It is OK to nudge for vitamin K

Belgian Consensus Recommendations to Prevent Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding in the Term and Preterm Infant

“…It has been reported to be ethical to provide nudges in medical decision-making about vit K prophylaxis [48]. During prenatal visits, the injection should be reviewed, discussed, recommended as the default and reinforced that this is the best way to keep their upcoming newborn baby healthy [48]. Prophylactic vit K supplementation is necessary to prevent VKDB in neonates and infants.…”

“…Three articles discussed all predefined secondary outcomes of this review [22,24,30]. Three articles reported short term variables within the first 24 h of life [31,32,34], 10 articles between day 1 and day 7 of life [16,22,[26][27][28]30,31,[46][47][48] and eight articles after the first week of life [22,24,[26][27][28]30,32,34], correlating with early, classic and late VKDB, respectively.…”

Highlights in this issue

“…Over the last few years, there has been an increase in reported vitamin K deficiency complications, mostly in breastfed infants whose parents have refused a standard dose of vitamin K at birth. Moses et al discuss why the parents refused vitamin K and suggest how they can be nudged to let their infant have this important supplement. In the accompanying editorial, Strehle describes new ways to prevent bleeding related to vitamin K deficiency in infancy …”

New ways of preventing vitamin K deficiency bleeding in infancy

“…This editorial relates to an article by Moses et al entitled ‘It's OK to nudge for vitamin K’ in this issue of Acta Paediatrica . Here, I will briefly revisit the milestones of infantile vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB), a condition first described by the American physician and naturalist Charles W. Townsend 125 years ago.…”

“…In this issue of Acta Paediatrica Moses et al provide an indirect analysis of possible reasons to decline consent for vitamin K prophylaxis (‘cognitive biases’) and make suggestions how to overcome parental refusal (‘health mandate’ vs ‘nudges’). Richard H. Thaler is one of the pioneers of the nudge theory and has co‐authored an important book on the subject .…”