Why Do Parents Refuse Vitamin K for New-borns?

There is a growing trend among new parents that they are reluctant about giving vitamin K shots to their new-born baby. According to physicians, this practice is spreading rapidly. But, vitamin K is necessary for a baby and lack of it can cause several issues to him. The major role it plays is to help blood to clot. If enough supplement of vitamin K is not provided to newborn babies, they may suffer from vitamin K deficient bleeding (VKDB). This may start from the first week of life and often continues up to 12 weeks.

Why Parents Refuse It

Parents often refuse to go for any vaccines to their newborn as they don’t want to make them get the pain as soon as they see the earth for the first time. There are certain reasons for refusal of newborn Vitamin K and those are as follows-

• According to certain researchers, facing the pain of shots after birth may cause psycho-emotional damage and also a trauma to the little one.
• Often, vitamin K contains certain preservatives which can be toxic to the delicate immunity system of your new baby.
• Your newborn baby is prone to infections. Vitamin K shots often aggravate the situation of getting infected because of their poor immunity system.

These are reasons parents refusing Vitamin K for the newborns. But, several types of research have been done and it is found that these shots are good for baby’s health.

Why Is Vitamin K Essential for Newborns?

It is true that there are certain problems, but recently doctors are advising for not avoiding the vitamin K shots. Here are certain reasons that you should not avoid vitamin K shots your new baby-

• Vitamin K is essential for clotting blood in adults as well as children. Babies often born with the deficiency of vitamin K and that’s why they should be given these shots.
• In some cases, the vitamin K deficiency can lead to serious problems for the kids. The bleeding disorder in the first week of life can be dangerous. It is known as Haemorrhagic Disease of anewborn baby when the internal bleeding occurs inside the brain of a child may lead to potential injuries and even death.

The HDN can happen to a newborn if there are certain situations arise-

• Preterm delivery
• Forceps or vacuum extraction delivery
• Low birth weight
• Undetected liver diseases
• Use of anticonvulsants, antibiotics, and any other alien type of medicines by mother during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
• Too much fast and prolonged labor, especially during pushing phase.
• Delivered by C-Section

Today, doctors opine that vitamin K shots are safe and non-toxic for your kids. And it can keep your baby safe from any kind of internal bleeding for up to 6 months. There must be awareness among parents about giving vitamin K shots to their kids so that they can be safe from any hemorrhagic bleeding. Once you are a parent, you need to decide which one is good for your kid and what not.