What about the Vitamin K shot?
Package insert Black Box Warning:
WARNING — INTRAVENOUS AND INTRAMUSCULAR USE:
Severe reactions, including fatalities, have occurred during and immediately after INTRAVENOUS injection of phytonadione, even when precautions have been taken to dilute the phytonadione and to avoid rapid infusion. Severe reactions, including fatalities, have also been reported following INTRAMUSCULAR administration. Typically these severe reactions have resembled hypersensitivity or anaphylaxis, including shock and cardiac and/or respiratory arrest. Some patients have exhibited these severe reactions on receiving phytonadione for the first time. Therefore the INTRAVENOUS and INTRAMUSCULAR routes should be restricted to those situations where the subcutaneous route is not feasible and the serious risk involved is considered justified.
From 1992, when there were just 2 studies available:
“The prophylactic benefits against haemorrhagic disease are unlikely to exceed the potential adverse effects from intramuscular vitamin K. Since oral vitamin K has major benefits but no obvious adverse effects this could be the prophylaxis of choice.” BMJ 1992;305:341
“We suggest that the low vitamin K level is a secondary protective mechanism for xenobiotics, such as BP, that may escape the primary placental screen. The recently described role of vitamin K-dependent Gla protein as ligands for receptor tyrosine kinases, also establishes K as a link in cell growth and transformation. It is proposed that the small total body pool of K1 in the adult, which is sufficient only to meet continuing needs, and the even smaller pool in the fetus are protective. This protective effect of low K1 levels is particularly important in the presence of the high mitotic rates and rapid cell turnover in the avian embryo and mammalian fetus.
From 2016–24 years later–and data still limited. “A total of 2 retrospective surveillance studies, 2 retrospective cohort studies, and 17 case reports were identified for inclusion and assessment.”
“Based on a review of the literature, use of parenteral vitamin K1 may result in severe hypotension, bradycardia or tachycardia, dyspnea, bronchospasm, cardiac arrest, and death.” https://doi.org/10.1177/1076029616674825
A pediatrician’s insight:
“You know what “synthetic vitamin K” enthusiasts don’t understand? The thought that babies (and all animals for that matter) have lower levels of vitamin K at birth for a beneficial, protective, reason. I’m just going to throw these “common sense-based” thoughts out there but let’s consider them:
First, in order to absorb vitamin K we have to have a functioning biliary and pancreas system. Your infant’s digestive system isn’t fully developed at birth which is why we give babies breast milk (and delay solids) until they are at least 6-months-old, and why breast milk only contains a small amount of highly absorbable vitamin K. Too much vitamin K could tax the liver and cause brain damage (among other things). As baby ages and the digestive tract, mucosal lining, gut flora, and enzyme functions develop, baby can process more vitamin K. Low levels of vitamin K at birth just makes sense.
Secondly, cord blood contains stem cells, which protect a baby against bleeding and perform all sorts of needed repairs inside an infant’s body. Here’s the kicker, in order for a baby to get this protective boost of stem cells, cord-cutting needs to be delayed and the blood needs to remain thin so stem cells can easily travel and perform their functions. Imagine that, baby has his/her own protective mechanism to prevent bleeding and repair organs. That wasn’t discovered until after we started routinely giving infants vitamin K injections.
Third, a newborn might have low levels of vitamin K because it’s intestines are not yet colonized with bacteria needed to synthesize it and the “vitamin K cycle” isn’t fully functional in newborns. It makes sense then to bypass the gut and inject vitamin K right into the muscle right? Except baby’s kidneys aren’t fully functional either.
Fourth, babies are born with low levels of vitamin K compared to adults, but this level is still sufficient to prevent problems; vitamin K prophylaxis isn’t necessarily needed.
Finally, several clinical observations support the hypothesis that children have natural protective mechanisms that justify their low vitamin K levels at birth . I don’t know about you, but we should probably figure out why that is before we “inject now and worry about it later. Do you know why vitamin K is pushed on parents and their children? Because pharmaceutical companies don’t like to lose money, doctors don’t like to be questioned, the American Academy of Pediatrics dare not change its recommendations.
Since 1985, the medical profession has known that oral vitamin K raises blood levels 300 – 9,000 times higher. The injectable vitamin K, results in vitamin K levels 9,000 times thicker than adults blood.
Baby’s blood thickened with vitamin K, causes a situation where stem cells have to move through sludge, not nicely greased blood vessels full of blood which can allow stem cells easy acess to anywhere. Maybe one day it will dawn on the medical profession that not only are cord blood stem cells important and useful to the newborn baby, but that stem cells need to thin blood for a reason.
Any fetus which gets being wrung out like a wet towel while traveling down a narrow drain pipe, can incur damage in any part of the body, including in the brain, and needs an in-built fix-it. And stem cells cross the brain blood barrier. In fact, stem cells can go anywhere! Amazing don’t you think? God’s design has solutions for situational problems. Three solutions, actually. The second is the fact that naturally, in the first few days, a baby’s blood clotting factors are lower than normal.
But, pediatricians consider this a “defect” so want to give vitamin K which results in blood nearly 100 times thicker than an adult’s. This vitamin K injection, so they say, (like they say immediate cord clamping is safe, and normal, and delayed cord clamping is an unproven intervention) is because the baby wasn’t designed right, and if you don’t give a vitamin K injection, the baby “could bleed to death.” It’s not for nothing that the vitamin K syringe, sits right alongside that cord clamp and the scissors!
But there is an unanswered question:
“Why are blood clotting factors in babies low in the first few days after birth? Why has a baby got much thinner blood as a result?”
Might a logical hypothesis be, that thinner blood allows freer and quicker access of cord blood stem cells to any part of the body damaged during birth? After all, why should stem cells have to fight through a baby’s blood which is now 100 times thicker than any adult’s, courtesy of another needle?“
More studies available at MedScienceResearch
