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Why are parents refusing to give vitamin K to newborn babies?

2026-09-01 13:52:57Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Why are parents refusing to give vitamin K to newborn babies?

The percentage of parents and legal guardians of children in the United States who refuse the standard vitamin K injection for newborn babies has risen sharply this year, according to an exclusive data analysis conducted for Reuters, putting more babies at risk for life-threatening bleeding episodes.

The data confirms what more than a dozen pediatricians, neonatologists and pediatric intensive care specialists told Reuters is a major concern: increased refusal of a life-saving injection and a growing wave of distrust of vaccines and other medical interventions for newborns.

For decades, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fueled this distrust, casting doubt on vaccines and other well-known medical treatments. The acceleration of the rejection of vitamin K this year coincides with his announcement in January that he would remove recommendations for six standard childhood vaccines, including the hepatitis B vaccine, which is given to babies at birth.

The percentage of newborns who did not receive a vitamin K injection within a day of birth increased by more than 57% from January to June, according to an analysis of health data on more than 1 million births nationwide, conducted by health data and analytics company Truveta.

While vitamin K rejection has been on the rise for years, Truveta's analysis shows that in the first half of 2026, the growth rate was 2.5 times higher than in the period January-June 2025. Compared to 2019, the growth was 309% higher.

Babies are born with very low levels of vitamin K, which helps blood clot, and remain vulnerable to its deficiency until about six months of age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Without the shot, babies are 81 times more likely to suffer life-threatening bleeding, in the brain or intestines, during the first six months of life, according to the CDC.

One in five babies who experience a severe hemorrhage will die. Without the injection, such hemorrhages occur in one in every 59 births.

“It’s disappointing,” Dr. Allison Bartlett, interim chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Comer Children’s Hospital and professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago, told Reuters. “All of us pediatricians have spent decades learning how to protect children, and the fact that that expertise is being ignored in favor of the stories that people tell is really challenging for us.”

Pediatricians like Heard-Garris are on the front lines of child care as parents grapple with changes in U.S. health policies to align them with the views of Kennedy and President Donald Trump, which often clash with the medical community's positions.

When Kennedy removed recommendations for six childhood vaccines, he said American children were getting too many injections and suggested they were linked to chronic disease.

Those changes were put on hold due to a court ruling, but Trump called for them again in an executive order on August 10. Experts say these conflicting messages have raised doubts among many parents about routine newborn treatments, including vitamin K.

When asked at a congressional hearing in April whether the decline in support for vitamin K was related to these policies, Kennedy denied having any role.

US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokeswoman Grace Davis Jamison said the agency and the CDC are evaluating available data and information regarding vitamin K rejection and related bleeding cases.

She said the department continues to provide parents and health professionals with information on vitamin K.

"Concerns about vitamin K and the decline in trust in public health institutions predate this administration and have grown during the COVID-19 pandemic, amid the tougher mandates imposed by the Biden administration," she said, adding that the agency is working to restore trust, including by respecting individual choice.


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