on March 31, Jack Newman wrote: "Incidentally, the data associating IM vitamin K and leukemia has just not stood up. Better to forget it."
That finding was a serendipitous one which looked dramatic at the time.  Closer scrutiny failed to find the same dramatic relationship, but was not capable of entirely, unequivocally ruling out the possibility of a relationship between the two.
A new WHO publication on postnatal care classifies the routine administration of vitamin K as a practice for which there is insufficient evidence on which to make a clear recommendation, and one which should be used with caution until more research is done.
The level of vitamin K in the blood of babies receiving routine IM prophylaxis is astronomic compared with untreated babies.  Is it likely that nature is that far off the mark?  Nothing we do is free of side effects; if not leukemia, then something else, less noxious.  I'm siding with the WHO working group on this one, and continuing to offer routine prophylaxis in accordance with the best available knowledge in April 2000.
Rachel Myr
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