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Weight growth in infants born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy

^a Department of Paediatrics, Ospedale S Gerardo, Monza, Italy, ^b Istituto di Statistica Medica e Biometria dell'Universita degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy, ^c Department of Paediatrics, Ospedale di Melegnano, Italy

Correspondence to: Dr Cortinovis.

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether maternal smoking during pregnancy causes impairment in growth after birth.
Design: Longitudinal study.
Setting: Six medical university centres of six towns of north, central, and south Italy.
Subjects: 12987 babies (10238 born from non-smoking mothers, 2276 from mothers smoking one to nine cigarettes a day, and 473 from mothers smoking >/=10 cigarettes a day) entered the study.
Main outcome measures: Difference in weight gain between children born to smoking mothers and those born to non-smoking mothers. Weight was measured at birth and at 3 and 6 months of age. Maternal smoking habit was derived from interview on third or fourth day after delivery.
Results: Compared with children born to mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy, the birth weights of children born to mothers who smoked up to nine cigarettes a day were 88 g (girls) and 107 g (boys) lower; in children born to mothers who smoked >/=10 cigarettes a day weights were 168 g and 247 g lower. At six months of age for the first group the mean weight for girls was 9 g (95% confidence interval -47 g to 65 g) higher and for boys 64 g (-118 g to -10 g) lower than that of children born to mothers who did not smoke. The corresponding figures for the second group were 28 g (-141 g to 85 g) lower for girls and 24 g (-136 g to 88 g) lower for boys.
Conclusions: The deficits of weight at birth in children born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are overcome by 6 months of age. These deficits are probably not permanent when smoking habit during pregnancy is not associated with other unfavourable variables (such as lower socioeconomic class).

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