TN newborns get rare bleeding disorder after parents refused vitamin K shots |
[Via The Tennessean | tennessean.com]
A bleeding disorder in babies so rare that it typically affects fewer than one in 100,000 is becoming more common in Tennessee because parents are refusing vitamin K injections at birth, according to pediatric specialists.
Since February, four babies with no signs of injury or abuse have been sent to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt with either brain hemorrhages or bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract. Dr. Robert Sidonio Jr., a hematologist, diagnosed them with vitamin K deficiency bleeding.
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Read the article and gain some understanding of how parents can make decisions that have huge medical impacts on their children..
Vitamin K is important for clotting of the blood. Low vitamin K levels in newborns used to result in tremendously bad outcomes for children – bleeding inside the brain or gut.
So doctors give newborns some vitamin K to get them over the hump. Except these parents refused.
Children who are not vaccinated at least have the benefit of herd immunity ti protect them. Parents refusing vitamin K are simply playing chicken with their children.
I bet this is much more common than expected.
A Man With A Ph.D. 