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CHICAGO: The percentage of parents and caregivers in the United States refusing a standard vitamin K shot for infants at birth has accelerated sharply this year, an \u200bexclusive data analysis for Reuters found, putting more newborns at risk of life-threatening bleeding episodes.<\/strong><\/p>\n The data confirms what a dozen pediatricians, neonatologists and pediatric critical care specialists told Reuters is a top concern: rising refusals of a \u200clife-protective shot and a growing wave of mistrust toward vaccines and other newborn interventions.<\/span><\/p>\n For decades, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stoked that mistrust, sowing doubt about vaccines and other established medicines. The acceleration in vitamin K refusals this year aligns with his January announcement dropping recommendations for the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, and five other standard childhood vaccines, from routine use.<\/span><\/p>\n The rate of newborns not receiving the vitamin K shot within a day of birth in hospitals jumped more than 57% from January through June, a review of health records for more than 1 million births nationwide by health data and analytics \u200bcompany Truveta revealed.<\/span><\/p>\n While vitamin K refusals have been on the rise for years, the Truveta analysis shows that in the first half of 2026, the rate of non-receipt was 2.5 times higher than the average rate from 2019 to 2024. It \u200bwas 1.4 times higher than in 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n Babies are born with very low levels of vitamin K, which helps blood to clot, and are unprotected up until about six months of age, according to \u2060the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which still recommends the shot. Without the injection, they are 81 times more likely in those first six months to have life-threatening bleeding in the brain or gut, the CDC says.<\/span><\/p>\n One out of five infants who experience serious \u200bbleeding will die. Without the shot, such bleeding occurs in one out of 59, opens new tab births.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really terrifying. It\u2019s like we\u2019re going backwards,\u201d Dr. Nia Heard-Garris, pediatric physician scientist at Lurie Children\u2019s Hospital, Chicago, said of growing refusals. \u201cWe\u2019re trying really hard to keep little babies alive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MESSAGES<\/span><\/p>\n Pediatricians \u200blike Heard-Garris are on the frontlines, caring for children as parents digest changes in U.S. health policy to align with Kennedy\u2019s and President Donald Trump\u2019s views, which are often at odds with the medical community.<\/span><\/p>\n When Kennedy dropped recommendations for the six childhood vaccines, he said American children got too many shots and suggested they were linked to chronic illness, for which there is no evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n Those changes are on hold due to a court ruling, but Trump called for them again in an August 10 executive order. Experts say the mixed messages have raised doubts among many parents about routine newborn treatments, including vitamin K.<\/span><\/p>\n When asked about declining support \u200bfor vitamin K relative to those policies in an April Congressional hearing, Kennedy denied any role.<\/span><\/p>\n U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Grace Davis Jamison said the agency and the CDC are evaluating available data and surveillance related to vitamin K refusal and associated \u200bbleeding events. It continues to provide parents and health care providers with information about vitamin K, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cConcerns about vitamin K and declining trust in public health institutions predate this administration and grew during the COVID-19 pandemic amid heavy-handed mandates during the Biden administration,\u201d she said, adding that the \u200cagency is working to \u2060rebuild trust including through respect for individual choice.<\/span><\/p>\n GROWING PROBLEM<\/span><\/p>\n The percentage of U.S. infants not receiving vitamin K at birth climbed to 8.1% at the end of June, from 5.2% six months earlier, according to the Truveta study, opens new tab, which reviewed health records from more than 140 million people. It identified 1,026,375 infants born to 825,599 mothers between January 2019 and June 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Amanda Furr, chief medical officer of Zarminali Pediatrics, which operates 45 pediatric practices in 13 states, sees patients at a clinic in Rockville, Indiana, a town of 2,600 residents.<\/span><\/p>\n Vitamin K refusals in hospitals have become so common that Zarminali has started stocking the shot in all primary care practices, Furr said. Two other doctors told Reuters they were also now providing the shots.<\/span><\/p>\n EARLY SIGN OF TROUBLE<\/span><\/p>\n When Dr. Sarah Coggins was a medical student at Vanderbilt Children\u2019s Hospital in 2013, \u200bNashville experienced an unusual cluster of babies with severe bleeding from \u200bvitamin K deficiency.<\/span><\/p>\n Their parents believed the shot was unnecessary, and \u2060potentially toxic or carcinogenic, according to an account published by the CDC. Coggins cared for one of these infants.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe baby had long-term brain damage,\u201d said Coggins, now a neonatologist with Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia. \u201cI\u2019ve always carried that with me. I think most pediatricians have a story like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Vitamin K refusals soon began to rise, a previous nationwide study, opens new tab showed.<\/span><\/p>\n Coggins is fighting mistrust of the shot in her own practice, \u200bwhich requires parents who refuse to sign a form saying they understand the risks.<\/span><\/p>\n She and others have noticed a difference, however, in parents who oppose the shots but want their boy babies \u200bcircumcised. Many hospitals prohibit circumcision in boys \u2060who have not received vitamin K because of the bleeding risk of such procedures.<\/span><\/p>\n Coggins and colleagues studied medical records, opens new tab at three hospitals affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania health system in Philadelphia and found being born a girl was associated with twice the risk of vitamin K refusal.<\/span><\/p>\n Truveta\u2019s national analysis confirms that finding, showing that baby girls are disproportionately impacted by the rising rates of vitamin K refusals. In June of 2026, 8.9% of girls and 7.3% of boys had not received the shot within a day of birth.<\/span><\/p>\n That raises the question of whether vitamin K deficiency \u2014and bleeding \u2060events \u2014 will start \u200bto affect more girl babies.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a theoretical risk. It keeps me up at night,\u201d said Coggins, who is working with colleagues to design a study to \u200banswer that question.<\/span><\/p>\n TAKING A HARD LINE<\/span><\/p>\n The desire to have male children circumcised often overrides parents\u2019 concerns, several pediatricians said.<\/span><\/p>\n About half of U.S. boys are circumcised in hospitals.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have an absolute hard line: no vitamin K, no circumcision,\u201d said Dr. Brad Scoggins of San Juan Health Partners\u2019 Pediatrics in Farmington, New Mexico.<\/span><\/p>\n