Dear Aunty Lactivist,
There has been some discussion at an ante-natal group I attend about the merits of Vitamin K and how best to administer it to babies.
Given fears about the injection potentially causing a leukaemia risk, there is some support for an oral dose administered through formula feed, as Vitamin K deficiency-related illness tends to mainly affect breastfeeding mothers. Please can Aunty Lactivist weigh in with some facts and figures?
Kind regards, Anonymous
Aunty Lactivist is all of us so if you can help the person who wrote the question, if you have links to research, have read anything useful or have opinions you want to share on the matter please use this space.
Lisa
Care Instructions – Shopping Bag 
“Any old Cow” Short Sleeved T 3-6 months 
“Any old Cow” Short Sleeved T 6-12 months 
Any Old Cow – Shopping Bag 
Mummy Milk Rocks – Shopping Bag 
In Holland, all breastfed babies are given vitamin K orally until 3 months old. The drops are readily available in all chemists. Vitamin D is also given in drop form until breastfeeding finishes.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Hi, I’m a midwife practicing in Britain. Vitamin K is a drug offered to newborn babies as a prophylactic measure against something called haemorrhagic disease of the newborn. Thankfully, this condition is rare, affecting approximately 1:10,000 babies each year. As far as I’m aware, breastfeeding infants are not more at risk from this (mainly because of the widespread use of vit k in britain) although it is true that infant formula milks contain vitamin K supplementation. However, this is not a reason to artificially feed your baby and the benefits of breastfeeding will always outweigh bottlefeeding. In Britain, vitamin K can be given orally at birth then at 7 and 28 days of age. The intramuscular injection is given once at birth. There were several studies (Isreals et al 1997),(Reverdiau-Moalic et al 1996), (Parker et al 1998) suggesting a link between the injection of vitamin K and childhood cancers such as leukaemia, a suggested risk increase of 10-20%. However, a much larger and more up-to-date study in the British Journal of Cancer (Fear et al 2003) has suggested that there is no link between bolus vitamin K provision at birth and leukemia or other cancers. (The study eliminated 2% of cancer cases in their study group that were diagnosed prior to 3 months of age. They additionally did not count Down’s syndrome babies).
The research in this area is very contentious. If you are concerned about giving your baby the vitamin k injection due to the risks of childhood cancers, I would suggest talking to your midwife about oral administration of it instead. Your baby’s own vitamin k levels will increase gradually overtime (as nature intended I might add!). There is also the option of supplementing yourself with vitamin k which will increase the levels in your breastmilk and therefore in your baby, although this is not common practice in the UK (but you can always ask!!)
I hope this helps. To be honest, it is very difficult to make a decision with all the differing research! I’d say, don’t worry too much and do what you feel is right.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I too had heard about this when pregnant with my first so after reading as much as I could I decided that she would have the 3 doses of oral vit K as Fran described above. When my second came along we followed the same procedure. I felt like it was worth being careful ‘just in case’ so opted for what I see as a middle point. (Having the vit K but spreading the dose.)
Like or Dislike:
0 
0