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Vitamin K vaccine.

post #1 of 31
2/26/13 at 10:41pm
Thread Starter 

My husband and I have decided, after much research, to not vaccinate our newest arrival and to stop vaccinating our oldest two(they have been fully vaccinated minus the "pediatrician optionals" like flu, chicken pox, Gardisil) BUT, I'm really torn on vaxing or not for Vit K with our newest addition. Any reputable information would be greatly appreciated :)

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post #2 of 31
2/26/13 at 11:16pm
The vit k shot is different from a vaccine, but I know what you mean. there is an awesome recent thread in one of the DDCs about it, here's a link: http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1373674/what-are-your-vitamin-k-plans/30#post_17266545

I enjoyed reading what these ladies had to say about the subject, and found it very informative.
post #3 of 31
2/27/13 at 12:20am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jennyanydots View Post

The vit k shot is different from a vaccine, but I know what you mean. there is an awesome recent thread in one of the DDCs about it, here's a link: http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1373674/what-are-your-vitamin-k-plans/30#post_17266545

I enjoyed reading what these ladies had to say about the subject, and found it very informative.

Ah, thank you! I didn't know it wasn't a vaccine :)!

That thread is really eye-opening. I'm definitely leaning more towards getting the shot, but I'm still so torn *sigh*. 

post #4 of 31
2/27/13 at 12:26am
I know, it's a tough call. With my DS we did the "wait and see" thing at birth. He came out with a lot of bruising, so we opted for it, but had he not we likely would've declined. Good luck deciding smile.gif
post #5 of 31
2/27/13 at 6:54am

Got it for my son because he was a c section and they attempted vaccuum extraction.  Even given this I regret it. He had terrible problems with jaundice. My daughter was  vbac. We did not get it. I chose to do oral vitamin K which is standard in several European countries. I found it very interesting that she was not jaundiced at all. 

post #6 of 31
2/27/13 at 7:26am

Great info from Hilary Butler on Vit K

 

 

 

Quote:

The medical profession [however,] has this strange idea that the very thin blood which babies naturally have in the first 7 days, must be "abnormal" because it's not like adult blood, so they give vitamin K at birth. 

 

Baby's blood thickened with vitamin K, causes a situation where stem cells have to move through sludge, not nicely greased blood vessels full of blood which can allow stem cells easy acess to anywhere. Maybe one day it will dawn on the medical profession that not only are cord blood stem cells important and useful to the newborn baby, but that stem cells need thin blood for a reason.

http://beyondconformity.co.nz/_blog/Hilary's_Desk/post/Breastmilk_stem_cells/

 

Of course this lead to the discussion of premature clamping of the cord......

post #7 of 31
2/27/13 at 7:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marnica View Post

Got it for my son because he was a c section and they attempted vaccuum extraction.  Even given this I regret it. He had terrible problems with jaundice. My daughter was  vbac. We did not get it. I chose to do oral vitamin K which is standard in several European countries. I found it very interesting that she was not jaundiced at all. 

 

Marnica, my c-sec baby who got Vit K and Hep B at birth also was very jaundiced. The other two, who got neither, weren't.

post #8 of 31
2/28/13 at 6:55am

Vitamin K as injection was odd to me as back home oral drops are the norm. My sister wrote me a RX for Konakion  but I never filled it (Konakion is the brand name of the drops in Germany, made by Roche), instead I ordered my own drops here in the US (I was too worried they'd take away my drops because they are not FDA approved at the airport). I ordered from birthwithlove.com. They have no preservatives or anything artificial. Taste and odorless. I put a drop on my nipple after birth. The German concept is another drop at 6 days and 6 weeks. In the past few years a new protocol emerged in the Netherlands, which is one drop at birth and then one drop weekly until 6 weeks.

DS was jaundiced, but he was born at 36+6 and my cord stopped pulsing within 60 minutes of birth and then 60 seconds later the placenta was just there, I *feel* he would have greatly benefited from a longer pulsating cord. He wasn't too badly jaundiced, we could go home and just breastfeed in the sun. DD had the oral drops too, but her cord pulsated for a good 6-8 minutes. She wasn't jaundiced at all.

 

When deciding about vitamin K, also look into the antibiotic ointment routinely administered at birth in the US. We declined it each time. It's about STDs. Again, this is not routine back home so I started asking questions (it is offered to all parents with an explanation what it does).

post #9 of 31
2/28/13 at 12:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nia82 View Post

Vitamin K as injection was odd to me as back home oral drops are the norm. My sister wrote me a RX for Konakion  but I never filled it (Konakion is the brand name of the drops in Germany, made by Roche), instead I ordered my own drops here in the US (I was too worried they'd take away my drops because they are not FDA approved at the airport). I ordered from birthwithlove.com. They have no preservatives or anything artificial. Taste and odorless. I put a drop on my nipple after birth. The German concept is another drop at 6 days and 6 weeks. In the past few years a new protocol emerged in the Netherlands, which is one drop at birth and then one drop weekly until 6 weeks.

DS was jaundiced, but he was born at 36+6 and my cord stopped pulsing within 60 minutes of birth and then 60 seconds later the placenta was just there, I *feel* he would have greatly benefited from a longer pulsating cord. He wasn't too badly jaundiced, we could go home and just breastfeed in the sun. DD had the oral drops too, but her cord pulsated for a good 6-8 minutes. She wasn't jaundiced at all.

 

When deciding about vitamin K, also look into the antibiotic ointment routinely administered at birth in the US. We declined it each time. It's about STDs. Again, this is not routine back home so I started asking questions (it is offered to all parents with an explanation what it does).

yup this is what I did with DD. 

post #10 of 31
2/28/13 at 12:57pm
I like this discussion of the whys and how's of vitamin k for newborns.

In the UK you can request either the injection or oral vitamin k.

Personally, while the effects of vitamin k deficiency are rare, they're so serious I wouldn't mess around with it.
post #11 of 31
2/28/13 at 6:31pm
My daughter got it because the birth center where she was born had really strong opinions about it due to losing a baby previously. Next time I think I'll talk to the, about oral vit k and see what they say about it.

We don't have any problems, though.
post #12 of 31
3/1/13 at 2:00am

Second post down on this thread: http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1370747/a-story-of-tetanus-in-an-unvaccinated-child has a link I posted to a horrible story about the effects of vitamin K deficiency in a child in Australia. This is rare, but there is no way to predict who it will affect. 

post #13 of 31
3/1/13 at 6:48am

I did not read that link as I have trouble opening that format. Did they do no vitamin K or oral drops?

 

I read a AAP position paper years back that states the only reason the injection is favored is because they think parents won't come back to the office for the following doses of oral drops or think they are plainly too stupid (sorry for the word, but that's what it basically said in more flowery words) to administer a drop 3 times. I can assure you babies aren't dying left and right in Europe from brain bleeds because of the oral drops. But I personally wouldn't trust anything the AAP says anyways after their atrocious statement about RIC (which is in utter contrast with the oath they swore imho).

post #14 of 31
3/4/13 at 2:30am

Huh, that's strange - it's a pdf which I thought most computers could handle. 

 

Here's the direct link: http://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/169659/cif-baby-20121203.pdf

 

There's no mention of Oral Vitamin K, just that the injection was declined. Do any Australian mothers posting here know if Oral Vitamin K is available in Australia? 

 

The baby died at 33 days old, and the verdict by the coroner on the death was that it was caused by Vitamin K deficiency bleeding. 

 

Please note this is very rare (especially recently given that most babies get vitamin K supplements at birth). I found a number to put to that at the below link

 

 

Quote:
Incidence of VKDB reported varies from 1.5% to 0.001%

 

http://newborns.stanford.edu/VitaminK.html

post #15 of 31
3/4/13 at 6:57am

No my PC refused to open that specific pdf. Something about viruses... (Still cursing hubbie for insisting on this horrible Windows 8 - it's been doing stuff like that grrr)

 

Since they don't mention it, it is quite certain the child didn't get oral vitamin K. It would have been stated I'm sure as it would have medical significance.

post #16 of 31
3/5/13 at 4:29am

What I remember deciding was that I would wait and see what the birth was like and then if it was traumatic I would have opted for injected Vit K (not oral).  I also upped my Vit K during pregnancy. 

 

Interestingly, around the time that I was researching all of this my oldest was in a phase of getting frequent nose bleeds. She now takes a hand full of alfalfa at the first sign of a nose bleed and it's been working wonders!  

post #17 of 31
3/5/13 at 8:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mirzam View Post

Great info from Hilary Butler on Vit K

 

 

 

http://beyondconformity.co.nz/_blog/Hilary's_Desk/post/Breastmilk_stem_cells/

 

Of course this lead to the discussion of premature clamping of the cord......

 

I always knew there must be a good reason why ALL babies were born with less vitamin K in the blood. So even if I hadn't heard of the jaundice and leukemia connection, I would have been very reluctant to allow it. And now that I've read an explanation of the (possible) reason, I'm even more glad I didn't allow it for my babies (shot or oral).

post #18 of 31
3/5/13 at 10:07pm
Thread Starter 
I am more comfortable with oral vs. injection, my midwife is going to look into getting the oral vit k for us smile.gif
post #19 of 31
3/7/13 at 8:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by alaskanmomma View Post

I am more comfortable with oral vs. injection, my midwife is going to look into getting the oral vit k for us smile.gif

you can also get it yourself if you need to :)

post #20 of 31
3/7/13 at 2:12pm

I would opt out of the vitamin k shot. It is 100 times more than normal vitamin k levels. Their manufacture insert states jaundice and death are possible side effects. if you are worried you can give an oral vitamin k which is natural. www.birthfromlove.com 

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