{"id":17147,"date":"2026-07-24T20:46:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T01:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voicesforvaccines.org\/?post_type=jtf_topics&#038;p=17147"},"modified":"2026-07-28T20:52:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T01:52:45","slug":"are-vitamin-k-shots-dangerous-for-newborns","status":"publish","type":"jtf_topics","link":"https:\/\/www.voicesforvaccines.org\/es\/jtf_topics\/are-vitamin-k-shots-dangerous-for-newborns\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Vitamin K shots dangerous for newborns?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row source=&#8221;&#8221; text=&#8221;Clinical Trials&#8221; font_container=&#8221;tag:h2|text_align:left&#8221; use_theme_fonts=&#8221;yes&#8221; google_fonts=&#8221;font_family:Abril%20Fatface%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal&#8221; link=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1708910874436{border-top-width: 1px !important;border-right-width: 1px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;border-left-width: 1px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_custom_heading text=&#8221;The Claim:&#8221; font_container=&#8221;tag:h3|text_align:left&#8221; use_theme_fonts=&#8221;yes&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;]More and more parents are choosing not to give their newborn babies the Vitamin K shot. One reason is that anti-vaccine activists, including\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ChildrensHD\/status\/2078135485856174591\" rel=\"nofollow\">Karl Jablonski<\/a>, claim that the shot can cause cancer, infertility (making it harder to have children later), and genetic problems.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_custom_heading text=&#8221;The Facts:&#8221; font_container=&#8221;tag:h3|text_align:left&#8221; use_theme_fonts=&#8221;yes&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;]Babies are born with very low levels of vitamin K. Vitamin K helps the blood clot, which means it helps stop bleeding. Without enough vitamin K, newborns can develop a rare but serious condition called vitamin K deficiency bleeding. This can cause dangerous bleeding inside the body, including in the brain. The vitamin K shot has greatly reduced these cases.<\/p>\n<p>In 1992, a small study suggested that the vitamin K shot might be linked to childhood leukemia, a type of blood cancer. This raised concerns, so researchers did\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/9468683\/\">larger and better studies.<\/a>\u00a0Those studies found no link between the vitamin K shot and childhood cancer.<\/p>\n<p>There is also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/publications.aap.org\/pediatrics\/article\/149\/3\/e2021056036\/184866\/Vitamin-K-and-the-Newborn-Infant\">no evidence<\/a>\u00a0that the vitamin K shot causes genetic problems or changes a baby&#8217;s DNA. After many years of use in millions of newborns, doctors have not found these problems.<\/p>\n<p>The vitamin K shot has been recommended for newborns in the United States since 1961. Millions of babies who received the shot have grown up and had children of their own. There is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/publications.aap.org\/pediatrics\/article\/149\/3\/e2021056036\/184866\/Vitamin-K-and-the-Newborn-Infant\">no evidence<\/a>\u00a0that the shot causes infertility. Because of this evidence, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization continue to recommend the vitamin K shot for all newborns.<\/p>\n<p>In some situations, Vitamin K\u00a0can cause a severe allergic reaction or problems with blood pressure and the heart. However, these serious reactions happen much more often when vitamin K is given through an\u00a0<strong>IV<\/strong>, which delivers medicine directly into a vein, and at much larger doses than newborns receive.<\/p>\n<p>Newborn babies do not get vitamin K this way. They receive a small shot in the muscle.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/24059412\/\">Only one<\/a>\u00a0life-threatening reaction to a newborn vitamin K shot has been reported in the medical literature, and it occurred in Turkey.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The newborn Vitamin K shot prevents serious bleeding and does not cause cancer, infertility, or genetic problems. AAP and WHO still recommend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"parent":0,"template":"","jtf_topic_subjects":[281,202,333,305,331,386,411,408,373],"class_list":["post-17147","jtf_topics","type-jtf_topics","status-publish","hentry","jtf_topic_subjects-american-academy-of-pediatrics","jtf_topic_subjects-cancer","jtf_topic_subjects-childrens-health-defense","jtf_topic_subjects-infants","jtf_topic_subjects-infertility","jtf_topic_subjects-karl-jablonowski","jtf_topic_subjects-leukemia","jtf_topic_subjects-vitamin-k","jtf_topic_subjects-world-health-organization-who","entry","no-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voicesforvaccines.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/jtf_topics\/17147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voicesforvaccines.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/jtf_topics"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voicesforvaccines.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/jtf_topics"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.voicesforvaccines.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/jtf_topics\/17147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17149,"href":"https:\/\/www.voicesforvaccines.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/jtf_topics\/17147\/revisions\/17149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voicesforvaccines.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"jtf_topic_subjects","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voicesforvaccines.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/jtf_topic_subjects?post=17147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}