There is bad news for parents who smoke as the answer is clearly a ‘Yes’. The baby is expose to so many dangers associated with cigarette smoke. Read the common hazards below:
• Children who live in a house with smokers tend to suffer more from asthma and chest infections.
• The cigarette or tobacco smoke can deprive the baby of clean air or oxygen. This also lowers the capacity of the baby’s lungs and bronchial tubes to withstand infection.• Children of smokers have higher cases of allergies.
• Cigarette smoke contains a dangerous mixture of chemicals like nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, ammonia, cyanide, etc.
• Chronic ear infection in children is also linked to living in a house with smokers.
• Passive smoking where the baby is expose to the smoke in the same room can cause cot deaths (sudden infant death syndrome).• Children who live in a house with smokers also tend to grow shorter compared to children of non-smokers.
Now that you are aware of the risks above, it may be a motivation for you to stop smoking and break the bad habit. Being a parent comes with a lot of responsibilities and one of them is to protect your baby from harm.
If the habit proves too difficult to discontinue, just remember to smoke away from the baby, preferably outside the house.