Babies of smokers show symptoms of nicotine withdrawal at birth

Newborns who were exposed in utero to heavy smoking their mother show symptoms of lack at birth, indicate the results of a Belgian study published in the journal "Pediatric Research"
Different studies have already confirmed the existence of a withdrawal syndrome manifested in newborns exposed in utero to maternal consumption of addictive drugs, remind members of the team led by Dr. Veronique Godding, service pediatric pulmonology clinic of St. Luke Catholic University of Leuven.

Such as smoking, in addition to its high frequency, including among pregnant women (in France, there are nearly a smoker for four pregnant women) results in adults, addiction and withdrawal symptoms, Belgian doctors sought to observe the possible occurrence of such symptoms in newborns exposed to nicotine in utero.

So they followed closely the first few days of life babies of mothers 17 heavy smokers and 16 babies of non-smokers who were not exposed to passive smoking during pregnancy, exposure is checked by measuring the cotinine (a derivative of nicotine) in the umbilical cord blood and in the urine of newborns. Besides regular neurological examinations, participants saw their babies lack score be evaluated every three hours during the first four days of their lives, thanks to the wide Finnegan.

The analysis of data showed that the lowest risk for babies than for control infants neurological score, initially significantly, increased during the first five days to finally reach levels comparable to those observed in the control group values.

With higher scores significantly Finnegan, newborns smoky also showed clinical symptoms of withdrawal during the first four days of life.

Having observed a correlation between the levels of markers of nicotine exposure measured and alterations revealed by neurological score and the scale of Finnegan, the authors concluded that maternal smoking exposes the newborn presenting symptoms.

This study adds a new risk to the many harms caused by smoking already reaching both the health of the mother and the child (preterm delivery, intrauterine growth retardation, increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome, increased sensitivity of children with respiratory infections, asthma and ear infections, increased risk of subsequent nicotine addiction ...).