Smoking when breastfeeding?
My son is currently in the NICU, he came a bit early but he’s only in there now because we’re working on getting him to eat without his feeding tube. He’s been doing really well with the day time nurses, we’ve been going back and forth between breast and bottle (the milk I’ve pumped since I can’t be at the hospital all day with him no matter how much I would love to, I have a 3 year old who also needs me). The night time nurses have been lazy and don’t even try to get him to use a bottle, they just allow him to rely on his tube. Which is obviously frustrating, but a convo for another time. My question is, once the baby is home, what do we think about smoking while breast feeding/pumping? I’m not risking them screening my milk and causing problems with DCF over weed, so I haven’t smoked yet. But I’ve been missing it and it helps a lot with my anxiety which was horrible during my pregnancy so I’m patiently (not so patiently 🙃) waiting for him to be home so I can smoke again. I don’t produce enough to pump and dump (maybe 3/4oz at most) so I’m not sure what to do. My first son was formula fed because I didn’t produce like.. anything. So I’m not opposed to formula at all…I’m just not sure if I should switch him to formula when he’s home or if it’s okay for me to keep breast feeding/pumping when I smoke? I’ve read that very little transfers through the milk but I’m not sure. Does anyone have experience with this?
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I’m a chronic smoker and there is zero difference in my baby
I’ve read that if you partake in marijuana or drink (one or two alcoholic drinks max) right after breastfeeding/pumping that the amount left a few hours later for the next feed/pump is too small to affect the baby. Doubtful if this is scientifically tested as these types of studies don’t exist, but use your best judgement. Start very small and if it seems like smoking negatively affects your baby, then I would avoid it.
I smoked when I breastfed, I noticed no difference with my little girl. I just tried to not do it right before she ate, but that wasn't always possible
I've been a chronic smoker, and gave it up (mostly) during pregnancy, but I'm very nervous about smoking now that I'm breast feeding. As we probably all know, the THC sticks in our fat cells, and if you're a daily smoker like me, it can build up levels in the body. Idk necessarily the mechanism for creating the fat in breast milk, but I'd assume that if THC is in my fat cells, and he's drinking milk fats from me, at some point there's got to be enough THC in your body that it's giving off more than a negligible amount. Like Christine mentioned above, there aren't too many studies to prove THC levels on breast milk, or how the mother's consumption would correlate to how much would transfer through breast milk.
I’m really happy to hear that because I’ve been feeling guilty about smoking daily while breastfeeding lol but so I’m curious, where did you find these studies? I’ve looked online a lot and most of what I got has said not enough research has been done🤔 it does totally make sense tho that our bodies would do that imo considering how you can also make antibodies to prevent baby from getting any of your sicknesses and all that too
Also curious about these “tons of studies” because I also could not find them. I support you in your choices, and will also probably smoke when breastfeeding, but I do not believe there are reputable/credible scientific studies about this topic. There are studies about medical marijuana for children with issues like epilepsy and other conditions that respond positively to treatment, but specifically babies and breast milk or during pregnancy I could not find.
The reason there are not true studies is because it is not ethical to subject babies to a substance that is potentially harmful. I tried looking for the "many studies" as well that other ladies want to quote here. They can only work with moms that self report using cannabis. I found one in a 6wk study where the cooperating mothers were asked to stop smoking, only 7 out 100 moms actually stopped smoking. In the 6wks that their breast milk was tested there was a varying range of THC quantities, some as little as 10mg some as much as 100mg. It all depends on the quantity of use, and the more you use, the more THC is building up in your system, the more THC you will be excreting in your breast milk.
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