Smoking during pregnancy and babbling abilities of the 8-month-old infant

Abstract

Animal experiments suggest that the fetal brain is sensitive to nicotine. Although much attention has been given to the relation between cigarette smoking during pregnancy and neurodevelopment in children, this remains controversial. Our study describes the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and babbling abilities of the 8-month-old infant. In a longitudinal cohort, information was collected at the 16th week of gestation, at delivery and when the infant was about 8 months old. At this age babbling abilities of the infant were evaluated by a health visitor during a home visit. Singleton infants without any disability born at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, 1991-92 and still living in the Community of Aarhus at the age of 8 months were eligible (n = 2302). Complete follow-up was obtained for 1871 children (81.3%). A dose-response-like relationship between number of cigarettes smoked per day during pregnancy and babbling abilities was found after controlling for potential confounders. Smoking 10 or more cigarettes per day during pregnancy almost doubled the risk (odds ratio [OR] = 2.0, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1-3.6) of the infant being a non-babbler at the examination at 8 months. Among children who were breast fed for less than 4 months this risk was even higher (OR = 2.7, CI 1.3-5.8).

Genes, maternal smoking, and the offspring brain and body during adolescence: Design of the Saguenay Youth Study

“…In a prospective cohort study, Fried [1995] observed systematic differences between children born to ''heavy smokers'' (>20 cigarettes/day) compared with nonsmoking mothers, in several cognitive domains, including processing of auditory stimuli, attention, and language comprehension. Other [Lassen and Oei, 1998;Obel et al, 1998;Olds et al, 1994] but not all [MacArthur et al, 2001] investigators have observed similar effects. Several studies revealed an increased incidence of externalizing disorders in general [Breslau and Chilcoat, 2000], and attention-deficit hyperactivity [Milberger et al, 1998] and conduct [Wakschlag et al, 1997;Weissman et al, 2000] disorders in particular.…”

Prenatal Exposure to Maternal Cigarette Smoking and the Adolescent Cerebral Cortex

“…In a prospective cohort study, Fried and colleagues (Fried, 1995) observed systematic differences between children born to 'heavy smokers' (420 cigarettes/day) and to non-smoking mothers, in several cognitive domains, including processing of auditory stimuli, attention, and language comprehension. Other (Olds et al, 1994;Lassen and Oei, 1998;Obel et al, 1998) but not all (MacArthur et al, 2001) investigators have observed similar effects. Furthermore, a recent study in adolescent smokers described deficits in visuospatial memory that was greater in individuals exposed to maternal cigarette smoking prenatally, as compared with nonexposed adolescents (Jacobsen et al, 2006).…”

Mütterliches Rauchen in der Schwangerschaft und Schlafstörungen bei 2 Monate alten Säuglingen

“…While some authors failed to prove that either psychomotor or mental development of an infant was affected by maternal smoke exposure during pregnancy and early infancy [35], others found certain associations between antenatal smoke exposure and particular behavioural features. These include less optimal Brazelton neonatal behavioural assessments [31], abnormal, pitched neonatal infant cry [27], colic-like behaviour in babies [16], hypertonicity and increased nervous system excitation in infants at 1 month of age [14] and impaired babbling ability at 8 months [28].…”