Nursing, Smoking, and Kids

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I have a neighbor that has two small children and they are serious chain smokers. I've always thought that smoking around children is a form of child abuse. But I've never wanted to say anything to them because despite my personal feelings, smoking around kids is discouraged but not illegal (yet). At least not where I live. So all I do is walk by and do nothing about it. Now, I am a nursing student. And as a future nurse, I feel obligated to do something. But what can I possibly do considering it is not illegal? If I talk to them, they could retaliate in some way. I don't really know them so I don't have a clue how they would react. I am just fearful for the kids (ages 2 and 4). Should I just mind my own business? I'm not trying to be a nosey neighbor. I just don't want to see the kids develop asthma or cancer or something.

Specializes in Telemetry.
Many healthcare providers avoid mentioning the subjects of passive smoking and nicotine cessation to this specific patient population, because they don't want to do anything to alienate these parents. Patients are sources of revenue for doctors' offices and clinics, and they'll simply find somewhere else to go if they hear about smoking cessation too many times from the same healthcare provider.

Do you think they don't want to alienate the parents because they are afraid they will go elsewhere?

I get the not wanting to alienate a patient, though. We can't help them if we do that. Confronting someone on a bad habit/behavior is something I feel you can only do once you have created a trusting relationship with someone. Unfortunately in a hospital setting our patients aren't there very long and we may not get them for more than a shift or two. Hard to build that kind of nurse-patient relationship in 12 hours. However, those who are clinic nurses (or other settings for that matter) may have more of an opportunity to build a more trusting relationship and can open up lines of communication about these subjects with out the patients automatically getting defensive right off the bat. I also think it depends on how you approach someone. As in most things, approaching with an air of understanding, empathy and support will get one farther than with a half hearted reminder or a 'lecturing' tone.

Regardless, one would practically have to live under a rock to not know that smoking is unhealthy and secondhand smoke is terrible for children. I think most smokers know this. Its whether or not they care enough to protect their children from it by not smoking in front of them, and/or are ready themselves to quit.

Specializes in no specialty! (have to graduate first!).
I get the not wanting to alienate a patient, though. We can't help them if we do that. Confronting someone on a bad habit/behavior is something I feel you can only do once you have created a trusting relationship with someone. Unfortunately in a hospital setting our patients aren't there very long and we may not get them for more than a shift or two. Hard to build that kind of nurse-patient relationship in 12 hours. However, those who are clinic nurses (or other settings for that matter) may have more of an opportunity to build a more trusting relationship and can open up lines of communication about these subjects with out the patients automatically getting defensive right off the bat. I also think it depends on how you approach someone. As in most things, approaching with an air of understanding, empathy and support will get one farther than with a half hearted reminder or a 'lecturing' tone.

You make a really good point. A trusting relationship is probably necessary to have this kind of a conversation. It's too bad having this kind of a relationship with most people is hard to come by. Due to reason that you said.

Specializes in Telemetry.

i can truthfully say that i hate that i smoke and recognize what a neurotic nut i look like while i'm having a smoke outside in a storm.

i feel the same way. i'm almost embarrassed about it. i always worry about whether or not i'm bothering someone when i go near someone who is a nonsmoker after i've had a smoke. when i've gone to visit friends with babies, i don't smoke at all until after i see the baby, because i imagine just the smell of smoke on my clothes can't be good for them. i never smoked during my pregnancies (and actually quit for 7 years during the time i was having kids and married. started back during my divorce, but thats a different story entirely!) and so and i are planning a pregnancy in january, so i'll be quitting again (and him too) in the next few months. (hopefully for good!!) i'm super paranoid about offending others with my smoking. i know i shouldn't smoke. i know all the risks and how bad it is for me.

to the credit of my healthcare providers- our nurse at our family practice has talked to me about quitting, and when i went for my employee health screening the nurse counseled me as well about quitting. now that i think of it... no dr. has ever mentioned it to me! wonder why its always the nurses? even at the obgyn the nurse practitioner who does my check ups says something everytime.

I'm not a smoker, a child of a smoker, Grandchild of a smoker ect. My whole family smokes. I was always sick as a child, sometimes on 5 or 6 meds at a time due to asthma, allergies ect.

If I wasn't old enough to buy the "smokes" then why was I old enough to be smoking? (secondhand starting before birth).

No it isn't child abuse, I guess.

But if it is illegal for the children to buy cigarettes then maybe it should be illeagal for them to consume(breath the smoke). It is illegal for persons under the age of 21 to buy or consume alcohol.

Don't judge the smoker, try to be suportive of them, as it is a very hard addiction to break. I've watched my grandmother breakdown crying trying to wait to smoke while around me and my children as she didn't want to have to sneak away to smoke, as she knows how much I dissaprove of smoking, and she was trying to quit and wanted me to be proud of her. She is almost 80 I'm proud of her for not smoking around my kids, in the house, in the car or any other inclosed space. Outside is the best that I can hope for, in the winter months she turns on the bathroom fan and opens a window and smokes in the bathroom. She loves and respects me as much as I do her. Find a happy compromise.

Sorry so long and personal.

A subject close to my heart. I could share opinions/situations for days, tried to keep it short and make sense.

The problem comes with people trying to regulate what they do with their kids. If you ban smoking around them what's next? Fast food? Cars? Sports? Public Schools?

It's like that movie Demolition Man. EVERYTHING was illegal. Meat, smoking, being fat, sex, religion, public school, sports, gambling.

For everyone of you that insists the second hand smoke is dangerous (which it is) I can name 10 other things which you probably let your kids do which is also dangerous. How far into the family are you going to let the government in.

While I would choose not to smoke near my child, it would be my choice. Not yours. If I chose to smoke near them you have no business telling me otherwise. A doctor does sure. That's what we pay them to do. A neighbor? Nope...

Specializes in Homecare Peds, ICU, Trauma, CVICU.
Can you imagine what it must be like in a car with the windows rolled up and someone sucking on cigarette after cigarette with these poor helpless souls STRAPPED in the car with no way to get out or a way to roll the windows down...the windows may be slightly cracked but come on..no one rides with the windows DOWN anymore!!! Even if you roll them down all the way smoke is still in the car or ashes are getting blown all around!!

Can you imagine these kids in their beds night after night breathing horrible cigarette smoke? Man the thought just makes me want to puke my brains out...

Have you ever smelled the children of smokers?? They absolute REEK of cigarette smoke..not just on their clothes but down to their pores..you can even smell it on their breath.

You wouldn't leave a loaded gun on the coffee table, or an open bottle of medicine out in their reach..both could be deadly in an instant..but if you smoke around your kids you are killing them--slowly.

To answer your questions......YES, YES, and YES!!!

I was a child of 2 chain smokers, car windows may or may not be down, small older home with no windows open and very poor ventilation. I literally lived in a cloud (yes a literal cloud) of smoke from the time I was born until I moved out. I never complained, never knew any better.....I was very used to breathing it in that I don't recall minding it.

And, like you Commuter, if somebody would have broached the subject to my parents, father especially, I know he would have told that person where to go!

I began smoking at the tender age of 12. Smoked throughout my pregnancy (not proud of that) and luckily had an 8lb healthy girl. Started out by going outside only to smoke, then began to rationalize "well the windows are open in the car, it can't hurt", to finally smoking in the house. I never never realized how much I must've stank until I finally quit (6yrs smoke free!!) Unfortunately there wasn't much anybody could have told me to make me quit until I was good and ready. I just feel this incredible guilt that I have subjected my daughter to those horrible toxins for the first 5 yrs of her life. And I am reminded of it everytime I am near the child of a smoker, and that poor child reeks to high heavens. I can't believe I did that to my own child!

It is a horrible horrible addiction and it saddens me to see children subjected to breathing it in. It's not so bad if the parent goes outside to smoke but to live in an environment like the one I grew up in is horrible. I now have respiratory problems at my young age that I know stems from smoking. I can see why some people might feel that this is a form of child abuse but the reality is that it is not against the law and it is legally not "child abuse".

In this litigious society, I am just waiting for the day that a child grows up to have major resp disease d/t second hand smoke exposure and decides to sue their own parents. I love my parents and would certainly never attempt to sue them, but I must admit I do feel some resentment that their addiction came before my health. And with the high price of medical care/health insurance it certainly doesn't seem fair to have to suffer and pay for expensive treatments for illnesses as an adult that occurred as a result of something your parents did and you had no say in the matter.

Specializes in Homecare Peds, ICU, Trauma, CVICU.
While I would choose not to smoke near my child, it would be my choice. Not yours. If I chose to smoke near them you have no business telling me otherwise. A doctor does sure. That's what we pay them to do. A neighbor? Nope...

I totally agree with you on this. A neighbor or any other casual acquaintance has absolutely no business interfering. Good intentions or not, doesn't matter, and I know from experience that it won't do any good most of the time, and some of the time it could make the situation worse. I expect to hear it from my doctor, would be disappointed if I didn't.

Still can't help but feel sorry for the child who doesn't have a choice in the matter.

Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I was a child of 2 chain smokers, car windows may or may not be down, small older home with no windows open and very poor ventilation. I literally lived in a cloud (yes a literal cloud) of smoke from the time I was born until I moved out. I never complained, never knew any better.....
From birth until age 16, I lived with my mother and father in a series of small apartments. The windows were rarely opened, the place always smelled rather stale, and I was always exposed to the cloud of smoke. Father smoked a pack a day, and mother smoked 1/2 a pack per day. As a result, I spent the vast majority of my younger years in my bedroom with the door closed.

Whenever I complained about the smoke to my mother and father, they would become defensive and spiteful to the point of cursing at me. I knew that moving out of their living space would be the only way for me to permanently be away from the cigarette smoke.

My point is that no amount of outsider intervention will get people to stop exposing their kids to secondhand smoke. Even if the state were to do something draconian such as ban smoking altogether, I'm assured there would still be people who are too addicted to quit. I believe an underground market might arise, where those who can't or won't kick the habit can buy cigarettes for an inflated price.

Specializes in oncology, trauma, home health.

I see the OP's point, and I read that she has opted not to say anything.

Smoking is absolutely disgusting. It reeks. People who smoke who are near you smell like an ashtray.

And yet...

I love a cigarette or two with a glass of wine (outside of course) and good company to boot, long talks that you get when you visit with "the smokers". Yes, very, very bad for you. Bad to do near kids. In an adult (outside) environment with the campfire blazing, very enjoyable, indeed.

Specializes in Geriatrics/Family Practice.

Call me the dummy. I'm a nurse who smokes with kids. I know it's bad and have tried to quit with every product out there. I quit when I was pregnant and while I was breastfeeding and then started right back up. My boys will be 9 and 11 years old. I've never smoked in my house, always outside. So I look really stupid standing outside when it's zero outside smoking. I've seen others who smoke in there house with their kids and yes it bugs me, but I guess until I'm perfect, (in the regards to being a nonsmoker) I won't tell anyone what to do, unless of course they ask for my opinion or advice. In the big scheme of things, smoking around your kids is bad, but raping, molesting, beating, neglecting and starving are a lot worse. Not that I'm condoning the behavior, but the other above listed, I would definitely voice my opinion and intervene. The things we see in nursing really makes you prioritize your what's to be overlooked and what has to be addressed. But if your one of those people who don't care what others think and are strong in your beliefs and are willing to possibly suffer some type of consiquence (sp) from your neighbors, all the more power to you. And that will go for being a nurse too, if your beliefs are that strong for your patient and you are willing to risk the consequences that may follow, again, more power to you.

From birth until age 16, I lived with my mother and father in a series of small apartments. The windows were rarely opened, the place always smelled rather stale, and I was always exposed to the cloud of smoke. Father smoked a pack a day, and mother smoked 1/2 a pack per day. As a result, I spent the vast majority of my younger years in my bedroom with the door closed.

Whenever I complained about the smoke to my mother and father, they would become defensive and spiteful to the point of cursing at me. I knew that moving out of their living space would be the only way for me to permanently be away from the cigarette smoke.

My point is that no amount of outsider intervention will get people to stop exposing their kids to secondhand smoke. Even if the state were to do something draconian such as ban smoking altogether, I'm assured there would still be people who are too addicted to quit. I believe an underground market might arise, where those who can't or won't kick the habit can buy cigarettes for an inflated price.

when buying cig. was no longer allowed in jails in Ca, the use of illeagal drugs went down....money was used to buy smuggled in cig....speaks to the degree of addiction?????!!!!

In my pre-Army days there were days I was so poor I had to decide if I would eat that day or buy a pack of cigarettes. It was actually an easy choice as it is WAYYY better to have smokes and be hungry than to be full and have no smokes....

:

+ Add a Comment