Why on Earth would an intelligent doctor put a pregnant woman on nicotine patches? (OK, not intelligent doctors). Have they not heard that nicotine is bad for babies? Why tell the mother not to smoke and then some dumb doctor provides the toxic nicotine anyway!
Oh, I forgot to mention: the study showed that mother’s nicotine patch causes colic in infants. Well, of course! Mother smoking cigarettes does it, so of course the patch does it. Duh!
Colic is not as trivial as you might think—especially if you are a baby! Colicky babies cry inconsolably for several hours a day (at least three hours a day, more than three days a week, for more than three weeks), and researchers in the Netherlands found that exposure to nicotine — either from cigarettes or nicotine replacement therapy — was associated with a significantly increased risk of colic, ranging from 30 to 60 percent. That’s a BIG effect.
The researchers looked at data on interviews with more than 63,000 mothers included in the Danish National Birth Cohort. Interviews were done during pregnancy and six months after they had their babies.
About 74 percent of the moms didn’t smoke; 24 percent did smoke; 0.3 percent of women used nicotine replacement therapy, which can include patches, inhalers or gum; while 2 percent of women smoked and used nicotine replacement therapy.
The study is published online Feb. 20, 2012 and in the March issue of Pediatrics.
Just for once, US doctors are ahead and reportedly obstetricians don’t often prescribe nicotine replacement in pregnant women. I think it’s a shame that European doctors can’t try harder.
There are other options, such as counseling and behavioral therapy, even hypnosis, to help women overcome their addiction. The PAL device (creative visualization and relaxation) from New Reality, is also a good option, for beating addictions of all kinds.