Is the oral as effective? I am choosing to do the Vit K because of the rare chance of serious clotting problems - so if this seriousness is what I want to protect against, is oral Vit K sufficient?
What about the virgin gut, if anyone can speak to that? I hear alot of talk here on MDC on preserving the infant gut by giving breastmilk and nothing else (which is of course my plan)...where does something like oral Vit. K come in to this - does it have any effect on gut flora?
The oral has been shown to be as effective as the shot in preventing early onset bleeding, but not late onset (after 2-12 weeks). It has to be given in 3 doses, one drop each at birth, 2? weeks, and 6 weeks.
I've also read about taking the supplement drops yourself instead of giving them to your baby, so that you have more Vit K in your milk. It has been a while since I read it, but I'm sure you could easily find a dosing regimen if you google oral vitamin k supplementation.
By Linda Folden Palmer, DC
Newborn infants routinely receive a vitamin K shot after birth in order to prevent (or slow) a rare problem of bleeding into the brain weeks after birth. Vitamin K promotes blood clotting. The fetus has low levels of vitamin K as well as other factors needed in clotting. The body maintains these levels very precisely.1 Supplementation of vitamin K to the pregnant mother does not change the K status of the fetus, confirming the importance of its specific levels. You can visit Linda's Web site at www.babyreference.com.
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Administering vitamin K to newborns becomes an even greater issue when you consider the source. The vitamin K injections administered by hospitals to newborns are synthetic and may contain benzyl alcohol as a preservative.
The only known reported cases of vitamin K toxicity result from having used this synthetic form.
It certainly seems wise to instead use an oral form of liquid vitamin K, gradually supplemented with several low doses as discussed in the above article. The ideal form to use would be a high-quality vitamin K1, or phylloquinone, which is found naturally in plants.
I would say that Mercola needs to do some more recent research on the subject! when I started seriously researching vitamin K- there were about 2000 articles total- now there are about 12,000 listed article on Pub Med- the bigger area of research is on aging which will be changing the RDA to 300 mcg a day instead of the current amount- also if you look at the dietary habits of people who actually have that low of incidence of vitamin K related bleeds in breastfeed infants are also - places like India where big portions of the population eat mostly vegetables and consume animal products from animals that are grass fed -- here in this country- look at the NY health dept info, and in other places that have more western diets and the incidence is much higher than 5 in 100,000- more like 1 in 1000 or even more--
the levels in breast milk do not gradually increase- it increases rapidly- if mom is eating a vitamin K rich diet-- I would propose an alternate reason for tight regulation of vitamin K by mom's body and that is calcification of bones--
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there is quite a bit of info from European countries in support of using oral vitamin K, and I think it is probably the better way to use it, because the intestines also will be able to produce MK4 and what ever else it may provide-- if mom buys a bottle of drops she can take it too- and probably should
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