THE HALFAX HEIMDALL AUGUR

More parents are refusing vitamin K shots for newborns, doctors say ... Doctors say not getting a vitamin K shot puts babies at risk of severe bleeding. For more than 60 years, doctors have recommended that babies receive a vitamin K shot at birth to protect them from severe bleedinginearlylife. This recommendation hassignificantly reduced vitamin K deficiency bleeding.Without this injection at birth, babies are over 80 times more likely to develop severe bleeding,according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, in recent years,health care professionals say more parents are refusing vitamin K shots for their newborns.Additionally, astudypublished earlier this month found that the proportion of newborns who did not receive a vitamin K shot has nearly doubled in recent years. Doctorstold ABC Newsthistrendisveryconcerningand warned that foregoing this shot at birth puts babies at higher risk for life-threatening bleeding early in life that can have debilitating or deadly consequences. What is vitamin K, and why do babies need it at birth? Vitamin K is necessary to help the body form clots appropriately, but babies are born withvery smallamounts of this vita…

Western Pa. families declining vitamin K shots, other preventive care for ... A recent study in a prominent medical journal indicates that many more families are declining vitamin K shots, which prevent bleeding complications in newborns. The JAMA researchers reported that rates of refusing the preventive health measure went from 2.9% to 5.2% in eight years. A local expert says his health system estimates locally that the number is likely double, and it’s not just vitamin K shots that new parents are foregoing. Dr. Bill McCarran, director of the Allegheny Health Network Newborn Medicine Program, said his team is currently examining data about vitamin K administration at all of AHN’s newborn nurseries and neonatal intensive care units, which together care for 7,000 to 8,000 babies per year. About two years ago, less than 5% of families in AHN hospitals declined the shot. Now, preliminary data indicate that the number is 10% or more, McCarran said. “Anyone who takes care of babies would have been able to predict that finding. Families are much more likely to decline than they were when I started doing this,” he said. “Declining certain newborn care and newborn preventive measure…

New parents are shunning proven preventive care for their infants in ... In this photo provided by Norton Healthcare, nurse Robin Waldridge administers a Vitamin K shot to a newborn baby at Norton Women’s and Children’s Hospital on Friday, March 6, 2026, at the hospital in Louisville, Ky. (Jamie Rhodes/Norton Healthcare via AP) One day at an Idaho hospital, half thenewbornsDr. Tom Patterson saw didn’t get thevitamin K shotsthat have been given to babies for decades to prevent potentially deadly bleeding. On another recent day, more than a quarter didn’t get the shot. Their parents wouldn’t allow it. “When you look at a child who’s innocent and vulnerable — and a simple intervention that’s been done since 1961 is refused — knowing that baby’s going out into the world is super worrisome to me,” said Patterson, who’s been a pediatrician for nearly three decades. Doctors across the nation are alarmed that skepticism fueled by rising anti-science sentiment and medical mistrust is increasingly reaching beyond vaccines to other proven, routine, preventive care for babies. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which analyzed more than 5 million births nati…

Western Pa. families declining vitamin K shots, other preventive care for ... Neonatologist Dr. Bill McCarran poses for a portrait at West Penn Hospital on May 29. (Massoud Hossaini | TribLive) A recent study in a prominent medical journal indicates that many more families are declining vitamin K shots, which prevent bleeding complications in newborns. The JAMA researchers reported that rates of refusing the preventive health measure went from 2.9% to 5.2% in eight years. A local expert says his health system estimates locally that the number is likely double, and it’s not just vitamin K shots that new parents are foregoing. Dr. Bill McCarran, director of the Allegheny Health Network Newborn Medicine Program, said his team is currently examining data about vitamin K administration at all of AHN’s newborn nurseries and neonatal intensive care units, which together care for 7,000 to 8,000 babies per year. About two years ago, less than 5% of families in AHN hospitals declined the shot. Now, preliminary data indicate that the number is 10% or more, McCarran said. “Anyone who takes care of babies would have been able to predict that finding. Families are much more likely to decli…

Western Pa. families declining vitamin K shots, other preventive care for newborns <p>A recent study in a prominent medical journal indicates that many more families are declining vitamin K shots, which prevent bleeding complications in newborns. The JAMA researchers reported that rates of refusing the preventive health measure went from 2.9% to 5.2% in eight years.</p>