More parents in the United States are declining routine vitamin K shots for their newborns, with the number of babies missing the injection rising by more than 57 per cent in the first half of 2026.
An analysis of health records covering more than one million births by health data and analytics company Truveta found that the proportion of newborns who did not receive the injection within 24 hours of birth rose from 5.2 per cent at the end of 2025 to 8.1 per cent by June 2026.
The refusal rate during the first half of 2026 was about 2.5 times the average recorded between 2019 and 2024 and 1.4 times the level reported in 2025.
The analysis covered medical records involving 1,026,375 infants born to 825,599 mothers between January 2019 and June 2026, drawn from a database covering more than 140 million people.
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Vitamin K is essential for blood clotting, but newborns naturally have very low levels of the vitamin, leaving them vulnerable to vitamin K deficiency bleeding during their early months.
The U.S Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that newborns receive a vitamin K injection shortly after birth to prevent the condition.
According to the CDC, babies who do not receive the injection are 81 times more likely to develop serious bleeding, including bleeding in the brain or intestines, during their first six months of life.
About one in five infants who develop severe vitamin K deficiency bleeding dies, while the condition occurs in roughly one in 59 babies who do not receive the preventive injection.
A paediatric physician scientist at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, Dr Nia Heard-Garris, described the increase in refusals as deeply worrying.
“It’s really terrifying. It’s like we’re going backwards,” she said, stressing that medical teams were working to prevent avoidable deaths among newborns.
The increase comes amid wider concerns among medical professionals over declining public confidence in vaccines and other routine medical interventions.
Some paediatricians told Reuters that parents were increasingly questioning established newborn treatments, which they believed could be influenced by wider debates over childhood vaccination and public health policy.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has faced criticism from medical professionals for questioning established vaccination policies.
His department announced changes in January to recommendations covering the hepatitis B birth dose and five other routine childhood vaccines. The changes were subsequently put on hold following a court ruling, but President Donald Trump renewed calls for them in an executive order issued on August 10.
Medical experts have expressed concern that conflicting messages from policymakers could contribute to uncertainty among some parents over routine newborn care.
Kennedy denied during a congressional hearing that his policies had contributed to declining acceptance of vitamin K.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Grace Davis Jamison, said the department and CDC were reviewing available information on vitamin K refusal and related bleeding cases.
She explained that the government continued to provide information about vitamin K to parents and healthcare professionals while working to rebuild confidence in public health institutions.
The increase has also prompted some healthcare providers to change how they administer the injection.
Dr Amanda Furr, chief medical officer of Zarminali Pediatrics, which operates 45 practices across 13 states, disclosed that refusals had become sufficiently common for the organisation to begin stocking vitamin K injections in its primary care clinics.
Two other doctors told Reuters that they had also started providing the injection in their practices.
Medical professionals said the consequences of refusing vitamin K could be particularly serious because symptoms of vitamin K deficiency bleeding may appear without warning.
Dr Sarah Coggins, a neonatologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, recalled encountering a severely affected infant while she was a medical student at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville in 2013.
The child suffered extensive bleeding and was left with permanent brain damage.
“That has always stayed with me,” Coggins said, noting that many paediatricians had similar experiences involving infants who suffered preventable complications.
Coggins now requires parents who reject the vitamin K injection in her practice to sign documentation confirming that they understand the potential risks.
The Truveta data also revealed a difference in refusal rates between male and female newborns.
By June 2026, 8.9 per cent of baby girls had not received vitamin K within a day of birth, compared with 7.3 per cent of boys.
The finding is consistent with earlier research by Coggins and colleagues involving three hospitals affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania health system, which found that being born female was associated with roughly twice the likelihood of vitamin K refusal.
Researchers are concerned that the disparity could eventually result in more cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding among girls.
“It’s not a theoretical risk. It keeps me up at night,” Coggins said, noting that she and her colleagues were conducting further research into the issue.
Doctors have also reported a connection between vitamin K refusal and decisions about other newborn procedures and preventive treatments.
One example is circumcision, which carries a bleeding risk. Some hospitals do not perform circumcisions on boys whose parents have declined vitamin K.
Dr Brad Scoggins of San Juan Health Partners Pediatrics in Farmington, New Mexico, said his practice had adopted a firm position on the matter.
“We have an absolute hard line: no vitamin K, no circumcision,” he said.
Paediatricians say the increasing refusal of vitamin K is part of a broader pattern in which some parents are also declining other recommended newborn interventions, including the hepatitis B vaccine and antibiotic eye ointment.
Medical professionals fear that if the trend continues, hospitals and paediatric practices could see more cases of severe bleeding that are largely preventable through a simple newborn injection.
Reuters
