The percentage of parents and caregivers in the United States opting out of a standard vitamin K shot for infants at birth has accelerated sharply this year, according to a data analysis, placing more newborns at risk of life-threatening bleeding episodes. The findings confirm what a dozen pediatricians, neonatologists, and pediatric critical care specialists identified as a major concern: growing refusals of a protective shot amid a rising wave of mistrust toward vaccines and routine newborn interventions. For decades, Health Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. has stoked that mistrust by sowing doubt about vaccines and established medicines. The acceleration in vitamin K refusals this year follows his January decision to drop recommendations for the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine and five other routine childhood vaccines. The rate of newborns missing the vitamin K shot within a day of birth in hospitals jumped more than 57% from January through June, an analysis of health records for over 1 million births nationwide by health analytics company Truveta revealed.
While vitamin K opt-outs have been rising for years, Truveta's study shows that in the first half of 2026, the non-administration rate was 2.5 times higher than the average rate recorded from 2019 to 2024. It was 1.4 times higher than in 2025. Infants are born with very low levels of vitamin K, which enables blood to clot, and remain unprotected until around six months of age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which continues to recommend the shot.
Without the injection, babies are 81 times more likely during those first six months to suffer life-threatening bleeding in the brain or gut, the CDC notes. One in five infants who suffer severe bleeding will die. Without the shot, such bleeding occurs in one out of every 59 births.
It's like we're going backwards," Dr. Nia Heard-Garris, pediatric physician-scientist at Lurie Children’s Hospital, Chicago, said regarding the growing refusal rates. "We’re trying really hard to keep little babies alive." Pediatricians like Heard-Garris are on the front lines, caring for children as families navigate changes in U.S. health policy that align with Kennedy's and President Donald Trump's views, which frequently clash with the medical community.
When Kennedy removed recommendations for the six childhood immunizations, he claimed American children received too many injections and suggested a link to chronic illness, a claim unsupported by evidence. Although a court order has stalled those changes, Trump called for them again in an August 10 executive order. Experts say these mixed signals have fostered doubt among parents concerning routine newborn care, including vitamin K.
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