How Harmful Is Smoking For Your Baby?
How harmful is smoking for your baby?
When you start looking on the web and find all these articles about smoking and it effects on yourself and your baby, you realize how dangerous smoking can be.Did you know that smoking slows down the growth of your fetus? The nicotine narrow the small blood vessels that irrigate your baby and the carbon monoxide, that compares to your car exhaust, reduces the oxygen that your baby needs. By reducing the oxygen supply, you are decreasing the natural defense system of your baby and you can increase the risk of SIDS.
Dr.Sears explains the ways that smoking can harm your fetus. Smoking can be very dangerous because:
1- It retards growth
2- It retards brain development (because of nicotine)
3- It affects the respiratory system after birth (can cause SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome)
4- You can have a premature baby
5- Even passive smoking is harmful
6- Smoking is as dangerous for mom then for baby (it increase infertility, ectopic pregnancy etc.)
If you are a heavy smoker, more than 1 pack a day, the risk to reduce brain development is greater once your child is born. You can cause a major slow down of mental and academic performance, reduce I.Q, increase hyperactivity, smaller stature, cause behavioral problems as well. Think about it…Studies showed that the risk of SIDS increases 3 ½ times when both parents smoke and by 2 times if one parent smoke.
There are over 4,000 chemicals in a cigarette. Think about it, over 4,000 chemicals… A lot of these chemicals are dangerous to the breathing passages of young infants. Even if you sit in a «non smoking area» or smoke outside, it is like, as Dr.Sears explains, «to chlorinate half a swimming pool». Pollutants travel in the air and it stick to your hair and clothes and when your baby rest on your shoulder, all the pollutants in the contaminated clothes and hair will be inhale by your little one. Would you like to know the names of these pollutants? Well there is the carbon monoxide, benzene, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide (used to make rat poison), formaldehyde and nicotine.
All these pollutants increase the risk of SIDS. Any poisons that lower the intake of oxygen will increase the risk of SIDS. When you deprive your infant of oxygen, you will affect the development of the brain center that controls breathing. When you reduce constantly oxygen, the body will defend itself by increasing, via a substance, the oxygen transport. A higher level of this substance is found in babies that were exposed to smoke. Cotinine (a chemical from the nicotine) is also found in the blood of babies that were exposed to smoke, even passive smoke. A lot of theses pollutants are also found in the blood of breastfeeding babies whose mothers smoke. «The blood levels of nicotine byproducts were proportional to the number of cigarettes smoked by the mother» says Dr.Sears.
Smoking is not only harmful for the lungs but also for the heart. It affects the level of good cholesterol in your infant. And good cholesterol protects from heart disease. Some of these toxins also affect heart rate. Researchers have found high levels of different toxins around the hearts of babies who died of SIDS.
As we said earlier smoking also affect brain growth, and the brain does control the breathing mechanisms. Because babies breath by their nose, smoke also blocks the nasal passage and paralyzed the tiny filaments, the mucous is not cleared properly and it compromise their breathings. «Children of smoking parents have two to three times more doctor visits because of respiratory infections. Respiratory viruses are frequently found at postmortem examination of SIDS infants». Scientific studies conclude that smoking around babies increases the risk of SIDS, and the more cigarettes the parents smoke the higher the risk. And the sad news is that between 11 and 30 percent of women continue to smoke during pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Think about it before lighting a cigarette, will you take the risk to compromise the health of your baby?
www.strolltogether.com
When you start looking on the web and find all these articles about smoking and it effects on yourself and your baby, you realize how dangerous smoking can be.Did you know that smoking slows down the growth of your fetus? The nicotine narrow the small blood vessels that irrigate your baby and the carbon monoxide, that compares to your car exhaust, reduces the oxygen that your baby needs. By reducing the oxygen supply, you are decreasing the natural defense system of your baby and you can increase the risk of SIDS.
Dr.Sears explains the ways that smoking can harm your fetus. Smoking can be very dangerous because:
1- It retards growth
2- It retards brain development (because of nicotine)
3- It affects the respiratory system after birth (can cause SIDS, sudden infant death syndrome)
4- You can have a premature baby
5- Even passive smoking is harmful
6- Smoking is as dangerous for mom then for baby (it increase infertility, ectopic pregnancy etc.)
If you are a heavy smoker, more than 1 pack a day, the risk to reduce brain development is greater once your child is born. You can cause a major slow down of mental and academic performance, reduce I.Q, increase hyperactivity, smaller stature, cause behavioral problems as well. Think about it…Studies showed that the risk of SIDS increases 3 ½ times when both parents smoke and by 2 times if one parent smoke.
There are over 4,000 chemicals in a cigarette. Think about it, over 4,000 chemicals… A lot of these chemicals are dangerous to the breathing passages of young infants. Even if you sit in a «non smoking area» or smoke outside, it is like, as Dr.Sears explains, «to chlorinate half a swimming pool». Pollutants travel in the air and it stick to your hair and clothes and when your baby rest on your shoulder, all the pollutants in the contaminated clothes and hair will be inhale by your little one. Would you like to know the names of these pollutants? Well there is the carbon monoxide, benzene, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide (used to make rat poison), formaldehyde and nicotine.
All these pollutants increase the risk of SIDS. Any poisons that lower the intake of oxygen will increase the risk of SIDS. When you deprive your infant of oxygen, you will affect the development of the brain center that controls breathing. When you reduce constantly oxygen, the body will defend itself by increasing, via a substance, the oxygen transport. A higher level of this substance is found in babies that were exposed to smoke. Cotinine (a chemical from the nicotine) is also found in the blood of babies that were exposed to smoke, even passive smoke. A lot of theses pollutants are also found in the blood of breastfeeding babies whose mothers smoke. «The blood levels of nicotine byproducts were proportional to the number of cigarettes smoked by the mother» says Dr.Sears.
Smoking is not only harmful for the lungs but also for the heart. It affects the level of good cholesterol in your infant. And good cholesterol protects from heart disease. Some of these toxins also affect heart rate. Researchers have found high levels of different toxins around the hearts of babies who died of SIDS.
As we said earlier smoking also affect brain growth, and the brain does control the breathing mechanisms. Because babies breath by their nose, smoke also blocks the nasal passage and paralyzed the tiny filaments, the mucous is not cleared properly and it compromise their breathings. «Children of smoking parents have two to three times more doctor visits because of respiratory infections. Respiratory viruses are frequently found at postmortem examination of SIDS infants». Scientific studies conclude that smoking around babies increases the risk of SIDS, and the more cigarettes the parents smoke the higher the risk. And the sad news is that between 11 and 30 percent of women continue to smoke during pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Think about it before lighting a cigarette, will you take the risk to compromise the health of your baby?
www.strolltogether.com
Source...