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Can I smoke around my baby?

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Dr. Ann Kellams: Anytime you are somewhere where you can smell smoke that baby is breathing it in and infants who live in houses where people smoke have higher risk for sudden infant death syndrome or croup death, higher risk for infections like ear infections and pneumonias, the colds that they get last longer and tend to be more severe. So we absolutely recommend no smoking in the house where the baby live or in the car where the baby is going to ride and that's whether the baby is there at that moment or not because the smoke doesn't know to go out the front door when the baby comes home. So if you can smell smoke the baby is breathing it in.

The other thing you can do if you are smoking outside only would be wear a smoking jacket or something that you then take off because you are holding the baby up to something that has picked up the cigarette smoke then the baby can breathe it in that way. The best thing to do would be to use this life change as a way to quit yourself.

Expert: Dr. Ann Kellams

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Dr. Ann Lenox Kellams, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics in the Division of General Pediatrics and medical director of the newborn nursery at the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital, is an expert in newborn care and breastfeeding. Kellams teaches pediatric clinical skills to students and residents and authored the Newborn Nursery Resident and Student Curriculum and Orientation Manual for UVA More »