Dear Folks:
  Some of the research from Europe on vitamin K is reports of how to determine
an oral dosage. The only cases of late onset hemorrhagic disease of the
newborn were all breastfed, 6 out of about 134,000 infants studied, including
a death. There is nothing definite yet about what the oral doseage should be.
Great Britain and Germany are two of the countries publishing about this. With
the intramuscular dose, there is no problem. And with formula feeding there is
no problem, because there is vitamin K in formula. So there is some other
mechanism going on that puts the exclusively breastfeed child at greater risk.
I haven't read anything that says a baby receiving the injection needs any
more follow-up treatment; only the babies receiving the dose orally.
   This bothers me because how could a breastfed baby be at greater risk of a
serious illness than an artificially fed baby? Something is wrong here. Maybe
it has to do with drugs used in labor that interfere with the baby liver? Any
other thoughts? Warmly, Nikki Lee