Re: Re: Having Baby Tomorrow ! Quick Question

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 1/2/2004 10:37:15 AM Eastern Standard Time,

fightingautism@... writes:

> My question is this: after the

> birth

> >tomorrow I plan to hold off on the hepatitis vac., but what about

> the

> >vitamin K shot? Is it ok? Any advice against the erithromycin in

> >the eyes?

> >Thanks!

Hi Kim, I just had someone else email me with the same question and

was kind enough to send me the following information. Hope this helps.

Risk From Vitamin K Injections?

LONDON (Reuters) -- Four papers in the current British Medical Journal

examine the

possible association between the risk of childhood leukaemia and the

administration of intramuscular vitamin K to babies, but the results, taken

together,

are inconclusive. The UK papers were prompted by research in the early 1990s,

in which Dr. Golding of the University of Bristol reported a possible

doubling of the risk of

childhood cancers following the administration of vitamin K injections to

newborns.

Newborn babies tend to have low levels of vitamin K, which aids blood

clotting. An

injection of the vitamin is commonly given to babies to reduce risk of

internal bleeding.

Dr. A. McKinney and colleagues from the Agency for the National

Health

Service in Edinburgh could not confirm an association between childhood

cancers,

including acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, and vitamin K injections to

newborns. Their

population-based, case-control study is based on data taken from hospital

records of

more than 1,000 ish children up to the age of 14 years.

However, in a retrospective case-control study of more than 3,000 English

children

under the age of 15, Dr. Louise and colleagues from the University of

Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, found " a raised odds ratio " for acute lymphoblastic

leukaemia among 1 to 6 year olds who have received vitamin K injections. The

authors say their study suggests " ...that there could be a significant

increase in this form of leukaemia in early childhood among babies given

intramuscular prophylaxis at birth. "

and colleagues caution that there still is no evidence that a 1

milligram injection of vitamin K is carcinogenic. But the raised odds ratio for

the

subgroup of 1 to 6 year olds suggests that consideration should be given to

use of oral, rather than intramuscular, vitamin K. " If it could be shown that

oral administration is as effective as intramuscular prophylaxis in abolishing

the risk of late vitamin K deficiency bleeding, many clinicians would now

choose oral prophylaxis, " they conclude.

In the other two papers, Dr. S. Jane Passmore and colleagues from the

Childhood

Cancer Research Group in Oxford, UK, say they cannot exclude a risk of

childhood

cancers, but conclude, based on their data, that the risk cannot be large.

Analysing data from a case-control and an ecological study in the UK,

Passmore and colleagues write that the " ... lack of consistency between the

various

studies so far published, including this one, and the low relative risks found

in most of them suggest that the risk, if any, attributable to the use of

vitamin K cannot be large, but the possibility that there is some risk cannot be

excluded. "

The Golding study and subsequent research has prompted the Department of

Health to commission a meta-analysis on the subject, McKinney told Reuters.

She

said the meta-analysis should be completed by early 1999. SOURCE: British

Medical Journal (1998;316:173-192)

Jo Pike

National Autism Association

Phone: 877-NAA-AUTISM

Email: Jo@...

http://nationalautismassociation.org/