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    • Jul 27
    • 5 min read

A Guide to the Vaccines & Meds Given to Newborns in the Hospital

There are a couple of standard vaccines and medications given to newborns at the hospital. 


You have the power and right to accept or decline any of these. 


It is important to educate yourself beforehand so that you can go in prepared with your decisions. I would recommend writing these out in your birth plan to give to the nurses and doctors. 


The three main standards are:

  • Hep B Vaccine

  • Vitamin K Shot (*not a vaccine)

  • Erthromycin Eye Ointment


HEP B VACCINE

What is Hep B?

Hep B is a sexually transmitted virus that can cause liver damage. It can be fatal. It can also be passed on by sharing drug needles or improperly sterilized tattoo needles. Rarely, is it acquired by a blood transfusion. 


The reason Hep B is recommended for all newborns is because Hep B can be passed from an infected mother to her baby during the birth process.


Is Hep B Common?

No, not among infants and young children. Roughly 30 infants, 30 children ages 1-4, and 70 children ages 5-14 are diagnosed with Hep B every year in the US. Almost all of these cased are due to transmission from an undiagnosed Hep B positive mother during birth. 


Why Some Get Hep B Vax & Why Some Don’t

If mom is Hep B positive, or there are going to be Hep B positive people living in the same house as baby it is highly recommended baby receive this vaccine at birth. 


If the above is not the case, many parents feel as if their babies and children aren't at risk and decide to wait until the teenage years.


Options to Consider

The Hep B vaccine does contain Aluminum, so if you do get this and want to mitigate the effects, you can use Silica, as well as other detox protocols (including bentonite clay, epsom salt, and Liposomal Vitamin C). Learn more about that here.


Read more about the Hep B vax here.


VITAMIN K SHOT

Purpose

The vitamin K shot helps prevent VKDB (vitamin K deficiency bleeding) in infants. 


Babies are born with insufficient levels of vitamin k, which they need in order to stop life threatening and spontaneous bleeding. This bleeding can occur anywhere inside or outside of the body, but when the bleeding happens on the inside it can be extremely difficult to notice.


The Vitamin K shot enters the bloodstream and immediately increases the amount vitamin K in the blood. This provides enough so that the baby’s levels don’t drop dangerously low in the first few days of life.The rest of the vitamin K is released slowly over the next 2-3 months, providing a steady source until the baby has another source from their diet (1).


Misconceptions About the Black Box Warning

This is probably one of the top concerns about the vitamin k shot. Yes, it does come with a black box warning. BUT it is referring specifically to its use as an antidote for too much Coumadin or Warfarin (blood thinning medications) given to adults in large doses to combat hemorrhages.


It was found that people could have severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) if they received too high of a dose too rapidly intravenously. The dosage given to newborns doesn’t come close to the high dosages given to these adult patients, and is given subcutaneously not intravenously. There have been zero official reported cases of vitamin k shots causing infant deaths, and only one official reported case of an allergic reaction after decades of use in millions of babies. 


Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding Stats

Early VKDB is the most common, occurring in 1 in 60 to 1 in 250 newborns. Late VKDB is rarer, occurring in 1 in 14,000 to 1 in 25,000 infants (1-3).


Infants who do not receive a vitamin K shot at birth are 81 times more likely to develop late VKDB than infants who do receive a vitamin K shot at birth (4).

Sources:

  • Hand I, Noble L, Abrams SA; AAP Committee on Fetus and Newborn, Section on Breastfeeding, Committee on Nutrition. Vitamin K and the Newborn Infant. Pediatrics. 2022;149(3):e2021056036

  • Zipursky A. Prevention of vitamin K deficiency bleeding in newborns. Br J Haematol 1999;104:430–7.

  • Sutor AH, Kries R, Cornelissen EAM, McNinch AW, Andrew M. Vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB) in infancy. Thromb Haemost 1999;81:456–61.

4. McNinch AW, Tripp JH. Haemorrhagic disease of the newborn in the British Isles: two year prospective study. BMJ 1991;303:1105–9.


Alternative: Oral Vitamin K

If you choose to decline the shot, there is an oral option. There is some research to show that the oral route may be effective in preventing early/classic VKDB (1-3).


But there are concerns about its ability to prevent late-onset VKDB.

The AAP released a statement in 2003 citing multiple reports of late-occurring VKDB in countries that established policies of oral prophylaxis of infants, with a single oral dose of vitamin K after birth shown to be less effective than a parenteral dose (4).


“In a Swiss study using 2 oral doses of 2 mg of vitamin K on day 1 and day 4, late-onset VKDB was rare but still occurred, with an incidence of 3.79 per 100 000, and a 3-dose schedule was subsequently recommended (5-6).”

Sources:

1-3

  • Schubiger G, Tönz O, Grüter J, Shearer MJ. Vitamin K1 concentration in breast-fed neonates after oral or intramuscular administration of a single dose of a new mixed-micellar preparation of phylloquinone. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 1993;16(4):435–439

  • McNinch AW, Upton C, Samuels M, et al. Plasma concentrations after oral or intramuscular vitamin K1 in neonates. Arch Dis Child. 1985;60(9):814–818

  • O’Connor ME, Addiego JE Jr. Use of oral vitamin K1 to prevent hemorrhagic disease of the newborn infant. J Pediatr. 1986;108(4):616–619

4 Cornelissen M, von Kries R, Loughnan P, Schubiger G. Prevention of vitamin K deficiency bleeding: efficacy of different multiple oral dose schedules of vitamin K. Eur J Pediatr. 1997;156(2):126–130

5-6


Learn more about Vitamin K shot and jaundice HERE.


Erthromycin Eye Ointment

Erythromycin is in a class of medications called macrolide antibiotics, and is used to prevent sexually transmitted bacterial infections that can be passed on by the mom into the eyes of the newborn (such as chlamydia and gonorrhea). 


Why Some Choose & Why Some Don't

If mom is positive for such sexually transmitted disease(s) it is high encouraged to administer this ointment as it can prevent serious infection. However, if mom is not positive there’s not much risk to infection and many mom’s will feel comfortable declining. 


Sources:

Hep B: The Vaccine Book by Robert W. Sears, MD, FAAP


1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Notes from the field: late vitamin K deficiency bleeding in infants whose parents declined vitamin K prophylaxis--Tennessee, 2013. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2013 Nov 15;62(45):901-2. PMID: 24226627; PMCID: PMC4585350.




 

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