From: Midwifery Today E-News
>To: [log in to unmask]
from Volume 2 Issue 15 April 14, 2000

Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding and the Breastfed Infant
> >From Understanding Diagnostic Tests in the Childbearing Year 6th ed.
>1997. Anne Frye, Labrys Press.
>
"The exclusively breastfed infant has a 15 to 20 fold higher incidence of
 >late-onset VKDB than a baby fed formula. Healthy human milk from an
 >unsupplemented mother contains a small amount of vitamin K. Concentrations
 >of vitamin K-1, thought to be the major form of vitamin K in human
milk,>vary widely among individual women and even vary from sample to sample
in>the same woman. However, the vitamin K-1 content of breastmilk obtained
 >from mothers who had affected infants was found to be lower in only
some>but not most cases when compared to samples from mothers of
unaffected>infants.
>>A simple concentration difference between breastmilk and formula, although
>> >extreme, is probably not the most important factor, due to the small
>>amount >of vitamin K needed by the baby. However the volume of milk
>>ingested during >the first days of life is extremely important. Studies
>>have shown that VK >deficiency occurs primarily in babies receiving small
>>amounts of breastmilk >or even small amounts of formula during the first
>>days of life. Nursing>should begin at birth and continue every two hours
>>or more often on demand.>Be sure that mothers understand that, although
>>the volume of colostrum is>not great, it is the perfect food for their
>>babies during the first days
>and is very important to prevent classical VKDB. If the mother
>supplements>her diet with vitamin K, levels in breastmilk begin to rise
>almost>immediately and are dramatically increased by 12 hours."

Laurie Wheeler, RN, MN, IBCLC
Violet Louisiana, s.e. USA

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