Infant Bleeding Cases Nearly Quadruple as Vitamin K Shot Refusals Climb

Rates of life-threatening bleeding in U.S. newborns have risen sharply over the past eight years, and two studies published November 5 in JAMA and JAMA Pediatrics are the first to draw a direct line between that trend and growing parental refusal of a shot that has been standard care since 1961.

The larger of the two studies, led by Dr. Kristan Scott, a pediatrician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, analyzed more than 5 million births nationwide. It found that the refusal rate more than doubled, rising from 3.1% in 2017 to 6.8% in 2025. During the same window, the rate of vitamin K deficiency bleeding nearly quadrupled, and the trajectory appeared to be accelerating. A separate analysis of roughly 1 million births tracked through health data company Truveta found that refusals jumped more than 57% in just the first half of 2026 alone, according to findings reviewed by Reuters.

The clinical stakes are not abstract. Babies are born with low vitamin K levels because the vitamin crosses the placenta poorly and breast milk carries little of it. Without the shot, they can bleed spontaneously into the brain, the gut, or other organs during the first six months of life. Somewhere between 30% and 60% of vitamin K deficiency bleeding cases involve intracranial hemorrhage, which can cause permanent neurological damage or death. Roughly 20% of cases prove fatal.

Infants who didn't receive the shot had a 47% higher risk of a bleeding event within the first six months of life compared with those who did. Researchers calculated that for every 114 newborns who go without the injection, one additional bleeding event occurs.

The CDC does not currently track vitamin K refusal rates or deficiency bleeding cases at the national level, which means these two studies are filling a gap that federal surveillance has left open. That absence of centralized data makes it harder for clinicians and public health officials to respond quickly when rates shift.

Pediatricians and neonatologists have watched refusals climb for years, and the pattern mirrors what has happened with childhood immunizations. As one of the JAMA studies put it, vitamin K prevention "may be a victim of its own success," because the shot essentially eliminated deficiency bleeding for decades, leaving today's parents unaware of what the disease actually looks like.

What's driving the refusals? The Washington Post, which reviewed the studies, reported that experts connect some of the growing skepticism around routine newborn care to broader erosion of trust in public health institutions. A 2022 American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement found that refusal was associated with parents believing the shot was unnecessary, worry about injection pain, and concerns about preservatives in the formulation. Medical experts also point to online misinformation that misreads the shot's black-box warning as a signal of danger, when in fact the warning exists to flag a rare reaction tied to doses far higher than what newborns receive.

Non-Hispanic White newborns were most likely not to receive the shot (4.3%), compared with 3.4% of non-Hispanic Black and 3.3% of Hispanic newborns in the NIH-flagged analysis. Births outside hospital settings, without a physician present, also carried higher refusal rates.

For bedside clinicians, none of this is a surprise. What's new is the scale of the evidence and the speed of the acceleration in 2026. The AAP has recommended the shot at birth for over 60 years. The question now is whether the data in JAMA will be enough to shift conversations in delivery rooms, or whether the same currents of distrust that have complicated vaccine counseling will keep refusal rates climbing.

Sources cited:
- Reuters / Detroit News (https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2026/11/05/us-infant-bleeding-episodes-vitamin-k-refusal-studies/92628721007/)
- Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/11/05/infant-bleeding-surged-last-year-parents-refuse-vitamin-k-shot-newborns/)
- Cyprus Mail / JAMA summary (https://cyprus-mail.com/2026/11/06/infant-bleeding-rates-quadruple-amid-vitamin-k-refusals)
- Archyde / JAMA and JAMA Pediatrics summary (https://www.archyde.com/infant-bleeding-surges-as-parents-refuse-vitamin-k-injections/)
- NIH Research Matters (https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/protective-vitamin-shots-newborns-decline)
- PolitiFact (https://api.politifact.com/article/2026/mar/24/vitamin-K-shot-babies-newborn-safe)
- AOL / JAMA refusal study (https://www.aol.com/articles/more-parents-refusing-shot-prevents-222626620.html)
- Archynewsy (https://www.archynewsy.com/vitamin-k-refusals-rise-in-us-newborns-leading-to-bleeding-risks/)