Soon after birth, American babies are given a vitamin K shot to prevent a rare bleeding condition so severe it can be fatal or leave them with permanent brain damage. Yet the number of parents refusing the shot has jumped 77 percent in less than a decade.
Vitamin K deficiency bleeding can strike suddenly and without warning. In the most serious cases—late vitamin K deficiency bleeding, which can occur in babies between 2 and 24 weeks old—about 20 percent of cases are fatal. Among those who survive, two out of five may be left with lasting brain damage. Yet, between 2017 and 2024, among more than 5 million newborns analyzed, nearly 200,000 did not get the shot.
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