Smoking and SIDS

[enbh]

I'm wondering if I'm panicking for nothing...
Basically me and DH are having to go away overnight to BIL wedding. Leaving 4 month old DD at home with my mum.
She smokes. Would never ever smoke around DD but still smokes the same.

My question is this, if she stays in the same room as my DD (the only bed in our house is in the same room as cot) will the fact that she smoked earlier in the day affect DD? I know you shouldn't smoke and bed share which she won't be doing and you shouldn't smoke around baby which she obviously won't do either, but the cot is near the bed, is this similar to bed sharing? Should I move cot into other room?

I know I probably sound really paranoid but I'm really really terrified of SIDS and being a FTM it's just all so scary!

Thanks for reading!

Think i'll have to give it a miss, our car doesn't have air conditioning, and in this heat it seems a bad idea.

I'm glad I started this thread. DH thought I was a raving paranoid lunatic for even thinking it.

Sorry OP but I think you’re mad. And some of these responses are fucking insane. It’s not anthrax for gods sake.

Go to the wedding, your DD will be fine.

Go to the wedding and enjoy yourself.

I know exactly how you feel, I'm an anxious first time mum of a 6 month old, I sterilised my finger in Milton before applying bonjela - that kind of anxiety!

Could your mum not get away with using one of them vape pens for the day and night to satisfy her nicotine craving.

X

@jazzyfizzles I can't believe I didn't think of that!!!! Thank you!!!

Aw you're welcome.

There's nothing wrong with worrying, but I'm sure you wouldn't even consider leaving your baby with your mam if you didn't think she was capable!

The risk isn’t so much sleeping in the same room (though that adds to it surely in terms of chronic exposure), but babies that are exposed to secondhand smoke throughout the day. Will your mum not be smoking at all that weekend? That’s more the risk of respiratory irritation. I can’t imagine she’d just quit smoking for several days and showering and washing her hair and changing clothes each time. And who would look after your baby while she smokes?

Personally, no I wouldn’t do it. I’d either give it a miss if the wedding is child free (had to do this with a friends wedding when my dd was 3 months, my dh went by himself), or bring her. My grandparents started to look after me when I was 3 months and smoked around me. It took about a month for me to end up in hospital with pneumonia and I developed asthma as a result. Obviously not the same as a weekend of exposure, but still wouldn’t be for me.

Sorry OP but I think you’re mad. And some of these responses are fucking insane. It’s not anthrax for gods sake

It's not anthrax but smoking raises the risk of sids. Why would you be blasé about that?

Over a sustained period of time @greatduckcookery.

One night in a house which doesn’t have smoking within it is extreeeeeeeeeeeemely unlikely to hike the SIDS risk.

But as I said before I understand the OPs anxiety and I’d be all over the place too even though logically it hardly changes the risk probability.

Personally -

The baby is four months old, so past the worst danger period for SIDS.

The baby will be in a separate sleep space, which is exactly as advice for smoking parents. The grandmother will not be smoking around the baby.

It is one night (or two, I lost track).

The risk is miniscule to start with and it's a slight increase for one or two nights. The VAST, VAST majority of babies born to smoking parents are completely fine. Just 30 years ago it was considered perfectly normal to smoke in the house directly around babies and children, all the time, and babies were not dropping dead all over the place. Granted, the SIDS rate was higher than it is today, but we're comparing babies who lived in houses with heavy smoke around all the time (and probably had other SIDS risk factors like front sleeping and being overdressed) - that's nothing remotely like this situation.

Yes, it is an increased risk, and it is totally your choice, but I would not worry about this. Go and enjoy the wedding. Risk based guidance is intended to help you make an informed choice about things like sleeping space and personal habits, rather than intended to be a strict rulebook which you need to follow at all times.

Could you buy her a vape for the day instead? It might help take the edge off if she is not planning to smoke

I've been this morning to get her a vape and some patches. My mum is absolutely over the moon, she's wanted to try to vape thing for a while now and sees this as a good first step towards quitting!

I feel so much more comfortable with everything. She said she will use the vape during the day before we go and will use the patch that night so she doesn't have to leave DD.

I know I probably sound a bit nuts to some, I'm probably just really anxious about leaving her too, but feel more confident now.

I think you are doing the right thing OP - go, have a wonderful time and leave the mum guilt at the door!

Some of the responses here have been ludicrous: I’m totally paranoid about SIDS and kept my son in my room until he was 1, but I’m realistic to know the level of risk, and one day with someone who may have the occasional cigarette isn’t going to be a problem.

Although it’s great she’s trying patches and a vape. I gave up a 30 a day habit using patches and nicorette inhalators. Smoking isn’t good, but it doesn’t warrant the bashing some people are giving it here.

And to the lady who smokes, you sound like a wonderful mum to me: smoking doesn’t make you a bad parent

SIDS is very, very rare, thankfully but the level of concern has reached silly proportions. Living with a smoker is very bad for a baby. They get bronchitis and other problems but still very, very rarely die.
The rate is 3 per 10, 000 births.
Males are more affected with 64% of deaths being little boys.
A 'Triple Risk Model' was proposed in 1994, emphasising the role and interaction of a number of factors in the pathogenesis of SIDS. In this model, SIDS occurs when three factors are present simultaneously. These factors are: an underlying vulnerability in the infant (eg, low birth weight or prematurity), a critical developmental period (usually 1-3 months of age) and an 'exogenous stressor' (eg, sleeping prone). It is thought that a combination of immature cardiorespiratory control systems and a failure to be roused from sleep lead to death.

A 'Triple Risk Model' was proposed in 1994, emphasising the role and interaction of a number of factors in the pathogenesis of SIDS. In this model, SIDS occurs when three factors are present simultaneously. These factors are: an underlying vulnerability in the infant (eg, low birth weight or prematurity), a critical developmental period (usually 1-3 months of age) and an 'exogenous stressor' (eg, sleeping prone). It is thought that a combination of immature cardiorespiratory control systems and a failure to be roused from sleep lead to death.

A 'Triple Risk Model' was proposed in 1994, emphasising the role and interaction of a number of factors in the pathogenesis of SIDS. In this model, SIDS occurs when three factors are present simultaneously. These factors are: an underlying vulnerability in the infant (eg, low birth weight or prematurity), a critical developmental period (usually 1-3 months of age) and an 'exogenous stressor' (eg, sleeping prone). It is thought that a combination of immature cardiorespiratory control systems and a failure to be roused from sleep lead to death.

A large number of studies have demonstrated consistently that maternal smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of SIDS by as much as five times. In one American study, 21% of all SIDS cases were attributable to maternal smoking. Passive exposure to smoke during infancy has also been shown to increase the risk. If both parents smoke, the risk is further increased. Your mother isn’t exposing the baby to passive smoking and isn’t the mother.

I hate smoking, think it should be banned completely but still think you’re overreacting to the actual risk and should go to the wedding.

Sounds like the perfect solution OP and so glad she's willing, and will hopefully find a way to quit!

Some of the responses on here are utterly ridiculous.

Go to the wedding, enjoy yourself. Your LO being around someone who smokes for a few hours/day/night is not going to do any harm. SIDS risk is so low and mainly relates to constantly living with a smoker/lying next to them all night etc.

People are so overly paranoid about minuscule things. I am an anxious ftm but Christ you can’t wrap them in cotton wool and never let them out.