To think it is wrong to smoke and breastfeed?

[Solesister]

My friend thinks this is ok and I really really don’t! Surely the toxins get into the milk?

Smoking while you are actually BFing? Clearly awful.

Otherwise... Well I guess you can take precautions. I generally think smoking when you have small children is pretty bad. Not sure BFing impacts it much (for better or worse).

BF or not, poor poor child growing up with a smoker parent.

Disgusting and grim.

Just like breastfeeding and drinking alcohol is not okay.

This is rubbish. Drinking moderately is fine.

Best post on the thread. Good to see MN has not lost it's SOH completely.

Absolutely nothing. The advice to avoid alcohol while BF is very much out of date.

AIBU my friend does something that is clearly not healthy. I'm asking because I want everyone to know.
PS I'm an angel.

It's generally well accepted that if a mother is a smoker, then the baby is still better off being breastfed than formula fed. As long as they are not smoking around the baby obviously.

What IS disgusting is seeing babies being pushed along whilst the parent smokes. and I bet they're being formula fed too

Why have you crossed out "I bet they're formula fed too"?

Ideally no, you wouldn't, but where do you draw the line? Is it wrong to be overweight when you have young children who depend on you? Wrong to do dangerous things such as cycling in big cities in case you get knocked off your bike? Wrong to eat junk and not get your five a day?

It's a difficult one. I am very much in favour of personal responsibility, and against the idea of a nanny state.

NB I do not smoke, am not overweight and do eat a lot of fruit and veg. I do, however, cycle to work in central London, which some people could consider irresponsible given I have three children.

I agree. And why on earth would you be smoking while breastfeeding anyway. Surely everyone stops smoking when pregnant?

Actually I am surprised any woman who smokes gets to the stage of having sex, given her breath will stink and you look 50 at 30 due to leathery skin. I suppose if your partner also smokes he won't care. Poor baby with two stupid parents. And yes I am being judgey. I can not understand why anyone younger than me would have even started smoking.

@MrsAvocet thanks - I came on to post the same link 👍🏻

Is it wrong to be overweight when you have young children who depend on you? Wrong to do dangerous things such as cycling in big cities in case you get knocked off your bike? Wrong to eat junk and not get your five a day

All of those can creep up on you, you don't make a decision one day to get fat in the same way that you make a decision one day to smoke.

As for cycling, any accident is not your fault, that's the fault of moronic drivers who think they own the road. The only exception being if you decide to cycle up the inside of lorries or buses, I hope you don't!

@JoieDeLivres This is what the NHS has to say:

Don't stop breastfeeding if you smoke

As a new mum, not smoking is also the single most important thing you can do to protect your own health. However, if you're finding it hard to quit smoking, it's important not to stop breastfeeding. Breastfeeding will still protect your baby from infections and provide nutrients they can't get from formula milk.

So both the posters you're mocking are, in fact, totally correct and there is a ton of research to back up what they're saying.

Wow some of the responses on here are just nasty. Personally I think it's better that children grows up with a parent who can admit that they are not perfect than a parent who is openly vile about other people who might be having a really hard time. What was the point of even starting this thread? We all know it's better not to smoke, under ideal circumstances nobody would - but the world isn't ideal and everyone makes bad decisions in one way or another, there's no need to be so openly vicious towards others.

How can people even turn this into a pro breastfeeding lets slag off formula thread? Enough already. I’ve never once heard someone complain that their life was ruined by their parents giving them formula (that literally life-saving drink) so please just give it a break. This is a thread about smoking. And no, it isn’t ok to smoke when you have a baby. In fact it isn’t ok to smoke at all. It’s bad for you. We all know this.

Unfortunately smoking is an addiction. And like a pp said its so much easier to give up when the baby is growing inside you but as soon as they are here the cravings hit hard, combined with hormones that's how people end up smoking again with a small infant. Ive been there, my ppa was awful and smoking was a brief 5 minutes of normality (i also formula fed due to my milk not coming in...gasp!). As long as they follow the guidelines for doing it as safely as possible (no touching baby for 30 mins after, change clothes, wash hands and brush teeth) and aren't smoking around the baby then let them have the coping mechanism they need! FWIW I've since given up completely and thanks to comments like some on here I feel like that period of my life is something to be deeply ashamed of despite the fact that without it my anxiety could have been quite considerably worse. Luckily my health visitor and the professionals and loved ones around me were a lot more understanding than some people on here.

Let me say it loud and proud: any mother who smokes and breastfeeds her child has both well and truly drunk the koolaid and is wildly neglectful.

Did you not read the information posted from the nhs above?

It's got nothing to do with moral judgements. It's got nothing to do with drinking the kool-aid. It's based on the scientific evidence; it's not an opinion. It is the absolute opposite of being 'through the looking-glass'. What do you want doctors to do? Not act on research? Lie to parents so they don't offend people who think any recommendation is a criticism of their choices?

I couldn't give a shit whether people formula-feed or breastfeed their kids. Obviously breastfeeding isn't going to be right for everyone, and that's fine. I don't think formula-feeding is evil. I wouldn't give it a second thought what someone feeds their kid. I don't have kids and I've no idea what my mum fed me on.

All that the advice is saying is that if someone wants to breastfeed, they don't have to stop doing it because they smoke, because the evidence suggests that the effect on the baby is so minuscule that it is outweighed by the benefits of breastfeeding.

It is not wrong to breastfeed you are a smoker. It not wrong to feed your child on formula milk either. It's not a competition. Neither is neglect. Get a grip.

There might be lots of things worthy of judgement but, unless you're actually a judge and perfect, that judgement is rather impotent.

What do you do to judge, out of interest?

Do you tut?

Give a hard Paddington Bear stare?

Talk loudly about transgressing person to anybody who will listen?

Approach errant individual and correct them in no uncertain terms?
Go on a march?
Declare it 'a hill to die on' (and once declared, no further action needed).
Find a chatboard to proclaim to that said activity has incurred your displeasure?

I actually am interest in the concept of judging because from what I've seen, it changes nothing.

No, not at all, because living with a smoker increases the chance of a baby dying from SIDS, and so does not breastfeeding. So if you smoke, breastfeeding helps to mitigate the increased SIDS risk. It's utterly grim though, and I would 100% judge anyone who couldn't put their baby's wellbeing over their need for a fag.

No, breastmilk is always better than formula. Formula does not convey immunity, line the gut properly, prime the immune system, it's not a tailor made nutrition source for the baby.

I am not saying I am the perfect parent, I am saying my friend thinks it is ok to smoke just because she breastfeeds which I completely disagree with.