WHO recently published a booklet on postpartum care, in which they classify the routine administration of Vitamin K to all newborns as a practice for which there is insufficient evidence on which to base a clear recommendation, and which should be used with caution until further research is done.

I am not aware that Michel Odent has carried out research on this.  Does anyone have the reference?

Breastfed babies are seen as needing Vit. K more than artificially fed babies.  Several reasons-- formula has Vit K added, and artificial feeding allows for more growth of E.coli in gut, which is where we get our Vit K from.  But the work showing lower levels in BF babies is old and methodologically flawed, from a time when babies had such short and infrequent feeding episodes that they got much less of the cream in milk, which is where the fat-soluble Vit K is.

It would be informative to know how much Vit K is present in a physiologic feed.  Probably impossible to find enough breastfed babies who haven't gotten some form of exogenous Vit K so we could learn how much babies are capable of gleaning from their natural diet!

Before writing off Vit K prophylaxis as just another piece of worst-case scenario mentality, read the literature on the incidence- and gravity- of late onset hemorrhagic disease of the newborn.  Even I get scared by that and I don't scare easily.  The picture is complicated.
Rachel Myr [log in to unmask]
now writing as a midwife
Norway

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