Vitamin K
A plan to make vitamin K injections standard has been in development for some time. This followed Gondheidsraad’s advice from 2017. The drawback of the drops is that not all children absorb them well.
The Health Board noted in 2017 that vitamin K drops do not adequately protect some children. For this reason, I advised that the injection be given from now on immediately after birth. This is more effective and better protects against drips. This instillation does not work well in infants with a fat absorption disorder. It is not possible to know at birth which children this happens to.
Benefits of injections
International research shows that injectable administration works best for them. Therefore, the plan to give the injection to all newborns has been in development for some time. The advantage of injections is that you can be sure that all children absorb vitamin K.
Because experts agree that vitamin K is essential. Vitamin K deficiency can lead to serious bleeding (in the brain) in newborns. A standardized injection policy (where all children receive the injection as standard) can prevent many bleeding cases annually.
