Breast milk is the best food for a baby, especially in the early stages of life. Thanks to him, the child can avoid many medical diseases.

Everyone understands perfectly well that a smoking mother, along with breast milk, passes on to her child not only nutrients, but also a bunch of harmful substances ( which are contained in tobacco smoke ). The most dangerous of which is nicotine. In the body of a child, nicotine is converted into another substance – cotinine . Its level in babies who are breastfed can be up to 10 times higher than in babies of non-smoking mothers.

Scientists have found that the taste of cigarettes is present in breast milk for 30-60 minutes after the end of smoking. So, if you can’t give up cigarettes, then at least smoke after breastfeeding. Studies have also shown that breastfeeding mothers who smoke have a shorter duration of breastfeeding than those who do not smoke. Accordingly, less milk is released and, in terms of quality, it will be inferior to the milk of a non-smoking woman.

A team of scientists from the Monell Chemical Senses Center found that nicotine in the breast milk of a tobacco-addicted nursing mother reduces sleep time and makes babies restless. The results of the study showed that if the mother smokes a cigarette before feeding, the baby’s sleep time is reduced by 37%. The level of sleep anxiety was directly related to the amount of nicotine contained in breast milk.

Thus, smoking mothers endanger the health of their baby, have less milk and in terms of the amount of nutrients it is inferior to non-smoking milk.