Smoking and Breastfeeding

Smoking during pregnancy causes about 5-6% of prenatal deaths, 17-26% of low-birth-weight births, and 7-10% of pre-term deliveries, and it increases the risk of miscarriage and fetal growth retardation.

Cutting back or even quitting smoking improves your baby’s health and your own. It’s significant that you do your best to cut back on the cigarettes or even better, stop smoking totally. Your doctor, midwife, health visitor will be able to offer you support because it has been proven that smoking can lower the milk supply.
If a mother consumes less than fifteen cigarettes each day, the risk to the baby from transmitted nicotine in the breast milk is quite small. However, as that number goes up, more nicotine is transmitted through the breast milk.
The more cigarettes the mother smokes; the more chance she has of serious side effects. The baby might also have some problems like diarrhea, cramps, nausea, and vomiting. Nicotine takes about ninety-five minutes to be eliminated from your body and breast milk. This makes it imperative that the mother avoid smoking right before a feeding.
Smoking has some serious side effects on nursing for both parties. It can change the mother’s milk supply by more than one hundred milliliters. Despite the baby’s demands for milk, the mother’s body simply may not be able to respond because of the effects of smoking.
Moreover, a smoking mother’s calorie supply may be low, which makes it more difficult for her body to produce the milk her baby needs. Smoking can also cause the baby to be fussier.
Babies who come from homes with one or more smokers have twice the chance of contracting colic than babies who live in non-smoking homes. Smoking is also one of the number one causes of early weaning.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that a baby be breastfed for the first twelve months of life to get all of the benefits. Babies of mothers who smoke and breastfeed are three times more likely to wean between six and nine months of age.
You should feed when your baby wants to rather than following a particular schedule as frequent feeding ensures that the milk supply will adjust to your baby’s requirements. It is also necessary to maintain an adequate milk supply so that you can continue to breastfeed for as long as you choose.

When You Are Unable To Quit Smoking

If you are unable to quit smoking, you should only smoke after you have breastfed in a room as far away from your baby as possible. Outside is even better as your baby will not be inhaling the smoke and you re-haling the second hand smoke.

Smoking is a risk factor for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and respiratory problems. It is always better to smoke following a feed as the blood and milk levels have less tobacco chemicals.
If you are unable to feed your baby successfully in the first days, you should use an electric breast pump to ensure that the milk supply is not lost. By making sure you have a sufficient supply in the first few days, you should find that it will be easier to maintain that supply as your baby’s needs grow.

When Using Nicotine Patches

If you are using stop smoking aids such as nicotine patches, ensure that the instructions are carefully studied. It should be noted that substitutes such as these can reduce your blood and milk levels of nicotine and other chemicals.
The risk of second hand smoke is also eliminated. It is very significant not to smoke whilst using the nicotine patches as the amount of chemical present in the milk will increase. Always remember to remove the patch at night when you would not generally be smoking.

Nicotine Gum

Nicotine gum is thought to have the same benefits as nicotine patches even though it has not been studied in breastfeeding women. Always chew the gum when you have fed your baby to decrease the amount of chemicals that are transferred into the milk.
Again always read and follow the instructions very carefully and seek advice from a medical professional.

Vegetables Containing Nicotine

Some vegetables such as green/ pureed tomatoes, eggplant and cauliflower contains nicotine so if you are smoking, you should be limiting your intake of these types of vegetables.
Other people may be able to smell smoke in expressed milk. The baby’s urine levels may also contain cotinine, which is a product of nicotine. Although formula milk does not contain such chemicals, it must be remembered that formula milk does not contain living cells and other germ killing chemicals that assist with protecting your baby from illness.
Formula milk as opposed to breast milk does not contain nutrients that help with the brain’s developments along with hormones to assist with the digestive and immune system.

Smoking and Breastfeeding – A Poor Combination

Many people have recently become aware of the serious health problems that go with smoking cigarettes. These health problems not only affect the smoker, they also affect everyone around them. Respiratory illnesses, lacking immune systems, and incidences of cancer are higher for smokers and those who are usually around cigarette smoke than they are for non-smokers.
If you currently smoke and you want to breastfeed, it would be best if you quit. Even if you decide to smoke and bottle feed, studies show that your baby will be at a higher risk for illness, allergies, and asthma throughout childhood and later life.