Secondhand Smoke and Babies

Does Secondhand Smoke Cause Sleep Disturbances in Infants?

By Kelly Burgess

My husband was a smoker when our first two children were born. He quit after he sat down one day to play with our daughter, who was 4 at the time, and she wrinkled her little nose and told him to go away because he smelled like "dead worms."

Even when he did smoke, he never smoked in the house and he didn't smoke in the car when the kids were with him. He would always step out into the garage or the backyard to feed his habit. As careful as he was, a new study shows that his smoking and the chemicals it left in his clothes and the residual secondhand smoke left in the car could have led to some serious developmental problems with our children. If he had known that then, he would have quit a lot earlier.

Dr. Hawley Montgomery-Downs is an assistant professor in the department of psychology and adjunct professor in pediatrics at West Virginia University. She's also a co-author of the study Snore-Associated Sleep Fragmentation in Infancy: Mental Development Effects and Contribution of Secondhand Cigarette Smoke Exposure. It's a long title, but the conclusion of the study was fairly simple: Infants who live in a house where there is a smoker are likely to have snoring problems that lead to sleep disturbances. These sleep disturbances can then lead to health, behavioral and learning problems.

Want to see more?

• Danger in the Air: The Effects of Secondhand Smoke
• Confessions of an Ex-smoker: Winning the Battle Against Nicotine
• Kick It! Tips to Help You Stop Smoking
• Talk about it!