Vitamin K-dependent clotting factors in normal breast-fed infants

Abstract

BREAST-FEEDING has been implicated as a necessary factor in the pathogenesis of hemorrhagic disease of the newborn infant, ~ but little is known of its role in coagulation abnormalities beyond the neonatal period. Vitamin K is approximately four times more concentrated in cow milk than in breast milkfl and clotting factors depending on this vitamin are decreased in normal term infants, and even more reduced in premature infants. 3.4 Deficiency of vitamin K-dependent clotting factors with clinical bleeding has occasionally been reported in breast-fed infants older than one month, but these infants usually had also had diarrhea or had received antibiotic therapy? ,6 Since the levels ot ~ vitamin K-dependent clotting factors in healthy older breast-fed infants have not been systematically assessed, vitamin deficiency cannot be attributed to breast-feeding per se. To determine if breast-feeding during the first month of infancy is associated with an increased risk of bleeding caused by vitamin K deficiency, the present investigation compared coagulation studies and the levels of vitamin K-dependent clotting factors in normal breast-fed and bottle-fed infants.