Why Is It Important For New Born Babies To Receive An Injection Of Vitamin K?

Vitamin K is one of the vitamins that is vital to the healthy functioning of the human body. Very few people are deficient in vitamin K because it is made by bacteria that live in the digestive system. The bacteria live on the food that passes through but the vitamin K they produce is absorbed by the body and used for its own purposes.

However, one very important group of people do run the risk of vitamin K deficiency. New born babies. Because they are born with sterile digestive systems – when in their mother's wombs they do not have any bacteria inside their intestines – they don't have any bacteria to produce the vitamin K that their bodies need.

So, during the first seven days of life, babies are at risk of a disease called haemmorrhagic disease of the new-born – which is caused by vitamin K deficiency. Vitamin K is vital for blood clotting, so being without it is serious. To solve the problem, all babies in the UK are given vitamin K either by injection or as a fluid in the mouth during the first day of their lives.

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