Smoking in breastfeeding - implications for children

Smoking is an addiction that adversely affects the health of both men and women. Nowadays, it is increasingly possible to meet a woman who smokes. It is the conscious choice of every adult person. But what are the consequences of smoking during breastfeeding? After all, many women after pregnancy return to this harmful habit. How does smoking affect the mother's milk? On this issue should be discussed in detail.

• Breastfeeding and smoking
• Harm to the child
• Smoking during breastfeeding after a year
• Harm to the mother
• Komarovsky on smoking during lactation
• Consequences for the child in the future
• Avoiding bad habits

Breastfeeding and smoking

Many new mothers decide to return to this addiction, believing that all the negative consequences were avoided during pregnancy. In fact, this is not so. How does smoking affect breast milk? Nicotine, getting into the body of a woman, remains in milk. Therefore, this poison is used by the baby during breastfeeding. The negative effect of nicotine on milk is manifested in this way:

1. Breast milk is saturated with all the harmful substances that a woman receives at the time of smoking.
2. The poison uniquely falls into the milk, and then into the baby's body. This affects the cardiovascular and other systems of the child.
3. Cigarettes significantly reduce the amount of milk produced. Lactation is reduced, as a result, the baby receives an insufficient amount of nutrients and poorly increases weight.
4. The quality of breast milk is deteriorating. It changes its color and smell. As a result of such changes, the baby can refuse breastfeeding at a certain moment.

Therefore, before deciding to smoke during lactation, all the dangerous consequences should be weighed.

Harm to the child

Smoking during breastfeeding can cause irreparable harm to the newborn, even lead to fatal consequences. The most common health problems in a baby are:

1. Excitation of the central nervous system. The child has a disturbed sleep, he is constantly nedosypaet and is in a nervous state. Constant whims accompany this state.
2. Decreased immune defense. A child, in the body of which, along with breast milk, gets nicotine, is more likely to suffer from colds, viral and other infectious diseases.
3. Disturbances in the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. The baby has regular colic, which causes him a lot of suffering, since they are accompanied by acute pain. A child often spits up milk, which leads to poor weight gain, and sometimes even to loss of body weight.
4. Lag in development. It is especially pronounced in children, whose mothers did not leave this harmful habit during the period of gestation of the baby. Such children begin to walk and talk later than their peers.
5. Insufficient amount of nutrients. Milk with nicotine loses many vitamins and other useful substances, which negatively affects the overall health of the child's body.
6. Hypersensitivity of the respiratory system to pathogenic viruses and bacteria. Such children often suffer from chronic diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tract, from an early age.
7. The possibility of developing serious cardiovascular diseases. Nicotine causes a spasm of blood vessels in both the woman and her child.

It is important to know! Milk with nicotine forms a dependence on the baby for this poison! Therefore, the risk of the appearance of this harmful habit in adolescence is significantly increased.

Smoking during breastfeeding after a year

Many mothers believe that after the first year of life mother's milk has no negative impact. In fact, the process of getting nicotine into milk does not change. If the baby does not give up breast after 1 year, and the mother still wants to start smoking, it is required to adhere to certain rules of feeding. This will help to minimize the harmful effects of nicotine on a one-year-old baby. Breastfeeding mother should adhere to such rules:

1. Never smoke in a room where the child is. It should be done exclusively on the street, in order to protect the child from the cigarette smell.
2. Replace a conventional cigarette electronically. Electronic cigarettes are very popular among modern people. Harm to the body, it does much less, and the effect is similar to a normal cigarette.
3. After a smoke break, do not breast-feed a child. Through how much can you feed the baby? The time interval should be at least 2 hours. Therefore, it is better to smoke immediately after feeding.
4. Abstain from bad habit at night. At night, my mother is more actively producing milk. Cigarettes smoked during this period can significantly reduce the amount of milk produced.
5. To consume a large amount of purified water per day. This will help to more dynamically remove nicotine from the mother's body. The amount of water consumed per day should be at least 2 liters.
6. It is good to eat and take complex vitamins. This will help to fill the lack of nutrients in the body of the mother, thereby enriching them and breast milk.
7. Wear clothing after smoking. Also, you should brush your teeth and wash your hands, so that the child does not feel an unpleasant odor.
8. To spend with the child the maximum amount of time in the open air, if weather conditions permit.

Important to remember! When lactating, the number of smoked cigarettes should be minimized, that is, no more than 4-5 pieces per day.

Harm to the mother

It is not necessary to say that smoking harms everyone's health. After all, every person knows this very well from a young age. What is dangerous smoking for a woman during lactation? Immunity of a woman with breastfeeding is weakened. A weak organism receives doses of harmful substances, thereby leading to a deterioration in health.

In addition to the general condition of the body, in a smoking woman, the skin loses its elasticity. The loss of milk leads to an irreversible deterioration in the shape of the breast, thereby causing certain psychological complexes.

Also, a capricious child, who is disturbed by sleep, has a negative effect on his mother. She begins to develop chronic fatigue.

Important to remember! The number of negative consequences should make a woman think about the fact that it is better to refrain from this harmful habit! The health of the child, especially in the first year of life, is a guarantee of his normal and timely development in the future.

Komarovsky on smoking during lactation

Known among modern parents is a pediatrician with many years of experience, Yevgeny Komarovsky has his own opinion on this issue. He, of course, strongly recommends refraining from addiction. But if the mother does not have enough willpower to do this, then she should minimize the number of cigarettes consumed per day, and also give up smoking at night.

Mom should take complex vitamins in order to enrich your body with vitamins and minerals. Also, do not forget about daily walks with the baby, physical activity and temperature regime.

It is important to know! At the smoking mother, the child "smokes" with her! That is, he develops the same dependence on nicotine.

Consequences for the child in the future

Children who involuntarily received doses of nicotine as a result of breastfeeding can have such problems in adolescence and adulthood:

• increased irritability and aggressiveness;
• a weak ability to memorize, which negatively affects achievement in educational institutions;
• occurrence of chronic respiratory diseases;
• lag in mental and physical development.

Avoiding bad habits

How to quit smoking with breastfeeding? The nursing mother must abandon this pernicious habit once and for all by showing willpower. Most often, reluctance to quit is associated with psychological problems from childhood. That is, a woman needs a certain care, but she must take care of the newborn baby. Therefore, relatives and friends should support it during this difficult period.