It's not just vaccines — parents are refusing other routine preventive
care for newborns
[March 23, 2026]
By LAURA UNGAR
One day at an Idaho hospital, half the newborns Dr. Tom Patterson saw
didn’t get the vitamin K shots that have been given to babies for
decades to prevent potentially deadly bleeding. On another recent day,
more than a quarter didn't get the shot. Their parents wouldn't allow
it.
“When you look at a child who’s innocent and vulnerable — and a simple
intervention that’s been done since 1961 is refused — knowing that
baby’s going out into the world is super worrisome to me,” said
Patterson, who’s been a pediatrician for nearly three decades.
Doctors across the nation are alarmed that skepticism fueled by rising
anti-science sentiment and medical mistrust is increasingly reaching
beyond vaccines to other proven, routine, preventive care for babies.
A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which
analyzed more than 5 million births nationwide, found that refusals of
vitamin K shots nearly doubled between 2017 and 2024, from 2.9% to 5.2%.
Other research suggests that parents who decline vitamin K shots are
much more likely to refuse getting their newborns the hepatitis B
vaccine and an eye ointment to prevent potentially blinding infections.
Rates for that vaccination at birth dropped in recent years, and doctors
confirm that more parents are refusing the eye medication.
“I do think these families care deeply about their infants,” said Dr.
Kelly Wade, a Philadelphia neonatologist. “But I hear from families that
it’s hard to make decisions right now because they’re hearing
conflicting information.”
Innumerable social media posts question doctors’ advice on safe and
effective measures like vitamin K and eye ointment. And the Trump
administration has repeatedly undermined established science. A federal
advisory committee whose members were appointed by Health Secretary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a leading anti-vaccine activist before joining
the administration — voted to end the longstanding recommendation to
immunize all babies against hepatitis B right after birth. On Monday a
federal judge temporarily blocked all decisions made by the reconfigured
committee.
One common thread that ties together anti-vaccine views and growing
sentiments against other protective measures for newborns is the fallacy
that natural is always better than artificial, said Dr. David Hill, a
Seattle pediatrician and researcher.
“Nature will allow 1 in 5 human infants to die in the first year of
life,” Hill said, “which is why generations of scientists and doctors
have worked to bring that number way, way down.”
Vitamin K and other measures prevent serious problems
Babies are born with low levels of vitamin K, leaving them vulnerable
because their intestines can't produce enough until they start eating
solid foods at around 6 months old.
“Vitamin K is important for helping the blood clot and preventing
dangerous bleeding in babies, like bleeding into the brain,” said Dr.
Kristan Scott of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, lead author of
the JAMA study.
Before injections became routine, up to about 1 in 60 babies suffered
vitamin K deficiency bleeding, which can also affect the
gastrointestinal tract. Today the condition is rare, but research shows
that newborns who don’t get a vitamin K shot are 81 times more likely to
develop severe bleeding than those who do.
Hill has seen what can happen.
“I cared for a toddler whose parents had chosen that risk,” the Seattle
doctor said. The child essentially had a stroke as a newborn and wound
up with severe developmental delays and ongoing seizures.
At a February meeting of the Idaho chapter of the American Academy of
Pediatrics, doctors said they knew of eight deaths from vitamin K
deficiency bleeding in the state over the preceding 13 months, said
Patterson, who is president of the chapter.
Infections prevented by other newborn measures can also have grave
consequences. Erythromycin eye ointment protects against gonorrhea that
can be contracted during birth and potentially cause blindness if
untreated. The hepatitis B vaccine prevents a disease that can lead to
liver failure, liver cancer or cirrhosis.
[to top of second column]
|
 Even if a pregnant woman is tested
for gonorrhea and hepatitis B, no test is perfect, and she may get
infected after testing, said Dr. Susan Sirota, a pediatrician in
Highland Park, Illinois. Either way, she risks passing the infection
to her child.
Why are parents refusing routine care?
Parents give many reasons for turning down preventive measures, like
fearing they might cause problems and not wanting newborns to feel
pain.
“Some will just say they want more of a natural birth philosophy,”
said Dr. Steven Abelowitz, founder of Ocean Pediatrics in Orange
County, California. “Then there’s a ton of misinformation. … There
are outside influences, friends, celebrities, nonprofessionals and
political agendas.”
Abelowitz practices in an area with about an equal mix of
Republicans and Democrats.
“There’s more mistrust from the conservative side, but there’s
plenty on the more liberal side as well,” he said, “It’s
across-the-board mistrust.”
Social media provides ample fuel, spreading myths and pushing
unregulated vitamin K drops that doctors warn babies can't absorb
well.
Doctors in numerous states say parents refusing vitamin K shots
often also decline other measures. Sirota, in Illinois, encountered
a family that refused a heel stick to monitor glucose for a baby at
high risk for having potentially life-threatening low blood sugar.
Care refusals aren’t a new phenomenon. Wade, in Philadelphia, said
she’s seen them for 20 years. But until recently, they were rare.
Twelve years ago, Dana Morrison, now a Minnesota doula, declined the
vitamin K shot for her newborn son, giving him oral drops instead.
“It came from a space of really wanting to protect the bonding time
with my baby,” she said. “I was trying to eliminate more pokes.”
Her daughter's birth a couple of years later was less
straightforward, leaving the infant with a bruised leg. Morrison got
the vitamin K shot for her.
Knowing what she does now, she said, she would have gotten it for
her son, too.
Doctors and parents want ‘the best for their children’
Doctors hope to change minds, one parent at a time. And that begins
with respect.
“If I walk into the room with judgment, we are going to have a
really useless conversation,” Hill said. “Every parent I serve wants
the best for their children.”
When parents question the need for the vitamin K shot, Dr. Heather
Felton tries to address their specific concerns. She explains why
it’s given and the risks of not getting it. Most families decide to
get it, said Felton, who has seen no uptick in refusals.
“It really helps that you can take that time and really listen and
be able to provide some education,” said Felton, a pediatrician at
Norton Children’s in Louisville, Kentucky.
In Idaho, Patterson sometimes finds himself clearing up
misconceptions. Some parents will agree to a vitamin K shot when
they find out it's not a vaccine, for example.
These conversations can take time, especially since the parents
doctors see in hospitals usually aren't people they know through
their practices.
But doctors are happy to invest that time if it might save babies.
“I end every discussion with parents with this: ‘Please understand
at the end of the day, I’m passionate about this because I have the
best interest of children in my mind and heart,’” Patterson said. “I
understand this is a hot topic, and I don’t want to disrespect
anybody. But at the same time, I’m desperately saddened that we’re
losing babies for no reason.”
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
