AI6YR Ben16h ago

AP:It’s not just vaccines — parents are refusing other routine preventive care for newborns

"Medical mistrust is spreading beyond vaccines: Refusals of vitamin K shots for newborns have nearly doubled since 2017, alarming doctors nationwide.
Newborns without the shot are 81 times more likely to suffer potentially deadly bleeding, a preventable complication that once affected 1 in 60 babies."

(Better, non paywall link! Thanks Denise!)
https://apnews.com/article/babies-newborns-pediatricians-vitamin-k-hepatitis-b-erythromycin-9126463f0cb38b9778fb77bc0d071776

#healthcare #health #antivaxxers

New parents are shunning proven preventive care for their infants in effort to be 'natural'

Doctors across the nation are alarmed that skepticism fueled by rising anti-science sentiment and medical mistrust is increasingly reaching beyond vaccines to other safe and routine care for babies. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that refusals of vitamin K shots rose steeply between 2017 and 2024. Those shots can prevent potentially deadly bleeding. A subsequent research review found that U.S. parents who declined vitamin K shots were 90 times more likely to also refuse the hepatitis B vaccine and an eye ointment that can prevent potentially blinding infections. Pediatricians say these refusals put their youngest patients at grave risk.

AP News
Show threadFreddyB Aviation Photography14h ago

@ai6yr Yeah sadly I can directly attest to this. My wife also an RN works in a NICU and this is becoming more and more common.

The Vitamin K is critical to prevent bleeding and strokes
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/protective-vitamin-shots-newborns-decline

And the eye ointment? TO prevent pink eye or anything else (at that age it can result in blindness) they picked up while being born.

https://www.aao.org/education/clinical-statement/use-of-erythromycin-in-prevention-of-neonatal-opht

These parents should have to put money in escrow to cover these avoidable problems.

Why? If a kid has a stroke, the odds are long if they can ever go home. We can send INCREDIBLY medically complex home and our incredible parents can do amazing things (I am talking ventilators, feeding tubes et al.) but some cannot and these go to nursing homes. We become very close to the families because we are their ride home for every procedure, every admission and the like. The sad reality is this level of care will costs 10's of millions over the course of this kiddo's life Maybe these imbeciles should put their money where there ignorance is

Protective vitamin shots for newborns on decline

Scientists identified an ongoing drop in newborns receiving a vitamin shot that helps to prevent dangerous bleeding.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Show threadMsMerope14h ago

@cvvhrn @ai6yr

yeah, but until it actually happens to THEM - it won't happen....

Show threadMsMerope14h ago
@cvvhrn @ai6yr
this one hit hard
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VK9GgrPwp2s
Doctor calmly tries to explain risks to anti-vaccine parents | The Pitt | BINGE

YouTube
Show threadGhostOnTheHalfShell14h ago

@MsMerope @cvvhrn @ai6yr

I keep thinking of that quote from Larry Niven in one of his essays in “all the myriad ways”

Think of it as evolution in action.

It’s not pretty and it’s not nice but it’s hard to avoid the truth of it

Show threadAI6YR Ben14h ago
@GhostOnTheHalfShell @MsMerope @cvvhrn LOL well, they're about to do a true Darwin on themselves (ie if you're killing off your kids, or killing yourself before you have kids, that is true Darwin effect).
Show threadGhostOnTheHalfShell14h ago

@ai6yr @MsMerope @cvvhrn

There’s been a packed field for Darwin awards for some years now

Show threadPamela Barroway – Biz Editor14h ago

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @ai6yr @MsMerope @cvvhrn

True story: in 2007, the hub & I were interviewing doulas during my third trimester with our one-and-done. All was going well with the first until she talked excitedly about how her 6 kids all had *natural immunity* to chicken pox, measles, etc etc bc of *healthy living.* 😱 We looked at each other & hub says, That's not how immunity works. (His dad is a pediatrician.)

End of interview. Next!

Show threadAI6YR Ben13h ago
@PamelaBarroway @GhostOnTheHalfShell @MsMerope @cvvhrn 😱 I wonder if she washes her hands or doesn't believe in germs.
Show threadFreddyB Aviation Photography
@ai6yr @PamelaBarroway @GhostOnTheHalfShell @MsMerope Um excuse me "germs" you cannot prove there are germs. Disease Demons? I can speak with full authority
5:10amWeb
Show threadPamela Barroway – Biz Editor13h ago

@cvvhrn Ha! Right?!? I mean, that's kinda where the discussion was going. It was our first experience with the antivax / crunchy mom movement and man was it an eye-opener!

@ai6yr @GhostOnTheHalfShell @MsMerope

Show threadGhostOnTheHalfShell13h ago

@PamelaBarroway @cvvhrn @ai6yr @MsMerope

I am looking at the urban dictionary definition of the sort of things crunchy moms do.. no I wouldn’t mind growing vegetables and I don’t wear shoes indoors, especially.. but the rest of the stuff I’ll take a pass

Show threadPamela Barroway – Biz Editor12h ago

@GhostOnTheHalfShell If it was just about having an extensive home garden or cleaning with common household products like vinegar that would be fine ... but it became so much more, as you discovered.

@cvvhrn @ai6yr @MsMerope

Show threadMsMerope13h ago
@cvvhrn @ai6yr @PamelaBarroway @GhostOnTheHalfShell
attack of the killer miasma