Better to take vit K myself or give drops to baby?

[Tattiana]

I am trying to decide if I should get Vitamin K drops for the baby or just up my dose of vitamin K pre and post birth. Is there a reduced effectiveness if it has to come through my milk?

Thanks!

[Tattiana]

bump

[Reha]

My understanding is that little (to none??) of the mother's Vitamin K transfers to the baby via the placenta. Though, I do believe that increasing you supply of K will increase the amount in your milk, post-birth.

If that is enough of a safeguard against hemorrhagic disease of the newborn, I am not sure. That is a decision that you must make for yourself, based on your level of comfort.

[Midwife Kris]

MWHerbs and I had a nice conversation about this on one our midwifery email lists earlier this year. There is very little vitamin K transmitted to the baby via the placenta, through the cord, and into the baby. Mom supplementing vitamin K through pregnancy is "fine" but when the baby is born he/she will still be at a natural deficiency at birth because it doesn't linger in the baby's system. Vitamin K is the product of a reaction in the gut and babies in utero are not digesting yet so this is not a sound alternative.

[To me] It makes more sense to provide the baby itself with vitamin K supplementation (as a precursor) to stimulate that reaction with breast feeding. We don't store vitamin K well, mostly because *we* are vitamin K deficient even with supplementation, and the transmission of it through breast milk is also low.

[cfiddlinmama]

I am of the understanding that the studies on the vit k shot were conducted on babies who didn't receive colostrum. From what I've read, colostrum is very high in vit. k. I would imagine that if we ate a diet rich in vit. k, more would be present in the colostrum, right? My preceptor does recommend oral vit. k drops though....