Smoking and Breastfeeding: An Overview

Abstract

This paper reviews what is presently known about the associations between cigarette smoking, breastfeeding and infant health. Smoking almost certainly reduces lactational capacity. Tobacco constituents and combustion by-products reaching the infant through breastmilk or by inhalation are cause for concern. But artifically-fed infants are similarly exposed to many such compounds, and they in addition are at greater risk of respiratory and gastrointestinal disease, allergic disorders, and cot death. Hence breastfeeding must continue to be encouraged, even for smoking mothers. Recommendations that may reduce infant morbidity from smoking by the breastfeeding mother are set out. The author concludes that the scientific literature indicates that it is far from ideal to smoke and breastfeed—but it is worse to smoke and not breastfeed.