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Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
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Fri, 13 Mar 1998 17:00:11 +0000
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I hate to be on the side of the medical establishment on this one, but
there are occasionally babies who do get severe hemorrhage if they
don't get vitamin K.  The incidence is probably low, but it is not
rare, and older pediatricians do remember babies having severe gi
bleeding within the first week of life secondary to vitamin K
deficiency.  I myself, though I am obviously still young (51), have
seen babies present with intracranial hemorrhages which tend to occur
later, about 6 weeks after birth.  Two, I think, but it was
devastating.

So, did mother nature goof on this one?  No, probably not. In the
state of nature, babies were exposed to all sorts of bacteria which
infected their guts despite breastfeeding (though the numbers were
kept down), and these bugs produced vitamin K, as they do in
artificially fed babies.  Or, it is possible, that such a relatively
uncommon event would not really be evolutionarily disadvantageous.

The question of vitamin K and leukemia has pretty well been put to
rest.

I would get the vitamin K.  It's not such a big deal.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC

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