are the organs that produce and hold bile) Your baby's digestive system isn't fully developed at birth and won't be fully developed for at least 6 months which is why we give babies breast milk and delay solids and why breast milk only contains a small amount of highly absorbable vitamin k. Too much vitamin k could strain the liver and cause brain damage among other things. So low levels of vitamin k at birth just makes sense.
Cord blood contains stem cells which I'm sure we have all heard are incredibly beneficial for all sorts of things. For a newborn stem cells are vital for repairing the inside of an infants body and any wounds a baby might obtain. There is a catch though, in order for a baby to get this protective boost of stem cells we must delay cord clamping and cutting till after the baby has received the full amount of blood remaining in the placenta. To know for sure baby has gotten everything baby needs wait till the cord stops pulsing to clamp and cut it. Also the blood in the placenta is very thin and needs to remain this way so that the stem cells can easily move about and perform all the tasks they need to do. Brilliant right!? Babies are born with their own protective mechanism to prevent bleeding and to repair organs! This wasn't discovered until AFTER doctors started routinely giving babies vitamin k shots yet they ignored this and continued to give our fully protected babies extra vitamin k. Oh and if the vitamin k shot is given it thickens the blood and the stem cells can't travel as efficiently to where they are needed. Several clinical observations support the hypothesis that children have natural protective mechanisms that justify their low vitamin k levels at birth.
If the baby is breastfed then baby gets all the vitamin k needed from her. Unrestricted access to the breast directly after birth and the following days is incredibly important. Colostrum, which is what mothers bodies produce before the milk comes in, has high levels of vitamin k. The importance of early breastfeeding has been recognized and noted for over 50 years! It has been shown that babies who breastfeed within the first 24 hours have significantly better coagulation times than babies who have not been breastfed till after the 24 hour period or not breastfed at all. It is also important for baby to completely drain one breast before starting on the other to receive the full amount of vitamin k in the breast milk. Any restricting of the amount of time at the breast or the number of feeds will restrict the amount of vitamin k baby receives which will also prolong the amount of time it takes for baby's intestines to be populated by friendly vitamin k manufacturing bacteria.
A newborns natural prothrombin (this is a protein produced by your body to help your blood clot) levels reach normal levels between days 5 and 7. Levels peak around day 8, this is all related to the build up of bacteria in baby's digestive tract which produces the vitamin k that is necessary to form this clotting factor. Until they can produce it on their own they will continue to receive their vitamin k from breastmilk.
So if babies get all the vitamin k they need and the only form their bodies can absorb from their mothers breast milk then why do we give it to them!? Some mothers get shots and others choose drops but few know why doctors push it on them and the possible consequences they can cause. The reason is simply fear.
Research led people to believe that babies were vitamin k deficient due to the low levels at birth compared to adults. But why are we comparing levels of a newborn compared to an adult and why are these low levels considered bad!? Yes babies are born with low levels of vitamin k but this level is still sufficient to prevent problems. This is the only reason we give this shot or give drops... Because we have compared levels to that of adults and are fearful.
Even IF they needed it and IF a baby's little body could even use it let's look at the risks and contents of it. The vitamin k shot is synthetic and contains ploysorbate 80 and aluminum. These bypass the blood brain barrier and go straight to babies brain and nervous system. (The vitamin k shot has a black box warning which means your baby can die from getting this shot) It has significantly more vitamin k in one shot than is recommended for adults! Did I mention that you can overdose from too much vitamin k!? There are two types of vitamins, water soluble and fat soluble. Water soluble vitamins are pretty much impossible to over dose on. Anything extra that your body doesn't need simply passes out through your urine. Fat soluble ones, like vitamin k, can be dangerous in high levels because unlike water soluble ones, they get stored in your fat. Yikes.
Oh and there is a black box warning most people don't know about. "A black warning is the strictest warning put in the labeling of prescription drug products by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) when there is reasonable evidence of an association of a serious hazard with the drug." Stated by Walgreens.com and many other sources. Here is the actual warning...
A child is a gift. A beautiful squishy gift that is exquisitely wrapped, perfectly created and comes complete... No batteries... Or vitamin k required.
PS My son is being very demanding this morning and won't let me finish editing and reviewing it... So it goes up as is.