Vitamin K

After your baby is born your midwife will ask whether you would like your baby to have a Vitamin K supplement.

It is known that newborn babies have about 30% to 60% of the vitamin K an adult would have stored in their liver. It isn’t known why this is or if there is a reason for this. However, a very small amount of babies are born very deficient in Vitamin K and go on to develop Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding (VKDB). VKDB can cause bleeding from the nose, umbilicus, mouth or into the brain which can in turn cause brain damage. The instance of VKDB is 1 baby in every 10,000.

Vitamin K is offered to babies in order to protect against this from happening. It is offered as either as intramuscular injection into the top of baby’s leg or as an oral solution. 

Injection – one off dose given shortly after birth into the top of baby’s leg. One dose only. It has been found that Vitamin K levels stay higher for longer when given by injection as it remains stored in the muscle around the injection site. 

Oral solution (given by mouth) – given shortly after birth by your midwife. A second dose is needed when baby is 4 to 7 days old and will be given by you.  A third dose is needed at a month old if you are exclusively breastfeeding