Breastfeeding and smoking

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Nicole Wendler holds a PhD in biology in the field of oncology and immunology. As a medical editor, author and proofreader, she works for various publishers, for whom she presents complex and extensive medical issues in a simple, concise and logical manner.

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Mothers who breastfeed and smoke often feel guilty. If most women manage to give up nicotine during pregnancy, many quickly succumb to the old addiction again after giving birth. Quite a few of the affected mothers therefore breastfeed prematurely. Read here whether this is actually necessary, how harmful the glowing stick is during breastfeeding and why fathers who smoke should also think about their child.

Breastfeeding and Smoking: Risks and Dangers

The smoke of the cigarette contains numerous harmful and cancer-causing substances that reach the infant as passive smoke through the breath or breast milk. In addition, the toxins stick to the skin of smokers. Mothers who breastfeed and smoke therefore harm their child and have to reckon with breastfeeding problems.

Pollutants in breast milk

When you breastfeed and smoke, the pollutants in cigarettes accumulate in breast milk: in addition to nicotine, dioxins, benzpyrenes, nitrosamines and heavy metals from the smoke of the cigarette get into the milk and when they drink into the gastrointestinal tract of the infant.

The more cigarettes you smoke, the greater the burden on your baby.

If the last cigarette is an hour ago, the concentration of some substances (e.g. nicotine) in breast milk decreases again.

Smoking increases breastfeeding problems

Smoking lowers the prolactin level, especially when breastfeeding. In women who consume more than ten cigarettes a day, the milk leakage therefore sets in later. In addition, these women produce less milk than non-smokers. The more you smoke, the more severe the impairments

In addition, nicotine changes the taste of the milk, so that babies drink less and often congestion follows.

In most cases, regular breastfeeding ensures that the hormone levels of prolactin and oxytocin level off at some point despite cigarette consumption.

Smoking harms the child

It is difficult to investigate what breastfeeding and smoking cause in the child's organism in the long term. Doctors can only speculate whether the harmful substances in cigarettes, for example, could later lead to cancer in children.

Direct consequences of breastfeeding and smoking result from observations. These show that babies are smoking mothers

• drink worse,
• are more restless
• vomiting more often,
• suffer from colic and
• increase more slowly.

In addition, children from smokers' households often experience respiratory diseases, otitis media, lung problems (coughs, colds, croup-coughs = pseudocroup) and sudden infant deaths. The risk of allergies also seems to be increased. These complications are not only due to the polluted breast milk, but also to secondhand smoke, from which every baby must be actively protected.

Not only the mothers but also the fathers are responsible for their child and should leave the apartment to smoke.

Breastfeeding and Smoking: Recommendations

The experts are in a dilemma when it comes to breastfeeding and smoking. Of course, cigarette smoke is harmful and no infant should be exposed to it. If a breastfeeding mother smokes, the pollutants end up in the breast milk and thus in the child.

This contrasts with the many positive aspects of breastfeeding that babies have been shown to benefit from. So what to do when mothers breastfeed and smoke?

The Federal Ministry of Health in Germany and the National Breastfeeding Commission advise ideally not to smoke while breastfeeding. If this is too difficult, you should at least try to reduce the number of cigarettes and under no circumstances light a smoldering stick in the presence of the child.

Very heavy nicotine consumption is harmful to the child. Women who cannot resist completely but can reduce the number of cigarettes a day to a few should breastfeed. The benefits of breast milk and body contact appear to offset the health disadvantages of smoking. Weaning is not necessary.

Breastfeeding and Smoking: What Can You Do?

If you adhere to the following points, the positive aspects of breastfeeding predominate:

• Smoke as little as possible!
• Be sure to stop smoking before breastfeeding (at least an hour).
• Change clothes before breastfeeding if they have a strong smell of smoke.
• First breastfeed, then smoke!
• Never smoke around the baby.
• Make sure you have a smoke-free home.
• Smokers should not share the bed with the baby - this increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

Ideally, as a mother, you will refrain from the combination of breastfeeding and smoking - perhaps you will manage to give up cigarettes, at least for the short period of breastfeeding. If this does not work, you should at least reduce your tobacco consumption: every cigarette you do not smoke is a profit!

In principle, nobody should light a cigarette in the home or near a child, as secondhand smoke is also harmful to the baby.

And maybe you use breastfeeding to encourage you to renounce tobacco altogether. Appropriate smoking cessation programs can help. Because it is of course healthiest when breastfeeding mothers refrain from smoking completely.

Tags:  pregnancy birth skin elderly care