Vitamin K at birth

Context Newborn babies in general (MedlinePlus and NICHD health information)

Recipient

Newborn

Population

Newborn babies. The sources set no limits of gestational age, birth weight or setting.

Care setting

Not stated in the source.

Geography

United States programmes are described by NICHD; MedlinePlus names no country.

Life stage

Newborn period

Gestational age

Not reported

Postnatal age

Not reported

Follow-up

Not applicable: general health information.

• Description Evidence stage not applicable Certainty not assessed

  MedlinePlus says vitamin K makes proteins that the blood needs to clot and that too little can lead to too much bleeding, that newborns have very little vitamin K, and that they usually get a shot of vitamin K soon after they are born.

  Applies to Newborn

  • Newborn babies. The sources set no limits of gestational age, birth weight or setting.
  • Not stated in the source.
  • United States programmes are described by NICHD; MedlinePlus names no country.
  • Newborn period
  • Gestational age Not reported
  • Postnatal age Not reported

  Follow-up Not applicable: general health information.

  Certainty method

  Not assessed

  Limitations

  Consumer health information from the National Library of Medicine, covering vitamin K for all ages. It gives no dose, no trial evidence and no figures on bleeding in newborns. This atlas does not read American Academy of Pediatrics guidance, so none of it is summarised.

  Last checked

  Not recorded

  Next evidence check due

  Not scheduled

  Sources and citations (1)

  1. Supports Vitamin K (MedlinePlus health topic)

     Webpage · MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine · Edition Health topic page as fetched on 2026-10-14 (mh-medlineplus-vitamink.html). Only the summary text is used. The page covers vitamin K for all ages; only its sentences about newborns are used.

     Locator

     Summary, paragraphs 1 and 2

     How it applies

     The summary text of the health topic.

     Retrieved

     2026-10-14T18:24:38Z

     Source effective date

     Not reported

     Source state

     Current

     Snapshot hash

     5f2d3f02e99b4874b9b9caeb02c7b9b2e653048b6aca311e969f3cfe31b42197

     Reuse basis

     Summaries on MedlinePlus health topic pages are in the public domain, per the MedlinePlus page Linking to and Using Content from MedlinePlus (fetched 2026-10-14 as mh-medlineplus-usingcontent.html, sha256 31267ce9db016893b80c5665312d92ffc8c34ec86916f84708c353936ba52228). The page bytes are not committed. The credit line is Source: MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine. Medical Encyclopedia articles (/ency/) and drug monographs are licensed content and are not used.