"We were able to show that children who are exposed to tobacco smoke prenatally
and during the first years of life have a higher risk of developing abnormal
behavioral symptoms when they are of school age," said Dr. Joachim Heinrich.
"Moreover, it makes a difference whether the child was exposed to tobacco
smoke first after birth or was already confronted with it during prenatal
development."
Studies have been done and the children who were exposed to tobacco smoke prenatally have a 1.9 times greater risk of forming abnormal behavioral symptoms then children who are not exposed to tobacco smoke. The children exposed to smoke only after birth is 1.3 times higher. And of course the children who were exposed prenatally and after birth have a doubled risk.
Some symptoms of this are hyperactivity, attention deficits or problems in their relationships with the people around them.
The findings make clear that tobacco smoke exposure has a significant impact on
the behavioral development of children. The negative influence is greater on the
unborn child during the pregnancy of the mother than it is after this sensitive
developmental phase.
So pretty much smoking can effect your children for the rest of their lives which isn't fair to them. I think you just shouldn't smoke while you are pregnant or have smoke around your child period. It's not good for them and its certaintly not good for you.
That makes me so mad. Smoking should not be legal because kids should not have to deal with all of the problems that smoking causes.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, these arn't nessasarily set facts in stone. The only thing smoking during birth is said to cause is a little weight loss for the child. But I guess if we want to blame smokers instead of parenting issues or perhaps the overstimulation our children undergo even going outside...
ReplyDelete-Sara
I think that it is stupid that anyone would sell a pregnant women tobacco knowing the causes it can cause.. i think its dumb.. good article though
ReplyDelete-JT Sellers
I agree. Thanks for bringing up this important topic.
ReplyDelete24/25 (Post isn't labeled)
Sara:
ReplyDeleteThis is from the article:
"To ensure the validity of their results from the questionnaires, the scientists carried out carefully controlled tests to exclude possible bias due to social factors. Simon Rückinger, lead author of the study, stated: 'The relationship we found between tobacco exposure during fetal development and early childhood and behavioral problems at school age was not biased by other factors of the social environment.'"
In other words, the investigators were able to control for such things as parenting issues. Sure, it's not "set in stone", but the results are pretty conclusive.
There have been many studies linking smoking during pregnancy to health problems for the baby. One of the greatest health risks is a decrease in birth weight. And while you may characterize this as "a little weight loss", it's important to note that low birth weight is correlated to a number of much more serious health problems.
Pregnant women SHOULD be smart enough to not smoke until they give birth, but if people are addicted to something, it's literally almost impossible to quit. Good article.
ReplyDelete