Expert: Sally Wendkos Olds - 12/15/2007

Question
HELP! I am having a terrible time trying to stop smoking.  I don't smoke in the house but I am nursing.  It seems like my baby's stools are slimy and they are brown, not at all what a breastfed stool normally looks like.  She has loads of gas and I was wondering if these are effects of the nicotine or should I be looking at something else?  Thank you so much for your time and advice...Sybil

Answer
Dear Sybil,

First, congratulations for giving your daughter the best start in life by breastfeeding her!

I know that it can be very hard to stop smoking, and I'm glad you're trying. I am attaching an excerpt from my book (see below) about the effects of tobacco. However, I don't know of any reports of effects on a baby's stool. You should contact your pediatrician and ask him/her about it. The doctor will probably want a sample of the baby's stool. It is probably not serious, but whenever there is an unusual symptom, it should be checked out.

Good luck!

Sally
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Sally Wendkos Olds
Author, THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BREASTFEEDING: Eiger & Olds, 3rd edition 1999, published by Workman Publishing & Bantam Books, and available in most public libraries, bookstores & La Leche League chapters. Now in revision for a fourth edition, with Laura M. Marks, M.D.
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Nicotine, the main substance released when you smoke a cigarette, passes through your milk to your baby, but most of it is altered in your baby's liver and kidney. Since gastrointestinal absorption is slow, you would expect few if any severe toxic reactions in the nursing baby of a smoking mother.
  However, nicotine does interfere with milk production, and therefore babies of smoking mothers gain weight more slowly. It's also possible that nicotine absorbed through breast milk can make babies fretful. The main reason given by mothers who discontinue breastfeeding is that they "don't have enough milk," or that their babies "don't seem satisfied." It may be possible to avoid both these problems by not smoking.
  Also, a great deal of evidence is accumulating about the adverse effects of "passive smoking," that is, inhaling the smoke of other people. Babies are especially vulnerable, especially to upper respiratory infections, when the person closest to them is the one breathing smoke on them. This is true whether a baby is being fed by breast or bottle.
  If you're pregnant now, you probably already know that smoking causes a wide variety of prenatal complications. The most well-documented finding related to smoking is the tendency of pregnant smokers to bear smaller babies, and it's harder to establish breastfeeding with a premature or low-birthweight baby. The good news is that women who stop smoking by four months of pregnancy do not experience these complications.
  If you feel that you can't stop smoking even for the duration of your pregnancy and lactation, you can still take some steps that will lessen the risk to your baby to some extent:
  * You can avoid smoking while you're nursing: Aside from the danger of the tobacco smoke, there's the very real risk of dropping hot ashes on the baby.
  * You can cut down, smoking as little as possible, especially around your baby.
  * You can make special efforts to smoke in another room or outdoors.
   * And you can do your smoking immediately after a feeding rather than shortly before one.