Is smoking outside harmless to your baby?

No, it isn't. Smoking outside is better than smoking indoors, but unhealthy toxins stay on a smoker's hair, clothes, and breath after they've put out their cigarette. If you're a smoker and you breastfeed, the toxins are transferred to your baby through your breast milk. (Even if you're a smoker, though, breast is still best. According to La Leche League, if you smoke fewer than 20 cigarettes a day, the risks to your nursing baby from the nicotine in your milk are small.) If someone smokes in your home, the toxins from the smoke settle on surfaces throughout the house and stay there long after the visible smoke dissipates. Pediatrician Jonathan Winickoff at the American Academy of Pediatrics' Richmond Center and Harvard Medical School coined the term "thirdhand" smoke to describe this kind of tobacco-smoke contamination. "Children are especially at risk because they crawl and play on, touch, and mouth exposed surfaces," says Jonathan D. Klein, director of the Richmond Center. If your family or friends include smokers who aren't ready to quit, don't let them smoke in your house or around your baby. If they want to hold your baby, ask smokers to change their shirt (into one that they haven't worn while smoking) and wash their hands and face first. Say NO to smoking/smokers around your baby and keep them safe,healthy and Kamsified!