Newborn Shots, Jaundice and SIDS

Are there Connections?
You have been planning the arrival of your baby for what seems like eternity. Finally, the big day is here. He is perfect in every way...ten fingers, ten toes and he is beautiful. You have been very careful to follow all medical advice from your doctor. When you were in labor and arrived at the hospital, you were given several papers to sign. In the excitement of what was going on, you may or may not have read all of them, but you signed them. The moment your baby is born, he is whisked away to be cleaned up, and if you signed the papers, to also have his vitamin K and his Hepatitis B injections administered. He only weighs 7 lbs.


Do you know what Hepatitis B is? You were undoubtedly tested for it during your pregnancy. It is a disease which is transmitted sexually or through intravenous drug use. Let's say you tested negative for it during your blood tests with your OBGYN, meaning your baby is not at immediate risk for the disease. He is vaccinated within the first 24 hours of his life for it anyway. Why? Convenience is the answer. Simply because he's there, and they can. Period. The vitamin K shot is administered to every baby to prevent possible intracranial bleeding which usually occurs sometime from three to seven weeks after birth. The thing is, that it only occurs in approximately 5 out of every 100,000 births. So the vast majority of children are receiving an excessive amount of vitamin K which is injected into them for no reason. Does this pose any risk to the child? The vitamin K injection has been linked to jaundice (hyperbilirubinemia) in neonates, click here and scroll down to adverse reactions for more information.


The pediatrician visits you in your room the next morning to meet baby. He states baby looks a little yellow, and could be jaundiced. They prick the baby for blood and do a bilirubin test. It is confirmed that your new little one has jaundice. You, being a first time mother, aren't sure what jaundice means, so you ask. You are casually told that your baby's body has too much bilirubin, which causes the skin to take on a yellowish cast. You are informed that sunlight is the cure. Your baby will need to lay in a special bed, containing phototherapy lamps, commonly called "billy lamps". The bilirubin in the blood will continue to be monitored daily until levels are confirmed to be within normal parameters. Your baby will be discharged from the hospital not until this happens.


Two days later, all testing indicates bilirubin levels have declined enough for you to go home. However, the pediatrician would like to see baby again in three days to be sure all is well. After that visit, baby is given the green light. He's healthy. You never give another thought to jaundice...but should you?


There are speculations that the vitamin K injection at birth could cause neonatal jaundice and, consequently, that neonatal jaundice can cause neurological damage, commonly called autism. So do you know enough about the vitamin K injection given to your baby at birth? Vitamin K sounds harmless enough, but is it when given under these circumstances? If you don't know, then shouldn't you find out? We let our little ones be injected with things that we know nothing about. Why don't we ask more questions? Why aren't we educated on this?


When your baby is four weeks old, he goes to his first 'well child' visit. His weight and length will be recorded and you will get to see where you little guy falls on the 'growth curve'. Even though he is not sexually active, and is not at present an intravenous drug user, he will also receive another injection of the Hepatitis B vaccine. If you have not questioned this by your baby's four week check up, I would have to wonder why. In addition, what are the vaccine ingredients which are being injected into your tiny baby after only four weeks, and at only 7 lbs?


After this visit, your baby is crying inconsolably. You take him home and try to get him to sleep, but he continues to cry, sometimes even screaming, for the rest of the day and into the evening. The next morning you find your baby boy dead in his crib.


After an autopsy is done, his death is recorded as being caused by SIDS. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is when an apparently healthy baby dies from an unknown cause, usually during sleep. Annually, about 2500 children are recorded as to have died from SIDS in the United States alone. Even in the instance where a child dies within 24 hours of receiving a vaccine, a connection is never made. Instead the death is labeled as having no cause and the vaccine was just a coincidence.

Neonatal jaundice linked to autism in children

Did you know that jaundice in infants increases their risk of being diagnosed with autism? An article from medpagetoday.com states:

Full-term neonates with jaundice are at greatly increased risk of later being diagnosed with a disorder of psychological development, a Danish study found.

Jaundiced newborns had an almost 90% higher likelihood of subsequently having any psychological developmental disorder compared with neonates without jaundice...

If you have a child, or are expecting one, has anyone talked to you about this? With jaundice being linked to autism, and vitamin K injections linked with jaundice, shouldn't we all be talking this? But we're not. Why? Odds are, if you mention any of this to a pediatrician, it will be shrugged off as not a big deal. Why? I'm not sure, other than it may disrupt the status quo when it comes to the newborn shot schedule. Disrupting the status quo would also disrupt pharmaceutical profits. And we can't have that, now can we?

Imagine the profit loss if the newborn vitamin K shot was only given to a fraction of the children born every day. Imagine the profit loss if parents started refusing the unnecessary newborn hepatitis B vaccine and others. For more information on profits made by pharmaceutical companies on vaccines, see my post called Money Making Machine.