Some Alberta doctors say they are seeing a recent and worrying trend of new parents questioning or refusing vitamin K injections, which have been given to newborns as standard practice for decades.
Canadian babies have routinely been gintravenous vitamin K injections because they are generally born with low levels of this vitamin, which is important for blood clotting and preventing serious bleeding.
The Canadian Pediatric Societyalong with other high-profile medical organizations, recommends that all babies receive the vaccine within six hours of birth.
“I’ve seen a significant increase in the number of people saying they don’t want to give vitamin K to their baby,” said Dr. Stephanie Cooper, a Calgary-based high-risk obstetrician.
Cooper said parents tell him they don’t trust the shot but can’t explain why.
Others, he said, are falling victim to misinformation on social media platforms like TikTok, with some parents mistakenly believing the shot causes autism.
“I’m concerned because this is just one of many things where people make decisions about medical decisions … and use sources of information that are not based on science, experience or evidence,” she said, noting that she has seen the change in recent years.
“There will be people who potentially follow this trend… and as a result, there will be tragedies.”
Risk of serious bleeding
Babies are often born with low levels of vitamin K, which is one of the factors necessary for blood clotting, because very little passes through the placenta. Breast milk does not provide a significant amount of vitamin K and babies need time to develop the ability to produce their own.
Dr. Carrah Bouma, a Calgary pediatrician, said vitamin K injections have been given safely for decades.
“It’s been a standard of care in Canada since the ’80s and has been recommended since the ’60s,” he said.
Babies who don’t receive a vitamin K injection, which is given into the thigh muscle, are at risk for spontaneous bleeding, according to Bouma, who works at the Peter Lougheed Centre, Alberta Children’s Hospital and a community practice.
“I am seriously concerned that babies are going to endure the complications of serious, preventable side effects, such as severe intestinal bleeding, severe brain hemorrhage that could leave the baby with lifelong deficits, such as cerebral palsy or the need for ICU care,” Bouma said.
Bleeding can also occur during procedures such as circumcisions or braces reversals, doctors warn.
According to the US Centers for Disease ControlA condition known as vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB) can develop at any time during the first six months of a baby’s life, which can lead to brain damage and even death.
“If a baby has a stroke because they don’t have enough vitamin K, we can’t go back and make that stroke go away. We can’t remove the injury that occurred,” Cooper said.
While the vast majority of families Bouma deals with are on board with the vitamin K injection, she is seeing more and more hesitation.
“The families I’ve encountered over the last year didn’t want that injection; they wanted to give oral medications,” she said.
These parents, he said, also reject the drops they are given at the hospital pharmacy and choose to get them themselves, which also worries him.
The Canadian Pediatric Society recommends the injection instead of drops, which should be given over several weeks. It warns that parents should be warned that the drops are not as effective and that babies who receive them are still at risk of bleeding, including in the brain.
Bouma said a lack of trust seems to be at the heart of some of the resistance he is seeing.
“Its safety profile is excellent. There are really no downsides to giving vitamin K and there really are no side effects beyond those of an injection,” he said, noting that those side effects can include some pain and bruising at the injection site.
US organization sees rise in vitamin K rejection
Another high-profile medical organization, the American Academy of Pediatrics, noted growing resistance from parents.
“In recent years the number of parents who refuse [vitamin K injections] for their newborns and a resulting increase in the number of late-onset VKDB cases,” the association said in a 2022 policy statement.
“As VKDB remains a relatively rare phenomenon, most families are unaware of the serious consequences of the disease and should be counseled about the risk of rejection.”
Publicly available data shows that vitamin K intake among Alberta newborns increased to 95.71 per cent in 2023 from 92.76 per cent in 2007.
CBC News asked Alberta Health Services and the province for the latest data. Neither provided an answer.
Older data shows a drop in adoption in the southern zone (to 94.05 percent in 2023 from 97.3 percent in 2007). The northern zone remained relatively stable with rates of 93.9 percent in 2023 and 94.04 percent in 2007. The rest of the zones saw general increases.
He The province identified a similar concern. more than a decade ago, highlighting clusters of higher rejection rates in Grand Prairie County in the northern zone, the Cochrane and Springbank areas in the Calgary zone and Red Deer County in the central zone.
At that time, recommendations were made to increase parental education about the health risks associated with vitamin K refusal.
