To vitamin K or not to Vitamin K…

[KLMmumma]

Hey ladies, did anyone decline their vitamin K shots or if not entirely decline then opt for oral drops ? Any stories or it being good or bad ? As always there is pretty contradictory articles online about its risks vs benefits with ingredients and reactions. I’ve said no in my birthing plan but think I might change my mind if there’s little risk. Midwives has said better to get it.

All 3 of mine had drops rather than jabs. I can't remember why now (youngest is 17!) Probably just that I didn't like the idea of my precious baby being stabbed with a needle. Anyway, it was fine.

You will always find a nut job blog with an opinion. Why are you seeking out such quackery? Serious question. Do you think mainstream advice is dodgy and you are smart and special enough to need to look under rocks for the real answer?

I think there is a vogue to present every parenting action as a dilemma and a finely balanced decision. But often they’re just not. But it doesn’t stop contrarians and cranks wanting to default to an alternative.

NHS website is brilliant. I never google health questions, I go straight to the NHS site. But it’s definitely written to tell patients what they should do without going into too much depth.
If OP trusted the NHS without question she would just do what her midwife told her. She feels she needs to see the research behind it. Wikipedia is an easily accessible way in to find that research for non experts and it works with loads of different domains (not just health). Wikipedia itself is obviously not considered a reliable source. But if you don’t know where to start looking and keep ending up on crap blogs by people who have no qualifications whatsoever, then it’s really not a bad place to start.
You still need to be able to suss whether the sources referenced are any good though.

“A small injury could result in catastrophic bleeding for your little one because their blood won’t clot like an adult without the vitamin K injection. If you take the drops you will have to come back to the hospital for them”

I was given the drops to give at home orally. They are low risk if the birth was not instrumental/traumatic. I was told it was my choice, but when I tried to object to having the injection the midwife told me basically my baby would die which was really not true. There is very little choice over maternity care, and medics complain about patients not being informed but also about them being informed and making choices that don’t fit into what the majority do.

That article mentions oral Vit K however has a link to an Amazon supplement which is for adults. The oral vit K administered in hospital is the same vial that is injected.

I note that the end of that page links her other article 'I refuse to vaccinate... here's why'

I think the benefits outweigh the risks with vitamin K - for me anyway! Middle ground maybe have the drops?

www.sarawickham.com/articles-2/information-about-vitamin-k/

Many hospitals and tongue tie practitioners won't snip a tie if baby hadn't had vitamin k because of the bleeding risk.

It's something to consider, especially if you're planning to breastfeed.

It's entirely up to you of course however i don't feel its something that should be missed. My dc1 had oral doses, dc2 injection and dc3 oral doses.

I am glad you are probably going to get it OP.
There would be no reason for the NHS to keep giving babies these jabs for no reason or for a nefarious reason.

As humans we haven’t evolved perfectly. Our brains are too heavy for a start. So it’s perfectly plausible that some babies are born with deficiencies for a myriad of reasons. Good news is they’ve identified a way to combat it.

Before ingesting this, a foetus will have been swallowing amniotic fluid, which is urine. So I wouldn’t worry about that particular first too much.

"I drove drunk and didn't run anyone over. No big deal"

Stupid stupid argument

Also, some babies are born with cancer. Nature is random, rather than a perfect state to aspire to.

Sorry but I don’t think amniotic fluid is the same as urine

Wrong.

What creates amniotic fluid?
Amniotic fluid is mostly water for the first half of pregnancy. The fetus’s pee makes up most of the amniotic fluid after about 20 weeks of pregnancy. This is because, like adults, the fetus will swallow liquid and pee it out.

Googling it and learning something would have been quicker than writing that

Mine both had it. I went out the room and DH delt with being there. I was too fragile and hormonal after delivery to be there while my precious newborn was injected!
They are now strapping teens, healthy and strong.

Glad you’re getting it. Better safe than sorry.

Good on you @KLMmumma. It’s always good to ask questions and I think you are doing the right thing to go ahead with it.

They have done a lot of studies on this (including one in the U.K. where they tried targeting the injection to only the kids who were more “at risk” and the number of deaths went up). It’s been going so many decades they have loads of evidence showing it’s safe.

Some studies claim it increases childhood cancers.

Are these studies from reputable peer reviewed sources? because I would hate to think you’d post that on a thread where a mother is concerned about doing the right thing for her newborn, if your sources were less than stellar.

She asked so I answered why some people question it. I'm not arguing either way.

Some studies claim it increases childhood cancers.

Reputable studies? Multiple studies? Studies which have been peer reviewed? Or as I suspect this is more likely to be one small study from a less than reputable source which showed there may be a link but it with no actual evidence?

I think that’s a little disingenuous of you.

Ok, think what you like. 😂