CHOP Study Finds Newborn Vitamin K Refusals Doubled, Raising Bleeding Risk 47%
Updated
Updated · abcnews.com · Nov 5
CHOP Study Finds Newborn Vitamin K Refusals Doubled, Raising Bleeding Risk 47%
3 articles · Updated · abcnews.com · Nov 5
Summary
More than 5.2 million records analyzed in a JAMA study showed babies who missed a vitamin K shot had a 47% higher risk of bleeding in their first six months.
From 3.1% in 2017 to 6.8% in 2025, refusal of the birth shot more than doubled, including a roughly 20% jump from 2024 to 2025.
Without the shot, the risk of brain bleeding more than doubled, and death during the birth hospitalization also more than doubled; CDC data say 20% of babies with vitamin K deficiency bleeding die.
Doctors said refusals are being driven by misinformation, confusion with vaccines, misreading an adult-dose black box warning, and concerns about trauma, even though the single intramuscular shot has been standard U.S. care since the 1960s.