Smoking in pregnancy ups baby's ear infection risk
08/03/99
A mother who smokes during pregnancy may more than triple her child's risk for ear infection, researchers report.
The finding ``provides another reason why women should be encouraged to avoid smoking during pregnancy,'' according to a team of Australian researchers led by Dr. Stephen Stathis, of Mater Children's Hospital in Brisbane. The study is published in the August issue of the journal Pediatrics.
The investigators tracked the incidence of inner ear infection from birth to age 5 in children born to over 8,500 Australian women.
They found that children born to women who smoked during pregnancy were at much higher risk of ear infection than the children of nonsmokers.
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