TORONTO - Doctors say medical misinformation is leading to a growing number of parents refusing the vitamin K shot for their newborns, prompting fresh warnings from the medical community.
“The incidence seems to be increasing, which is why there is concern,” said Dr. Eugene Ng, a neonatologist at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto.
The Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) recommends newborns receive a vitamin K shot shortly after birth to prevent a rare but potentially life-threatening condition known as vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB). Newborns are born with a deficiency of vitamin K, a nutrient essential for blood clotting; without it, babies can develop severe bleeding including in the brain.
“Late vitamin K deficiency bleeding is associated with a three times higher risk of intracranial hemorrhage,” said Ng. “That is bleeding into the brain and bleeding into the brain is a severe complication.”
Ng says the shot has been routine for more than 40 years but recently, he has seen an uptick in parents refusing the vitamin K injection. Doctors in other countries are noticing the same, with a new study from Sweden showing the number of parents declining the shot more than doubled between 2006 and 2021.
“This is a well-established, much needed, very routine biomedical procedure that saves lives, reduces harm and it’s being refused solely because of the spread of health misinformation,” said Timothy Caulfield, a professor at the University of Alberta.
“We know it’s very safe and not getting it is incredibly harmful,” said Caulfield. “Despite that, this rhetoric is coming from mostly influencers online doing real harm.”
Among the concerns raised by those refusing the vitamin K shot are worries about the ingredients, use of preservatives and de-bunked links to leukemia. Influencers often raise the “box warning” regarding serious side effects of the injection which include shock, cardiorespiratory arrest, flushing, dyspnea and cyanosis, but experts say the warning mostly stems from severe reaction seen in some adults who received high doses. Newborns receive a low-dose injection of the nutrient and serious reactions are extremely rare.
An oral option of vitamin K is available but must be given in three doses: at birth, at three to five days and in the fourth week after birth. Still, the injection remains the preferred option of health care providers as it is more reliable.
Caulfield says part of the reason influencers are so effective in shifting opinion is because their messages are personal.
“You’re hearing a story, and often it’s a powerful story presented in a very sort of seductive manner that may feel very relevant to you as a new parent,” he said. “That personal, urgent message from an influencer that you might relate to can be more persuasive than the authoritative voice that’s expressing what the science actually says.”
Doctors and medical associations are trying to do more to counter the proliferation of health misinformation online, but they acknowledge it’s difficult to change minds once they’ve been made.
“We find it very challenging to discuss these kinds of things with parents if their mind is already set,” said Ng who says parents who refuse the shot are playing “Russian roulette.”
“The bleeding is not trivial,” he said. “It’s not just a little bit of bleeding. The incidence of brain hemorrhages…is a significant complication.”
Experts say parents who refuse the vitamin K shot are also less likely to vaccinate their children, another worrying trend. While Caulfield says it’s a challenge to counter all the misinformation out there, the medical community is trying to do a better job in how it responds.
“I think we are seeing medical associations…around the world be more vocal in countering misinformation,” Caulfield said. “We need to create messaging that is relevant to parents and where they are in those moments…and sometimes I think we haven’t done that well.”
