Is a bf baby with a mother who smokes ,better off than one who is not bf at all?

[princessmel]

I've been wondering that for a while.

A friend of a friend has just had a baby (last week)and she's bf. She also smokes.

Do you think that the benefits of breast feeding outweigh the fact that she smokes? She was smoking outside by the way.

I genuinly don't know the answer to this. Also does the smoke get into the milk?
I know she will be breathing smoke onto and around him when she comes back inside but will the chemicals actually be in the milk?

I don't want to cause a huge row but just wondered which would be best for the little baby.

I think the original question was does smoking affect your b-milk? If drinking more than a couple of glasses of alcohol means not to bf then surely same goes for smoking?

Oh and b-milk and formula taste pretty much the same for those who are interested

Oh no I think Formula taste yuck breast milk is quite sweet totally different. When DD (3.5) moved onto formula I hated the semll so decided i had to try it to see if it tasted that bad and it does, tasted my BM recently totally without thinking had it in my hand took a sip and then realised what I had done but it actually tasted not bad sweet.

Coozer - formula and breastmilk taste pretty different. And a couple of glasses of alcohol is no reason to give formula (unless they are tumblers full of vodka in which case you would be comatose )

Surely everyone has tried a little breastmilk? Maybe it's only something you think of doing if you express. It is sweet and tastes rather nice: I've only had a couple of drops, you understand.

Formula babysick definitely stains the little white suits worse than milk babysick.

lol.... i made dp try my bm too i was so astonished at how sweet it was! definitely very differant to formula... much nicer. the few times i made up formula for dd i gagged at the smell of it, and dd spat it out at me in revulsion!

(i've also given bm that's too old to feed to the baby to the cat who loved it )

I wonder how long you could survive by drinking your own breastmilk, in a shipwreck type situation?

Hmm.

This is what maternity leave has done to me..

I don't know, but someone does something similar in "Grapes of Wrath" by Steinbeck

rofl at all teh people that have obviously been trying their own breastmilk...definately never had that appeal to me, I must admit...lol!
Wasn't there a report in the News at one point, where a mother helped others survive after a shipwreck, by giving them her milk? Or is that just my imagination!
Anyway, the thought of tasting BM always reminds me of a book I read, where a women, in order to stay slim continoued Expressing after her Twins had stopped bf and she used to add the milk as a special ingredients into her gravy...hehe

lol 3andnomore,

I have been toying with the idea of going into a cafe, ordering a tea and then just squirting milk into it, just to see people's reactions..

Germaine Greer said a woman shouldn't be disgusted by the thought of tasting her own menstrual blood, so I think that puts the breastmilk in perspective . It really tastes quite nice, like normal milk with sugar in..

Here in Kazakhstan you can buy fermented mare's milk in the supermarket, now that really is rank. it's fizzy and very sour. yuk yuk yuk!

lol Gem...and urgh at the Bloodthing...yuck...ok, if I had to chose, Pee, Menstruation Blood and Breastmilk, I take Breastmilk everytime, of course