More parents are refusing vitamin K shots for newborns. Why that could be dangerous

For more than 60 years, doctors have recommended that babies receive a vitamin K shot at birth to protect them from severe bleedinginearlylife.

These recommendation hassignificantly reduced vitamin K deficiency bleeding.Without this injection at birth, babies are over 80 times more likely to develop severe bleeding,according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, in recent years,health care professionals say more parents are refusing vitamin K shots for their newborns.Additionally, astudypublished earlier this month found that the proportion of newborns who did not receive a vitamin K shot has nearly doubled in recent years.

Doctorstold ABC Newsthistrendisveryconcerningand warned that foregoing this shot at birth puts babies at higher risk for life-threatening bleeding early in life that can have debilitating or deadly consequences.

What is vitamin K, and why do babies need it at birth?

Vitamin K is necessary to help the body form clots appropriately, but babies are born withvery smallamounts of this vitamin.

Thisputsthem at increased risk of a condition called vitamin K deficiency bleeding,according to the CDC.

To preventthisbleeding, a vitamin K injection has been recommended for newborns in the U.S. since theearly 1960s.It'sgiven as a single, intramuscular shot soon after birth.

"Vitamin K is a critical factor for clotting the blood, so the best way that we can prevent bleeding in newborn babies is to give them a shot of vitamin K," Dr. Kristan Scott, a neonatologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told ABC News.

Since this injection became standard of care, doctors say itis nowvery rarefor babies to experience vitamin K deficiency bleeding in the U.S., but they worry more babies will suffer from bleeding complications as more parents refuse the shot.

"It was a really successful public health intervention that decreased the likelihood infants were going to have bleeds, whether that be spontaneous in their head or abdomen or following a procedure like a circumcision," Dr. Katharine Clouser,a pediatric hospital medicine provider at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey,told ABC News.

Clouser explained that in addition to babies having low levels of vitamin K at birth, theydon'tget enough from breast milk or formula, making this early injection important for bleeding prevention as early as possible.

That protection extends until babies have introduced enough solids in their diet thatcontainhigher levels of vitamin K, which is usually around 6 months old, Clouser said.

Why are fewer newborns receiving vitamin K?

Doctors told ABC Newsthat,inrecent years, more parentshave beenrefusing or questioning the necessity of a vitamin K injection at birth.

Clouser said that within her group at the hospital, alongwith discussions among groups across the country, "many people are anecdotallyseeingthatwe'rehaving more discussions about families who are refusing."

She continued, "Many pediatricians,and even those who are practicing general pediatrics outside in an office, they're often counseling these families before the baby is born, meeting them before they're born and having a lot of these discussions,which we were not needing to have prior to the last couple of years."

Some of the refusals havebeenfueled by misinformation, such as fearsthe preservative in the shot could harm children,or distrust in the medical system, the doctors say.

Parents may have also confused the vitamin injection with a vaccine.

"Vitamin K is not a vaccine, it's a supplement," Scott said. "Vitamin K is just a vitamin K supplement and is safe for babies."

A recentstudy, published in the medical journalJAMA, for which Scott was a leadresearcher,found an ongoing drop in newborns receiving theprotectiveshot.

Scott and other researchers analyzed more than 5 million health records from 2017 to 2024. They foundthatin 2024, 5.2% of newborns did not receive a vitamin K injection at birth compared to about 3% in 2017.

This equates tonearly 190,000babies who did not receive a vitamin K shot in 2024,based on population estimates.

"[This] might sound like a small increase, but it's a really significant increase in the number of families who are refusing the injectable vitamin K," Clouser, who was not involved in the study, said.

Scott said many medical colleagues have shared anecdotes that they are seeing more babies with vitamin K deficiency bleeding as more parents refuse this shot.

"What's concerning is that that number could potentially continue to increase, and then we are going to have a larger number of babies that, unfortunately, are at risk of vitamin K deficiency bleeding," Scott said.

Numerous studiesthat havebeendoneover decadeshave ruledoutharms such as alinkbetween thevitamin Kshotandchildhoodcancer, theCDC says.

Doctors recommend that parents talk to a trusted healthcare provider orpediatricianbefore making a decision to refuse vitamin K, to better understand the benefits of the shot and the risks of refusing it.

Clouser saidgiving a vitamin K injection at birth isa very commonpracticearound the globe.

"We have a ton of safety data over years and years and years of these formulations, and in fact, we give a smaller dose than we used to, knowing that we have founda really effectivedose."

What are the risks of not receiving vitamin K at birth?

Bleeding can happen anywhere in the body without adequate vitamin K, but one of the most feared complications is bleeding that occurs in or surrounding the brain.

"Any brain bleed can be life-threatening and,if it's not life-threatening, it can potentially lead to permanent disability for the rest of that baby's life,"Dr. Leah Croll, assistant professor of neurology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, told ABC News.

Croll explained that babies are at increased risk for brain bleeding because the blood vessels in and surrounding the brain grow rapidly early in life.

"Those growing arteries and veins can be more likely to break and bleed, and that can causevery devastating consequences that can be potentially permanent," she said. "I'm very, very concerned to learn that parents are potentially electing to opt out of vitamin K administration at birth."

Crollwenton, "The idea that this decision could have these consequences, that the baby is then left to deal with for the rest of their life, is really almost hard to wrap your mind around."

Scott said excessive bleeding from the umbilical cord or after any procedure, such as a circumcision, is also a common complication of vitamin K deficiency bleeding. Onerecent studyfound that vitamin K injection after birth reduced the risk of severe bleeding by sixfold after circumcision.

Meanwhile, doctors say the risks of the vitamin K injection itself are rare and minimal. The risk of complications from not receiving a vitamin K shot at birth far outweighs the risks of the injection itself.

"There is a risk of a localredness or irritation from an injection because it is an injection, but beyond that, thereare really minimal harmsto giving vitamin K," Scott said.

An oral formulation of vitamin K exists, but it is riskier to use in place of the intramuscular injection, doctors say. Instead of a single shot, oral vitamin K would have to be given in multiple dosesfor weeksearly in the baby's life to offer protection from bleeding.

"Truthfully, wedon'tknow how much of the oral vitamin K a baby would be absorbing. Andso,to truly use evidence to prevent risk in vitamin K deficiency bleeding, we should be giving theintramuscularshot," Scott said.

Clouser said that doctors have evidence of what can happen whenvitaminK stops being used. In the early 1980s, some hospitals in England stopped providing vitamin K as a routine recommendationdue to an alleged association between the vitamin K shot and childhood cancer,andit was only recommended for children athigh riskforbleeds.

Following this move, cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding increased among newborns in England, research found.The oral formulation of vitamin K was less effective, eventually leading to revised recommendations in favor of the shot, given universally for all babies.

"Oftentimes, families are not receiving the whole story, right?" Clouser said. "They hear that England paused it for a while, butdon'tknow what happened afterward. Andso,I think that parentsare really wanting to have more information and theydon'tknow who they can trust."

"I think that what we need to recognize is that a trusted pediatrician, your trusted [obstetrician]areall recommending this vitamin K injection,"she said. "Andso,we know it issafe....I think when you have a consensus like that from manydifferent typesof medical providers, whether it be nurses, midwives, physicians, OBGYNs, pediatricians, everyone is saying the same thing.I thinkit'sdefinitely somethingthat can be trusted."

Jade A. Cobern, MD, MPH, is a practicing physician, board-certified in pediatrics and general preventive medicine, and is a fellow of the ABC News Medical Unit.