Why passive smoking is bad for tiny babies

[peckarollover]

Does anyone have concrete facts/statistics/examples of why it is not good to smoke anywhere near babies or handle babies just after a cigarette has been smoked.

I am particularly interested in the harm handling a newborn just after a cigarette (smelling of smoke, smoke on breath and clothes and hands smelling of smoke) can cause.

Thanks!!

Not sure about smoke on clothes, but smoking anywhere near anyone is not good for their health and it would be filling the oxygen they breathe with horrible chemicals.

I did hear that when you smoke the chemicals can stay on your body and clothes for up to two hours so that is why you should not hold a baby then.

Any leaflet about SIDS would mention this surely?

My mother went to a funeral last week for a 10 day old baby girl, my mother said it broke her heart and there was not a dry eye in the church.
They said she dies of cot death.
My mother went back to the house after and was shocked to see the mother and father smoking in their small house around their 20 month old twins and 3 year old brother. She said the whole family incuding relations were smoking and in the end she had to leave as she felt sick with the smell.
I am not suggesting that their baby died bacause they smoked around her but surely they know that smoking is related to cot death. Why are people so selfish and smoke around children and babies? I will never understand that ever! I am ashamed to say my sister does and I have argued with her about it since her child was born, I could shout at her until I am blue in the face but she just turns her nose up. Makes me so angry, I think smoking during pregnancy and around children should be under child abuse and it should be illegal.

leading on from LC - i've told me DH he either gives up smooking or he's in the garden now as I don't want to be around him PG when he's smoking and he's definatly not smoking around my children neither are his parents, luckily DH is fine with this and's activly trying to quit.

Go to Action on Smoking and Health's website Pecka and check out their briefing (updated 2002) on Passive Smoking: the impact on Children. All the ASH briefing documents are based on peer-reviewed medical research papers in reputable medical journals.
I can't do you a link direct to the document alas because of the site structure.
If you still have a question, ASH do have very knowledgeable information staff and their contact details are on the website.

hello when my sil was pregnant she sent her dh outside to smoke as soon as she found out she was pregnant, when the children were born he was not allowed to hold them just after smoking. he would wash his hands and arms afetr smoking and even change his top!
Sadly he still smokes but only outside.
It is a shame.
The gp has said to him "Look, you have children, its not a question if are you going to stop but when?"

My mum smoked around me all my life, even when she was pregnant and now I have breathing problems, doc said i'm asthmatic when I was about 10 but she refused to beleive it and I can't even run at all, even jog, otherwise I find myself really struggling for breath.

My mom smoked when she was pg with me and mom and dad smoked around me all my life and I'm fine

They never smoke around my dd though

my aunty smoked with my cousin who was born 3 months prem with a hole in her heart also has asthma - might be conincidence but might not be. another aunty/uncle smoke and 3 of their 4 children have v cronic asthma.

is it worth the risk?

Just to make clear that it is not me considering smoking around a baby. It is info for a friend whos MIL wont accept its not good for her to smoke then hold the baby immediately after.

Some interesting nuggets from ASH (I know Marina posted their link, but thought these were worth singling out)

42% of British children live in a household where at least one person smokes.
17,000 children under the age of five are admitted to hospital every year with illnesses resulting from passive smoking.
A poll for SmokeFree London found that only 3% of parents knew that cot death could result from passive smoking and only 1% identified glue ear as an outcome.
Children have the right to be protected from passive smoking.
Parents must recognise that passive smoking causes ill-health in children and that they have a responsibility not to inflict harm on their children.
Parents in some countries are beginning to take action to reduce or eliminate children?s exposure to smoke in the home.
As knowledge of the impact of passive smoking increases, so demand for smoke-free environments rises. When smoke-free public places are the norm, there is a greater public acceptance of the need to restrict smoking in the home.
Governments have a duty to inform the public of the hazards of breathing in other people?s tobacco smoke and adults should act on that advice to protect the health of children.

I think people need to take on board some of the interesting info on here, lets face it we all know smoking is bad for us so why cant people get it into their thick heads that it is child abuse to smoke whilst pregnant and around children???
These poor babies and children have no say.
It should be illegal!
I feel sick when I see heavily pregnant women outide the maternity unit puffing away, I want to go up and shake them. I remember having to stay in hospital when pregnant as they were worried I was going into premature labour at 6 months. Every pregnant woman on that ward was also in there because there was some sort of risk to their pregnancy. When I was discharged, I could not believe my eyes as I left late in the evening to find almost half of the women, freezing in dressing gowns smoking outside knowing they are in there because there was a risk to their pregnancy???!!!???!!! Smoking should be banned from hospital grounds and give these poor unborn babies even 24 hours of healthy oxygen. They are sick!

LC, agree that smoking around children should be classed as abuse. And people who smoke in cars with children...

Also another thing that makes me sick to the bone is when I see some trout with a fag in their hand balanced on the pushchairs handlebar walking down the street with a little baby in a pram facing them.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
It actually makes me want to get violent!
I feel the same way when I see someone hit a child, smoking and hitting to me is child abuse.

Smoking in cars??? Dont get me going!!!

That is like a chemical sauna.

Anyone who does that has got to be insane.

As far as I understand it, the smell of smoke on clothes, etc, is smoke particles. It can cause reactions in asthmatics, so I'm sure it's not a wise thing to do.

Pecka, I was about to come in here saying WTF?
How can you not know?.......the saw it was you and realised you're trying to stop some inconsiderate, selfish doing it.

When Ds3 was little I wounldn't let my mum or MIL near him if they had just had been smoking as apparently the smoke can still be exhaled for upto 30 minutes after the cigarette has been smoked. No-one smokes in my house or near my children if I can help it.

Hope all this helps your pal.

heres something

I recon it's up to the parents at teh end of the day and the MIL/ GP's should respect the decision that they ahve made without questioning it (althou not all GP's are like that)