BF and smoking

[bluebell82]

if you smoke does the toxins/nicotine go into your milk supply?

Yes, but breastmilk still contains the antibodies infection that will help protect the baby from disease. Smoke remains on the breath of a smoker for 12 hours after smoking so the baby would still be exposed to her smoke even if not breastfed, and would have the added hazard of artificial milk which tends to make a baby produce more mucus and therefore be prone to more respiratory infections.

For a baby whose mother is a smoker, the best option is that the mother smokes only after a feed, and of course never in the presence of the baby.

I knew a very heavy smoker who did this and after a very short time had cut down to one cigarette a day, after the baby's last feed in the evening. Next time I spoke to her she'd given up altogether. Not sure if this had been her intention, but I was certainly very surprised.

In terms of the baby's health, it's better to for a smoker to breastfeed (with the precautions that Elastic describes) than to not breastfeed.