Pot-Smoking Dads May Increase Risk of SIDS

[EasternPriest]

Pot-Smoking Dads May Increase Risk of SIDS
Reuters Health



NEW YORK - Fathers who smoke marijuana may be putting their infants at risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), a major cause of death among infants, new research suggests.
The findings, reported in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, show that infants of fathers who reported smoking pot at any time after the birth were nearly three times more likely to die of SIDS compared with infants of fathers who did not smoke. And men who smoked during their partner's pregnancy were about twice as likely to have a child who died of SIDS, the investigators found.

There was no independent association between a mother's recreational drug use and SIDS in the current study, but previous research has linked a mother's use of several drugs to SIDS.

It is not clear why paternal and not maternal drug use would increase SIDS risk, according to Dr. Hillary Klonoff-Cohen and Phung Lam-Kruglick from the University of California, San Diego. The research team suggests that a larger number of men smoked marijuana and that, compared with women, men smoked more often and for longer periods of time.

Future research should investigate the relationship between drugs and SIDS in a larger group of infants and take into account the frequency of drug use and quantity consumed, the authors suggest.

"The role of paternal psychoactive drug use, especially the relationship between marijuana and SIDS, is an understudied area; however, before any definitive role for the father can be confirmed, these findings should be investigated and replicated in future studies," Klonoff-Cohen and Lam-Kruglick conclude.

The researchers examined the records of 239 children who died of SIDS before 1 year of age and 239 healthy infants born in the same hospital and matched for age and sex. Information on the parents' use of marijuana, cocaine and opiates during conception, pregnancy and after birth was obtained through telephone interviews.

The cause of SIDS, the third-leading cause of death in infants aged 1 week to 12 months, is not known. Putting babies to sleep on their stomachs, using soft bedding and exposing them to cigarette smoke can all increase the risk, research has shown.

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 2001;155:765-770.



Reuters Health Information
Date Published: 7/19/01
Date Reviewed: 7/19/01

[Mairwen]

My dad did everything but smoke the Moon, and I'm not positive he didn't do that! I'm alive, I'm happy. I'm mostly healthy. Sorry, EP, but I think this is silly. IMHO. It rates up there with cigarette smoking causing lung cancer. :rolleyes: and the report released the other day that cigarette smoking causing women's ovaries to rot. Well, I must just be meant to be here, what can I say?

[EasternPriest]

Well, all I can say is the study speaks for itself, and yes cigarette smoking does cause lung cancer. And I'm not sure that anything that makes an infant3 times more likely to die is silly.

[Semele]

Actually it is not only pot smoke but even the legal Mrlboro smoke that puts infants at a higher risk for SIDS. This is a much investigated phenomenon and fingers have been pointed at everything from smoke to laying the baby in a certain position. It is a tragedy for which there are often no explanations. I personally, as a nurse and mother, would head the advice anyone offers for keeping my child a little safer.

As for your good fortune Mairwen I am happy for you. However many people defy the odds and survive horrible conditions and even thrive. This doesn't make the risks less prevalent. It just makes those survivors lucky. How many children are born each year to drug addicted moms who recieved no prenatal care? Sure many of them may survive and even prosper, but there are many who don't. Contrary to popular belief the medical community does not simply make statements of warning just to take away all of our fun. They are earnestly trying to prevent some of these tragedies. Whether we follow that advice is 100% up to us as individuals. I will always take every precaution I can. During my pregnacny I did everything by the book and never missed a vitamin or appointment and yet my son was born with a backwards heart and a dead twin. Was there anything I could have done to prevent it?? Probably not, but that isn't going to make me bitter and jaded in my thinking and cause me to be less careful next time.

Sorry...hoping off my soap box now!! Carry on please!

[threenorns]

"just because you (or your sister, or your mother's brother's best friend's cousin twice removed) smoked four packs a day and gave birth to a 12 pound baby who grew up perfectly healthy doesn't mean that the warnings about smoking while pregnant and around children isn't justified."

for those of you who still don't get it, let me rephrase and reiterate: the STATISTICS show that there is a SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED RISK to children when parents are smoking around them.

this is how you interpret that kind of statement:

for every ten babies whose parents don't smoke, 1 or 2 will have asthma or respiratory complications.

for every ten babies whose parents do smoke, 4 to 6 will have asthma or respiratory complications.

for every ten babies whose mothers don't drink while pregnant, zero will have fetal alchohol syndrome.

for every ten babies whose mothers did drink while pregnant (even if it was only the occasional party), 1 to 2 will have fetal alcohol syndrome, ranging from very mild to extremely severe. (there's a woman up the road from us with four children who doesn't believe that just because she's having kids, means she should have to stop partying and doing what she likes: of the four kids, only ONE is normal -- and the stupid cow wants to have more!)

are those the odds you wanna throw your kids? if you can't give up your drinking, smoking, and partying until the baby is old enough to be left out of it, then you have no business having children.

[Danustouch]

Whether or not any research of this type is absolutely "conclusive" is not important to me. What is important is taking every bit of useful information like this, and storing it away in my brain, for when i DO have children. I believe it better to be safe than sorry. I would rather make my husband smoke outside in the middle of winter, then to take even the smallest risk that his pot or ciggarrette smoking would harm our child. And, yes...he agrees.

These issues cannot be absolutely proven. But to the parents who have suffered the death of one of their children from SIDS,
I'm sure if they could turn back the hands of time, they, too would try EVERYTHING within their power, cutting out all POSSIBLE contributing causes, to bring back their children.

I for one, would MUCH rather do everything I could..BEFORE conceiving my child, to prevent such horrible tragedies from happening in the first place. Thank you EP. I realllllllly appreciated this information..

[Socharis]

Whats wrong with Sids? I have a friend called Sid, fair enough when his dad gave him his name he was high as a kite.

I say keep the Sids, whos with me?
Even if drugged up dads give them the silly name of Sid.

LOL :D
No offence to anyone.

[Twig]

Another reason I didn't have kids I guess! ;) :cool:

Peace,
Twig
:elf:

[threenorns]

socharis: while i appreciate your attempt at lightening up the thread, SIDS stands for:

Sudden
Infant
Death
Syndrome.


not exactly an appropriate subject for humour, especially to those of us with first-hand experience (my uncle died of SIDS, and so did my best friend's second baby).

[Socharis]

Originally posted by threenorns
socharis: while i appreciate your attempt at lightening up the thread, SIDS stands for:

Sudden
Infant
Death
Syndrome.


not exactly an appropriate subject for humour, especially to those of us with first-hand experience (my uncle died of SIDS, and so did my best friend's second baby).

I knew what it stood for, i was just lightening the post up, sorry, for trying.

[threenorns]

... some things you just don't joke about.

no problem.

[Lucidia]

well....

two things

my father smoked pot his whole life, he's healthy as an ox, and other than my "city related" respitory problems and the fact that i smoke clove cigarettes (i almost quit.. really i did...), i see no problems caused by his smoking.

The media is pushing anti-pot campains because the government will fund it left and right.

The reason they won't legalize it, is simply because they CANNOT TAX it.

If they dont' profit, we can't have it.

I didn't conduct the study, and I won't say it might not be true...

But if you think about this logically, at least 2/3rds of the people i know smoke marijuana on at least a recreational basis.

About a 1/3 of them smoke it on a regular basis.

If that many people smoke pot, then it's gonna be easy to say 1/3 or 2/3's of SIDS cases are related to pot smoking, since there are a LOT of pot smokers, and increasing amounts of SIDS.

That's just my little bit on that.

But there isn't much i can do about it. My husband has glacoma, he HAS to smoke (he can't afford the medication, which is just pot, or some synthetic pot substance, in a pill anyways) it, and if we have kids, we can either risk this possbility, or.... our child can have a blind father.

what would you do? (you don't actually have to answer that... it was just for emphasis)

[Myst]

<RANT>
Of your friends who smoke marijuana, how many are older and have been doing so for decades? People who've been doing these things for a few years or a decade or two are not going to get sick. It's the repeated use over time that weakens the immune system.

I'm with threenorns. Statistically it has been proven. Does that mean every one of your friends or family will get sick from smoking or doing drugs? No. But for every person you give me who's "healthy" and smokes I can give you one who's died or been very sick because of decades of smoking.

My own father, for example, who's got diabetes, had 9 foot surgeries, a toe removed, a heart attack, a triple bypass, angina, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, eye problems, and who's kidneys are now having problems. He smoked since he was 9. He's only 43 now, and his health problems started when he was about 30.

Yet you're going to blame "city-related" problems, when he's lived in a small village all his life and never worked in or near a factory.

People who argue statistics because they can't quit drive me nuts. You never see a non smoker arguing them.

When he started smoking they had no idea of the consequences. Incidentally, he stopped cold turkey a couple years ago - partially because they said "stop smoking now or there's no point in us doing your triple bypass". Do you really need that kind of motivation to stop poisoning yourself? Frankly, I'd ditch the cigarettes and everything else because my family and kids' lives are more important.
</RANT>

(Sorry, I didn't mean to sound as rude as I might've, it's just a subject I feel strongly about. I'm not trying to tell people what to do here)

[Spirahl]

I'm an ex-smoker, though not one of those ex-smokers. I don't preach to people to quit because i understand the nature of addiction and how it's something that only you can decide to do something about.
But if the subject comes up, I will tell them that you really don't realize how sick you are until you quit. Denial is a powerful thing.

[threenorns]

i'm an ex-smoker too -- i quit for about six years, started again four years ago, smoked for two years, then got bored with the whole thing and quit (my hubbie is ever so jealous, [evil snicker]).

i give my daughter marijuana to ease the worst of her tics, eating disorder, and sleeping disorders -- she needs it once every three to six months, and never more than three doses.

yes, "doses": i would NEVER get her to smoke the stuff -- that's just plain nasty! i make a tea and give that to her (one cup on waking, one cup at bedtime), and it does the trick a lot faster and with no side effects, unlike those nasty chemicals the doctor wants her to take (look up rispardal, haldol, clonidine, and xanax, then add gravol and a "wakeup pill" to the mix!).

i do not agree with the "recreational" use of marijuana -- that's like saying you use Prozac or Tegretol "recreationally".

i also do not agree with smoking it -- it's just too damned hard on delicate lung tissues. okay, fine, ppl live in cities -- that's like saying "since i live on a farm, i might as well use manure as my aftershave"!

ingesting it is far easier on the system and has no side effects. the side effects of marijuana are, i suspect, caused by the partial asphyxiation caused by holding the breath as long as possible -- oxygen deprivation, you know?

[Mairwen]

Originally posted by Semele
As for your good fortune Mairwen I am happy for you. However many people defy the odds and survive horrible conditions and even thrive.

I am coming from this viewpoint. My dad was (and still is) a heavy pot and cigarette smoker. I lived in his home two years (that I know of, I think). My mother started smoking at 15 ~ and was 16 when I was born. In 1998, she lost a lung to cancer. She was 46. It was proven that the cancer was not smoke related. Other than her missing lung, she and my stepdad, myself, and my two half-brothers are healthy as horses.

I'm sticking to my opinion. And that's that a lot of the finds of the "ills and dangers" of smoking are hogwash.

[EasternPriest]

Originally posted by Mairwen


I am coming from this viewpoint. My dad was (and still is) a heavy pot and cigarette smoker. I lived in his home two years (that I know of, I think). My mother started smoking at 15 ~ and was 16 when I was born. In 1998, she lost a lung to cancer. She was 46. It was proven that the cancer was not smoke related. Other than her missing lung, she and my stepdad, myself, and my two half-brothers are healthy as horses.

I'm sticking to my opinion. And that's that a lot of the finds of the "ills and dangers" of smoking are hogwash.

stick to what you will..the statistics prove otherwise...

[threenorns]

Originally posted by EasternPriest


stick to what you will..the statistics prove otherwise...



just because your ONE family manages just fine doesn't negate the hundreds of thousands of families who've been affected by the statistics.

[EasternPriest]

Smoking related illnesses, (not just lung cancer) kill over 500,000 people a year in the US alone.