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One day at an Idaho hospital, half the\u00a0newborns\u00a0Dr. Tom Patterson saw didn\u2019t get the\u00a0vitamin K shots\u00a0that have been given to babies for decades to prevent potentially deadly bleeding. On another recent day, more than a quarter didn\u2019t get the shot. Their parents wouldn\u2019t allow it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at a child who\u2019s innocent and vulnerable \u2014 and a simple intervention that\u2019s been done since 1961 is refused \u2014 knowing that baby\u2019s going out into the world is super worrisome to me,\u201d said Patterson, who\u2019s been a pediatrician for nearly three decades.<\/p>\n
Doctors across the nation are alarmed that skepticism fueled by rising anti-science sentiment and medical mistrust is increasingly reaching beyond vaccines to other proven, routine, preventive care for babies.<\/p>\n
A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which analyzed more than 5 million births nationwide, found that refusals of vitamin K shots nearly doubled between 2017 and 2024, from 2.9% to 5.2%. Other research suggests that parents who decline vitamin K shots are much more likely to refuse getting their newborns the hepatitis B vaccine and an eye ointment to prevent potentially blinding infections. Rates for that vaccination at birth dropped in recent years, and doctors confirm that more parents are refusing the eye medication.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think these families care deeply about their infants,\u201d said Dr. Kelly Wade, a Philadelphia neonatologist. \u201cBut I hear from families that it\u2019s hard to make decisions right now because they\u2019re hearing conflicting information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Innumerable social media posts question doctors\u2019 advice on safe and effective measures like vitamin K and eye ointment. And the Trump administration has\u00a0repeatedly undermined established science. A\u00a0federal advisory committee\u00a0whose members were appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. \u2014 a leading anti-vaccine activist before joining the administration \u2014 voted to end the\u00a0longstanding recommendation\u00a0to immunize all babies against hepatitis B right after birth.\u00a0On Monday\u00a0a federal judge temporarily blocked all decisions made by the reconfigured committee.<\/p>\n
One common thread that ties together anti-vaccine views and growing sentiments against other protective measures for newborns is the fallacy that natural is always better than artificial, said Dr. David Hill, a Seattle pediatrician and researcher.<\/p>\n
\u201cNature will allow 1 in 5 human infants to die in the first year of life,\u201d Hill said, \u201cwhich is why generations of scientists and doctors have worked to bring that number way, way down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vitamin K and other measures prevent serious problems<\/p>\n
Babies are born with low levels of vitamin K, leaving them vulnerable because their intestines can\u2019t produce enough until they start eating solid foods at around 6 months old.<\/p>\n
\u201cVitamin K is important for helping the blood clot and preventing dangerous bleeding in babies, like bleeding into the brain,\u201d said Dr. Kristan Scott of the Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia, lead author of the JAMA study.<\/p>\n
Before injections became routine, up to about 1 in 60 babies suffered vitamin K deficiency bleeding, which can also affect the gastrointestinal tract. Today the condition is rare, but research shows that newborns who don\u2019t get a vitamin K shot are 81 times more likely to develop severe bleeding than those who do.<\/p>\n
Hill has seen what can happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cared for a toddler whose parents had chosen that risk,\u201d the Seattle doctor said. The child essentially had a stroke as a newborn and wound up with severe developmental delays and ongoing seizures.<\/p>\n
At a February meeting of the Idaho chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, doctors said they knew of eight deaths from vitamin K deficiency bleeding in the state over the preceding 13 months, said Patterson, who is president of the chapter.<\/p>\n
Infections prevented by other newborn measures can also have grave consequences. Erythromycin eye ointment protects against gonorrhea that can be contracted during birth and potentially cause blindness if untreated. The hepatitis B vaccine prevents a disease that can lead to liver failure, liver cancer or cirrhosis.<\/p>\n
Even if a pregnant woman is tested for gonorrhea and hepatitis B, no test is perfect, and she may get infected after testing, said Dr. Susan Sirota, a pediatrician in Highland Park, Illinois. Either way, she risks passing the infection to her child.<\/p>\n
Why are parents refusing routine care?<\/p>\n
Parents give many reasons for turning down preventive measures, like fearing they might cause problems and not wanting newborns to feel pain.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome will just say they want more of a natural birth philosophy,\u201d said\u00a0Dr. Steven Abelowitz, founder of Ocean Pediatrics in Orange County, California. \u201cThen there\u2019s a ton of misinformation. \u2026 There are outside influences, friends, celebrities, nonprofessionals and political agendas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abelowitz practices in an area with about an equal mix of Republicans and Democrats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s more mistrust from the conservative side, but there\u2019s plenty on the more liberal side as well,\u201d he said, \u201cIt\u2019s across-the-board mistrust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Social media provides ample fuel, spreading myths and pushing unregulated vitamin K drops that doctors warn babies can\u2019t absorb well.<\/p>\n
Doctors in numerous states say parents refusing vitamin K shots often also decline other measures. Sirota, in Illinois, encountered a family that refused a heel stick to monitor glucose for a baby at high risk for having potentially life-threatening low blood sugar.<\/p>\n
Care refusals aren\u2019t a new phenomenon. Wade, in Philadelphia, said she\u2019s seen them for 20 years. But until recently, they were rare.<\/p>\n
Twelve years ago, Dana Morrison, now a Minnesota doula, declined the vitamin K shot for her newborn son, giving him oral drops instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came from a space of really wanting to protect the bonding time with my baby,\u201d she said. \u201cI was trying to eliminate more pokes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her daughter\u2019s birth a couple of years later was less straightforward, leaving the infant with a bruised leg. Morrison got the vitamin K shot for her.<\/p>\n
Knowing what she does now, she said, she would have gotten it for her son, too.<\/p>\n
Doctors and parents want \u2018the best for their children\u2019<\/p>\n
Doctors hope to change minds, one parent at a time. And that begins with respect.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I walk into the room with judgment, we are going to have a really useless conversation,\u201d Hill said. \u201cEvery parent I serve wants the best for their children.\u201d<\/p>\n
When parents question the need for the vitamin K shot, Dr. Heather Felton tries to address their specific concerns. She explains why it\u2019s given and the risks of not getting it. Most families decide to get it, said Felton, who has seen no uptick in refusals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really helps that you can take that time and really listen and be able to provide some education,\u201d said Felton, a pediatrician at Norton Children\u2019s in Louisville, Kentucky.<\/p>\n
In Idaho, Patterson sometimes finds himself clearing up misconceptions. Some parents will agree to a vitamin K shot when they find out it\u2019s not a vaccine, for example.<\/p>\n
These conversations can take time, especially since the parents doctors see in hospitals usually aren\u2019t people they know through their practices.<\/p>\n
But doctors are happy to invest that time if it might save babies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI end every discussion with parents with this: \u2018Please understand at the end of the day, I\u2019m passionate about this because I have the best interest of children in my mind and heart,\u2019\u201d Patterson said. \u201cI understand this is a hot topic, and I don\u2019t want to disrespect anybody. But at the same time, I\u2019m desperately saddened that we\u2019re losing babies for no reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
#vaccines #parents #refusing #routine #preventive #care #newborns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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