You may be a little pregnant or you are also pregnant. But the question quickly arises for you: “May I smoke while breastfeeding?” In this post, we will help you in the best way – read on and become much wiser about smoking and breastfeeding!
Smoking and breastfeeding
Smoking during pregnancy and breastfeeding exposes the child to a long range of different toxins. Therefore, it is not recommended to smoke, as it can cause complications later in pregnancy, during childbirth, and later in childhood. We therefore recommend that you, in collaboration with your closest ones and/or doctor, find the best ways to quit smoking. You can also talk to your midwife about this.
If you have difficulty (or are unable) to quit smoking, it will in most cases be best to continue breastfeeding your child normally, even if you smoke rather than switching to formula. However, you will risk some complications that you can read more about on this page.
Your child can become nicotine poisoned
When you smoke, you get a lot of nicotine into your body. The nicotine enters breast milk incredibly quickly after the mother has smoked. Nicotine has a breakdown time of about 1.5 hours, which is why it is seen in breast milk very quickly. It is extremely difficult to measure how much nicotine the child receives through breast milk, as the child will still absorb some through passive smoking by being near the mother who smokes.
When the child is exposed to passive smoking, it is often seen that it can be worse than getting it through breast milk. This is because the nicotine the mother has absorbed in her body is filtered – the smoke is not, which is released when smoking. Therefore, it will also be equally important to ensure that the child avoids passive smoking, just as the child receives breast milk with nicotine.
When the child receives a high amount of nicotine at an early age, it increases the risk of addiction later in life.
It is estimated that if you smoke more than 15 cigarettes daily, there will be an increased risk that the child will suffer from nicotine poisoning. Symptoms of nicotine poisoning can include vomiting after food intake, loose stools, gray skin, high pulse, and restlessness. The infant can also experience withdrawal symptoms as soon as the mother stops smoking.
Colic, poor growth, and other diseases
Children who are breastfed by mothers who smoke are much more likely to suffer from various diseases. It is often seen that the children are significantly more restless and cry more often. There is also a risk of colic, breathing problems, poor growth, vomiting, decreased hearing, and sudden infant death.
Children affected by passive smoking often develop respiratory diseases such as asthma and bronchitis. As the child gets older, they will often have a higher rate of absenteeism in school and kindergarten than average.
Children of smoking parents are often sicker than children of non-smoking parents. However, there are no statistics showing that they are more often in the hospital.
It has been proven that it is often easiest to quit smoking when you are about to breastfeed, as the hormones prolactin and endorphins that come when you start breastfeeding will alleviate the withdrawal symptoms that will occur with quitting smoking.
Avoid formula
If you have good reasons not to stop smoking, you might think that formula milk would be a good alternative to your own milk.
However, this is not the case, as real breast milk contains nutrients that are so valuable that formula milk is not the best alternative. Therefore, it is better for the child to receive breast milk – even if the mother smokes.
If you want to minimize the risk for the child, you should avoid smoking indoors in the house and car. This will protect the child as much as possible. Likewise, it may be a good idea to smoke right after you have breastfed, as this minimizes the nicotine content in the breast milk.
