Babies and vitamin k

Babies given regular oral doses of vitamin K for the first three months may have better protection against excessive bleeding or hemorrhage.

Only one case was reported in the Netherlands between 1992 and 1994, and that of a small boy who was breastfed but had not been given vitamin K.

The Netherlands gives regular, weekly doses of one mg to babies until they are three months old, pediatricians at Nijmegen and Leiden have reported (BMJ, 26 November 1994). German babies also receive vitamin K, but only two to three doses, and incidence of bleeding have been reported there in up to 23 per cent of babies.

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