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Go Smokeless -- For Your Baby's Sake
By Phyllis Edgerly Ring
One of Amy Gaillard's biggest scares came when she found her 2-year-old with a pack of his father's cigarettes, holding one to his mouth.
"This was not the kind of message I wanted to be sending," says the Blaine, Minn., mother, now expecting her second child.
Former smoker Gaillard kicked the habit when she knew she was pregnant, refrained from smoking while breastfeeding and has been smoke-free since.
"It was important that my child start out fresh," she says.
A study in the archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine documented that mothers who smoke while breastfeeding pass harmful levels of nicotine to their babies. Researchers studying newborns at risk for asthma and allergies based on family history found measurable levels of nicotine in the infants' urine, with significantly higher levels in breastfed babies whose mothers smoked. According to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in September 1994, mothers who smoked even 10 cigarettes a day cause their children under 5 to have positive blood tests for nicotine and cancer-causing compounds.
Going Smoke-Free"When I was nursing, I tried to sneak a smoke now and then -- if I was out with friends or a friend came over, we'd slip outside while the baby slept," says Hannah Hayes of Chicago, Ill. "But the effect of nicotine was so obvious. He'd scream for hours and be really squirmy and antsy. I quickly stopped."
Both Hayes and Gaillard quit cold turkey, something that works when motivation is high. Their advice: After the first two weeks, when the physical effects of withdrawal decrease, quitting will get easier.
Cold turkey is the preferred method for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding says nutritionist Kim Truesdale, who with health educator Dolly Waters, conducts smoking cessation programs for prenatal and breastfeeding mothers at Families First in Portsmouth, N.H. Because breastfeeding mothers pass whatever they ingest on to their babies, Families First doesn't advocate the use of nicotine patches or medications.
