Importance of Vitamin K for infants
Vitamin K is required to assist the blood clotting process and all infants are born with lesser levels of Vitamin K than the grown one. VKDB or vitamin K deficiency bleeding is a rare disease that occurs in 1 out of 1000 babies and often babies suffer from this disease during the first week of their lives. In VKDB the infants’ blood does not clot appropriately and causes bleeding in the brain that leads to brain damage and even death in some cases. This is the very reason of offering Vitamin K injection to newborns in their first hour of life after birth.
People have concerns about the use of vitamin K injection as a research carried out during early nineties suggests that vitamin K injection to babies can cause childhood leukemia. After that study many other studies have been conducted in the UK, Scotland, Germany and the US but there wasn’t any conclusive evidence that vitamin k injection could cause leukemia. However, there isn’t any study that suggests any link between oral dose of Vitamin K and leukemia.
Who suffer from VKDB?
There are low levels of vitamin K in mother’s milk in early post-natal period and that’s the reason breastfeed babies have a little more risk. Similarly premature and the infants who have had a problematic birth commonly suffer from VKBD.
Why Vitamin K is not given only to those who have high-risk?
In one out of every three cases, VKBD emerges with no early signs to infants who are not found with high-risk and this is the reason that vitamin K is given to all newcomers .You also have right as parents to choose whether your baby must have this injection or not.
Some Methods of giving Vitamin K
Vitamin K can be given in injection as well as orally. There are different ways about how and when Vitamin K is given. The oral dose of vitamin is usually given once after birth and another after a month. You must talk about your GP or midwife if you have concerns about the Vitamin K injections.