More bleeding episodes in infants have been recorded as parents increasingly refuse to have vitamin K injections administered, a pair of studies found.
The percentage of infants not receiving a vitamin K injection at birth increased from 3.1 percent in 2017 to 6.8 percent in 2025, and not receiving the injection was associated with a higher bleeding risk within six months of birth, researchers said in one of the papers.
“Routine intramuscular vitamin K administration has been highly effective at preventing vitamin K deficiency bleeding in newborns for decades,” Dr. Heather H. Burris, one of the study’s co-authors and a neonatologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said in a statement….