Vitamin K

[vvviola]

I'm very confused about vitamin k, and maybe someone can shed some light on things.

DD1 got the injection at birth, I never thought about it again.

Here they give the drops. One dose in hospital and 1 dose a week for 5 weeks. DD2 hates it. If I give it too close to a feed she gags & throws up the feed. She seems to get really bad wind/reflux the night we give it to her. Then at the paediatrician last week she said we should give it every week while I'm exclusively breastfeeding.

Nothing I've read about vitamin k before has suggested it needs to be given long term. And surely if it did, I'd have had to supplement DD1 too.

Can anyone shed any light on this? I don't want to put DD through it if I don't have to.

I've never heard that before. We gave oral drops at birth and then one dose 1 week later and that was it. Did you have a difficult birth with her? I'm pretty sure vitamin k deficiency is more of an issue if you had an assisted delivery but even then the risks are very small. I'm sure someone will come along with more info but personally, I think it sounds wrong.

Most NHS trusts in the UK advise a one off injection of vitamin K around the time of birth, with an option of oral vitamin K if the parents prefer. If the baby is exclusively breastfeeding, the oral doses are usually repeated at one week and one month. This is because formula has vitamin K added ( I don't like this bit as it implies that breastmilk is inferior in some way, which of course, it's not.) Once the baby is a few weeks old they are seen to be out of the at risk timespan for vitamin K deficiency bleeding, and therefore there is no reason to carry on supplementing. i had a need to supplement my baby son for a while due to an underlying liver problem. i felt sorry for him as it smells and tastes awful.
I really can't see why you have been advised to carry on. I think this definitely needs questioning and out of interest I would love to know the reasoning
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Thanks. I think I may well just finish the course we have and leave it at that.

It was an uncomplicated birth - no trauma or risk factors. I really got the feeling that I was told to keep giving it 'because that's what you do'. They also recommend vitamin drops (full range of vitamins) every day. Whereas at home in Ireland only vitamin D is recommended.

The paed I go to seems quite old-school too (doesn't believe in feeding on demand, and a few other things - but is generally quite down to earth & practical) so I wonder is it just an older practice...

Unless your baby for some reason has an underfunctioning liver, I can't see why you've been told to give the Vit K drops so often. Vit K has a number of uses but it's primary function in the body is to aid in the production of clotting factors, which are produced in the liver.

Giving a full range of vitamin drops daily is unlikely to cause any problems, although in reality the only one that is likely to be low is vit D - even if you are low on vits yourself and are exclusively bf'ing, the BM will still take the nutrients first - you are more likely to become deficient if your intake is low, than your baby.