Shortly after birth, many newborns are given vitamin K to help their blood clot properly and reduce the chances of hemorrhage. Increasingly, especially here in the US, parents are refusing this life-saving intervention, leaving these babies more likely to develop deficiency bleeding which can lead to life-long brain damage and death. In this episode, we explore the many dimensions of vitamin K: how it acts in our bodies as an essential compound, when we discovered the clotting properties of this vitamin and applied that knowledge to prevent catastrophic bleeding in newborns, and why some people are turning away from this life-saving injection. You’ve seen the headlines, now tune in for the full story.
| History | Biology |
| Almquist, H. J. “The early history of vitamin K.” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 28.6 (1975): 656-659. | Shearer, M.J., 2009. Vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB) in early infancy. Blood reviews, 23(2), pp.49-59. |
| Brousson, Michelle A., and Michael C. Klein. “Controversies surrounding the administration of vitamin K to newborns: a review.” CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal 154.3 (1996): 307. | Cranenburg, E.C., Schurgers, L.J. and Vermeer, C., 2007. Vitamin K: the coagulation vitamin that became omnipotent. Thrombosis and haemostasis, 98(07), pp.120-125. |
| Cranenburg, Ellen CM, Leon J. Schurgers, and Cees Vermeer. “Vitamin K: the coagulation vitamin that became omnipotent.” Thrombosis and haemostasis 98.07 (2007): 120-125. | Hey, E., 2003. Vitamin K—what, why, and when. Archives of Disease in Childhood-Fetal and Neonatal Edition, 88(2), pp.F80-F83. |
| Dam, Henrik. “The antihaemorrhagic vitamin of the chick.” Biochemical Journal 29.6 (1935): 1273. | Oldenburg, J., Marinova, M., Müller‐Reible, C. and Watzka, M., 2008. The vitamin K cycle. Vitamins & Hormones, 78, pp.35-62. |
| Dam, Henrik. The Discovery of Vitamin K,(its Biological Functions and Therapeutical Application: Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1946). Norstedt., 1948. | Shearer, M.J. and Newman, P., 2008. Metabolism and cell biology of vitamin K. Thrombosis and haemostasis, 100(10), pp.530-547. |
| Doisy, Edward A., S. B. Binkley, and Sidney A. Thayer. “Vitamin K.” Chemical Reviews 28.3 (1941): 477-517. | Sankar, M.J., Chandrasekaran, A., Kumar, P., Thukral, A., Agarwal, R. and Paul, V.K., 2016. Vitamin K prophylaxis for prevention of vitamin K deficiency bleeding: a systematic review. Journal of Perinatology, 36(1), pp.S29-S35. |
| Fear, N. T., et al. “Vitamin K and childhood cancer: a report from the United Kingdom Childhood Cancer Study.” British journal of cancer 89.7 (2003): 1228-1231. | ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition, Mihatsch, W.A., Braegger, C., Bronsky, J., Campoy, C., Domellöf, M., Fewtrell, M., Mis, N.F., Hojsak, I., Hulst, J. and Indrio, F., 2016. Prevention of vitamin K deficiency bleeding in newborn infants: a position paper by the ESPGHAN committee on nutrition. Journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition, 63(1), pp.123-129. |
| Ferland, Guylaine. “The discovery of vitamin K and its clinical applications.” Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism 61.3 (2012): 213-218. | Ng, E. and Loewy, A.D., 2018. Guidelines for vitamin K prophylaxis in newborns. Paediatrics & child health, 23(6), pp.394-397. |
| Gröber, U., et al. “Vitamin K: an old vitamin in a new perspective.” Dermato-endocrinology 6.1 (2014): e968490. | Zurynski, Y., Grover, C.J., Jalaludin, B. and Elliott, E.J., 2020. Vitamin K deficiency bleeding in Australian infants 1993–2017: an Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit study. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 105(5), pp.433-438. |
| Hamrick, Harvey James, et al. “Reasons for refusal of newborn vitamin K prophylaxis: implications for management and education.” Hospital pediatrics 6.1 (2016): 15-21. | Jullien, S., 2021. Vitamin K prophylaxis in newborns. BMC pediatrics, 21(Suppl 1), p.350. |
| Miller, Hayleigh, et al. “Why do parents decline newborn intramuscular vitamin K prophylaxis?.” Journal of medical ethics 42.10 (2016): 643-648. | Cornelissen, M.V., Von Kries, R., Loughnan, P. and Schubiger, G., 1997. Prevention of vitamin K deficiency bleeding: efficacy of different multiple oral dose schedules of vitamin K. European journal of pediatrics, 156(2), pp.126-130. |
| Lehmann, Jörgen. “Vitamin K as a prophylactic in 13,000 infants.” (1944): 493-4. | McNinch, A., Busfield, A. and Tripp, J., 2007. Vitamin K deficiency bleeding in Great Britain and Ireland: British paediatric surveillance unit surveys, 1993–94 and 2001–02. Archives of disease in childhood, 92(9), pp.759-766. |
| Loyal, Jaspreet, et al. “Refusal of vitamin K by parents of newborns: a survey of the better outcomes through research for newborns network.” Academic pediatrics 17.4 (2017): 368-373. | Löwensteyn, Y.N., Jansen, N.J.G., van Heerde, M., Klein, R.H., Kneyber, M.C.J., Kuiper, J.W., Riedijk, M.A., Verlaat, C.W.M., Visser, I.H.E., van Waardenburg, D.A. and van Hasselt, P.M., 2019. Increasing the dose of oral vitamin K prophylaxis and its effect on bleeding risk. European Journal of Pediatrics, 178(7), pp.1033-1042. |
| Majid, Atif, et al. “Newborn vitamin K prophylaxis: a historical perspective to understand modern barriers to uptake.” Hospital Pediatrics 9.1 (2019): 55-60. | Warren, M., Miller, A., Traylor, J., Sidonio, R., Morad, A., Goodman, A., Christensen, D., Grant, A., Odom, E., Okoroh, E. and Clayton, J., 2013. Late vitamin K deficiency bleeding in infants whose parents declined vitamin K prophylaxis—Tennessee, 2013. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 62(45), p.901. |
| McNinch, Andrew. “Vitamin K deficiency bleeding: early history and recent trends in the United Kingdom.” Early human development 86.1 (2010): 63-65. | Loyal, J. and Shapiro, E.D., 2020. Refusal of intramuscular vitamin K by parents of newborns: a review. Hospital pediatrics, 10(3), pp.286-294. |
| Meyer, Thomas C., and Joan Angus. “The effect of large doses of synkavit in the newborn.” Archives of disease in childhood 31.157 (1956): 212. | Scott, K., Miller, E., Culhane, J.F., Greenspan, J., Handley, S.C., Lo, J.Y., Knake, L.A., McKenney, K.M., Burris, H.H. and Dysart, K., 2026. Trends in vitamin K administration among infants. JAMA, 335(3), pp.272-274. |
| Miller, Hayleigh, et al. “Why do parents decline newborn intramuscular vitamin K prophylaxis?.” Journal of medical ethics 42.10 (2016): 643-648. | Van Ballegooijen, A.J., Pilz, S., Tomaschitz, A., Grübler, M.R. and Verheyen, N., 2017. The synergistic interplay between vitamins D and K for bone and cardiovascular health: a narrative review. International journal of endocrinology, 2017(1), p.7454376. |
| Obladen, Michael. “Innocent blood: a history of hemorrhagic disease of the newborn.” Neonatology 107.3 (2015): 206-212. | |
| Sahni, Vanita, Florence Y. Lai, and Shannon E. MacDonald. “Neonatal vitamin K refusal and nonimmunization.” Pediatrics 134.3 (2014): 497-503. | |
| Scott, Kristan, et al. “Trends in vitamin K administration among infants.” JAMA 335.3 (2026): 272-274. | |
| Waddell Jr, W. W., and Dup Guerry III. “The role of vitamin K in the etiology, prevention, and treatment of hemorrhage in the newborn infant: part II.” The Journal of Pediatrics 15.6 (1939): 802-811. | |
| Firsthand Account: https://www.cdc.gov/vitamin-k-deficiency/stories/olives-story.html | |
| https://www.propublica.org/article/more-parents-decline-vitamin-k-shot-newborns |
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, you won’t pay a penny more, but we’ll get a small commission which helps us keep things running. Thanks!
