ARTICLE Breastfeeding and Smoking: Short-term Effects on Infant Feeding and Sleep

The authors have indicated they have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose. OBJECTIVE. The present experimental study was designed to determine how breast-feeding from a mother who smokes affects infants in the short-term. METHODS. Fifteen mother-infant dyads were tested on 2 days separated by 1 week. Mothers smoked (not in the presence of their infants) on one test day and refrained from smoking on the other. For the next 3.5 hours, infants breastfed on demand. Sleep and activity patterns were monitored by placing an actigraph on the infants ’ leg, and milk intake was determined by weighing the infants before and after each feeding. The nicotine content of the milk was measured to deter-mine the dose of nicotine delivered to the infants. RESULTS.Although there was no significant difference in breast milk intake, despite the taste changes in the milk, infants spent significantly less time sleeping during the hours immediately after their mothers smoked (53.4 minutes), compared with the session when their mothers abstained from smoking (84.5 minutes). Thi