Are you priming your baby to become a smoker?
If you smoked while pregnant or in your child’s early years, your kid has been “biological primed” to become a smoker as a teen or young adult, according to researchers at the University of Arizona.
“Somehow smoke is changing the brain chemistry,” said Dr. Roni Grad, an associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the university, according to HealthDay News. “If you are exposed to smoking prenatally or in the early years of life, you are much more likely to be a chronic smoker at the age of 22.”
The researchers found that children exposed to smoking in utero or as a baby were four times more likely to become smokers than other children. Those results stuck even if the mother quit smoking by the time the child was school-age.
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