Vegan vitamin K supplements

It's worth reading this one https://www.sarawickham.com/vk/ https://www.sarawickham.com/articles-2/information-about-vitamin-k/ In a nutshell: - Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding is extremely rare, affecting about 0.01% of babies - Most cases of VKDB occur between day 2 and day 7, so by day 8 the chance of it happening is even lower - Why have babies evolved to have low vitamin K at birth? There just haven't been any studies on this yet and for all we know there's a very good reason for it It's obviously a very personal decision, and if you have interventions (e.g. induction, C-section, or forceps) then this would increase the risk of internal bleeding for the baby so therefore increase the potential for VKDB, but in the vast majority of babies we're giving something they don't need, without knowing if it has any negative effects Don't get me wrong, I'm not an anti-vaxxer 😅 vitamin K is just a divisive topic that really hasn't been studied enough which is why it's completely optional

Some have hypothesised that because babies are so small they rely so much more on the oxygen and nutrient transfer at capillary level, and so having thinner blood allows for better exchange at this scale. It's an interesting idea but not studied as yet On the flip side, it may also be the case that because VKDB is so rare, it just doesn't exert enough selective pressure for humans to lose the trait, so maybe there isn't a good reason for babies to have low vitK, it's just that evolution-wise there hasn't been enough of a good reason for newborns to invest in costly vitamin K synthesis For me personally, my daughter had the vitamin K injection and didn't have any negative effects I could see caused by it, but this time the more I read about vitamin K the more I'm reluctant to give it to my son (who I'm expecting in October) Apologies I don't know of any vegan sources for vitamin K, but it's worth knowing how unbelievably rare it is to actually need it at all

(sorry for the long post, I've been reading about vitk and pondering on this for months 😅)

Hello! We asked for the oral vit k , we were told this was vegan but it wasn’t.. she was meant to have 3 doses but she just had the one We bought the spray from h and b but they told us at hospital it was an adult dose so we got confused and I was so sleep deprived I took their advice Do you also know the blood thinners they give you are pig intestines? 😭 you can ask for plant based one if it’s needed (I did, we had an unplanned c section)

@Emma 🌱 hi, Can I just ask where you saw the information about babies levels being normal at 8 days, as the research I looked at said if a baby is EBF then it's until they are weaned. I have had the first oral dose and due the second. Thanks

@Mikaila oh god, that's a good question 😅 I'll have a dig and try to figure out where I've got that from. I assumed it was in one of Sara Wickham's posts

Thanks for pointing that one out because I think I may have got my wires crossed somewhere. I'm going to amend my comment- so it's not that the vitamin K levels have now reached normal by day 8, it's that most cases of VKDB occur between day 2-7, so by day 8 you're out of the window for "classic" VKDB and the chances of it happening becomes even lower than the 1 in 11,000 "Bleeding most commonly occurs between day 2 and day 7 of life. This is known as ‘Classical’ VKDB" https://www.clinicalguidelines.scot.nhs.uk/nhsggc-guidelines/nhsggc-guidelines/neonatology/vitamin-k-prophylaxis-for-neonates/

@Emma 🌱 thank you for checking that for me. I shall have a good read x