CHICAGO: More US parents are refusing a routine vitamin K injection for their newborns, raising concern among pediatricians and neonatologists as new data shows the rate of babies not receiving the potentially life-saving shot jumped by more than 57% between January and June 2026.
The increase has renewed concerns about growing mistrust of routine newborn medical interventions — and about the potentially devastating consequences for babies who develop severe bleeding in the brain or gastrointestinal tract.
An exclusive Reuters analysis based on health data from analytics company Truveta found that the percentage of newborns not receiving vitamin K within a day of birth climbed to 8.1% by the end of June, up from 5.2% six months earlier.
The trend is particularly significant because newborns naturally have very low levels of vitamin K, a nutrient essential for normal blood clotting.
Without the injection, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), babies face a dramatically higher risk of developing dangerous bleeding during the first months of life.
And doctors fear the consequences may not become apparent until it is too late.
Why are parents refusing the vitamin K shot?
The rising refusal rate has emerged amid wider concerns about declining confidence in routine medical interventions and public-health institutions.
For some parents, doubts about the vitamin K injection appear to reflect broader skepticism toward interventions given to newborns shortly after birth.
Doctors say misinformation and changing public-health messaging can make it harder for parents to distinguish between established preventive treatments and claims circulating online.
Dr. Nia Heard-Garris, a pediatric physician-scientist at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, described the growing refusal rate as deeply worrying.
The concern among doctors is not simply that parents are making a different healthcare choice. It is that declining the injection can leave an otherwise healthy-looking newborn without protection against a rare but potentially catastrophic bleeding disorder.
What does vitamin K do for a newborn?
Vitamin K plays a critical role in helping blood clot.
Newborn babies are born with very low levels of vitamin K and remain vulnerable during the first months of life. The CDC continues to recommend the vitamin K injection at birth.
Without it, the CDC says, infants are 81 times more likely during their first six months to experience life-threatening bleeding.
That bleeding can occur internally and may affect the brain or gastrointestinal system.
The danger is that parents may not always see an obvious warning before serious complications develop.
According to information cited in the Reuters report, approximately one in five infants who experience serious bleeding may die.
Without the preventive injection, severe vitamin K deficiency-related bleeding has been estimated to occur in roughly one out of every 59 births.
For doctors who have treated affected babies, those statistics are not abstract.
Why are doctors so worried about the consequences?
One of the biggest concerns is that a newborn who has not received vitamin K may appear perfectly healthy before developing a serious bleeding episode.
Dr. Sarah Coggins, now a neonatologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, recalled caring for an infant during an unusual cluster of severe vitamin K deficiency bleeding cases in Nashville in 2013.
The parents of affected babies had believed the injection was unnecessary or potentially harmful.
One of the infants she cared for suffered long-term brain damage.
Doctors say experiences like these help explain why the current increase in refusals is causing concern.
A baby may look healthy at birth, while the consequences of vitamin K deficiency may emerge days or weeks later.
By that point, a severe bleeding event can become a medical emergency.
Why are baby girls refusing the shot more often?
The Truveta data also identified another notable pattern.
Baby girls were more likely than boys to leave the hospital without having received the vitamin K injection.
In June 2026:
- 8.9% of baby girls had not received the shot within a day of birth
- Compared with 7.3% of baby boys
Previous research involving hospitals affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania health system similarly found that being born female was associated with approximately twice the risk of vitamin K refusal.
Doctors believe one possible factor may involve circumcision policies.
Many hospitals will not circumcise newborn boys who have not received vitamin K because of the increased bleeding risk associated with the procedure.
As a result, some physicians say parents who initially oppose the injection may reconsider when the issue affects a planned circumcision.
Dr. Brad Scoggins, a pediatrician in Farmington, New Mexico, described his practice's approach bluntly: no vitamin K, no circumcision.
The gender difference has raised questions about whether continued refusal could eventually contribute to a disproportionate increase in severe bleeding among baby girls.
How big is the increase in vitamin K refusals?
The Truveta analysis reviewed records covering more than one million births, identifying 1,026,375 infants born to 825,599 mothers between January 2019 and June 2026.
It found that vitamin K non-receipt in the first half of 2026 was:
- 2.5 times higher than the average rate between 2019 and 2024
- 1.4 times higher than in 2025
- More than 57% higher from January through June 2026
The percentage of newborns not receiving vitamin K within a day of birth reached 8.1% in June, compared with 5.2% in January.
The data therefore points to a sharp increase in refusal or non-receipt, although it does not by itself establish that vitamin K deficiency bleeding has increased by the same proportion.
That distinction is important because the current concern among doctors is largely about the potential consequences if the trend continues.
Is the rise connected to wider vaccine and public-health mistrust?
The increase comes amid wider controversy surrounding vaccination and public-health policy in the US.
Reuters reported that the acceleration in refusals coincided with a broader shift in federal messaging around routine childhood vaccines after US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced changes affecting recommendations for several vaccines.
Those changes were subsequently put on hold following a court ruling, although President Donald Trump later called for greater vaccine flexibility in an August executive order.
Medical specialists told Reuters that mixed and changing messages surrounding vaccines may be contributing to wider doubts about other routine newborn interventions.
Those interventions can include:
- Vitamin K injections
- Hepatitis B vaccination
- Antibiotic eye ointment
Doctors say these interventions can increasingly become grouped together in the minds of parents who are skeptical of routine medical care, even though they serve different medical purposes and have different evidence bases.
The result is that mistrust in one area of healthcare can influence decisions about other forms of newborn protection.
What are US health authorities saying?
The US Department of Health and Human Services said the agency and the CDC were evaluating available data and surveillance related to vitamin K refusal and associated bleeding events.
A department spokesperson said concerns surrounding vitamin K and trust in public-health institutions predated the current administration and intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The department said it continued to provide parents and healthcare professionals with information about vitamin K.
The CDC, meanwhile, continues to recommend the injection for newborns.
For clinicians, the key concern is that the consequences of refusing the shot may not be immediately visible.
A newborn can appear completely healthy.
The danger may emerge days or weeks later.
What are doctors doing as refusals increase?
The growing number of hospital refusals has already begun affecting medical practice.
Dr. Amanda Furr, chief medical officer of Zarminali Pediatrics, which operates 45 pediatric practices across 13 US states, told Reuters that vitamin K refusals had become common enough for the organisation to begin stocking the injection at all of its primary-care practices.
Other doctors said they were also providing vitamin K outside hospital settings.
The approach creates another opportunity for parents who initially declined the injection to reconsider.
But doctors warn that delaying protection does not eliminate the risk faced during the early weeks and months of life.
Why one injection has become a growing concern
The rise in vitamin K refusals is ultimately about more than a single injection.
The Truveta data shows that an increasing share of US newborns are leaving the first day of life without a preventive treatment that doctors have used for decades to protect against vitamin K deficiency bleeding.
For pediatricians and neonatologists, the concern is what could happen if that trend continues.
Vitamin K deficiency bleeding can lead to:
- Severe internal bleeding
- Brain hemorrhage
- Permanent neurological injury
- Emergency hospitalization
- Death
Unlike many childhood illnesses, severe bleeding can occur with little warning.
That makes prevention particularly important.
The current data does not show that these complications have risen by 57%. Instead, it shows that more newborns are going without the protection intended to prevent them.
That is why doctors are watching the trend closely.
The bigger question for US newborn care
The rise in refusals highlights a wider challenge confronting modern healthcare: how to maintain trust when misinformation, political controversy and changing public-health messages increasingly influence decisions about established medical interventions.
For parents, refusing a newborn injection may seem like a decision made in the first hours after delivery.
For doctors, however, the concern extends well beyond the hospital.
A newborn who appears completely healthy can later develop serious bleeding that parents may never have expected.
The vitamin K injection is intended to prevent that risk.
As refusal rates continue to climb, pediatricians are increasingly concerned that more babies could be left vulnerable to a rare but potentially devastating condition — and are urging parents to understand the risks before making a decision that cannot easily be reversed.
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