That's partly because the long-term effects of vaping are not yet known. Even so, there's no need to stop breastfeeding because you vape. Your breastmilk is the perfect food for your baby, and it's all she needs for her first six months.
The levels of nicotine in milk are highest just after a mother finishes her cigarette and over the following two hours the concentration of nicotine in breast milk falls significantly. The half life of nicotine in breast milk is variously quoted as 95 minutes (Mohrbacher, 2020) or 120 minutes (halesmeds.com 2020).
Using tobacco or e-cigarettes while breastfeeding can allow harmful chemicals to pass from the mother to the infant through breast milk or secondhand smoke exposure.
Does nicotine from e-cigarettes get into breastmilk? Yes. Inhaled nicotine enters a mother's blood through her lungs, and then easily passes into breastmilk.
Nicotine in breast milk and passive smoking can give your baby chest infections, vomiting, diarrhoea and irritability. Avoid smoking for half an hour before you breastfeed.
Nicotine gets into your milk, so try to wait several hours after you smoke before nursing your baby. Second hand smoke increases your baby's risk for ear and respiratory infections, asthma, and even sudden infant death syndrome.
People also process nicotine differently depending on their genetics. Generally, nicotine will leaves your blood within 1 to 3 days after you stop using tobacco, and cotinine will be gone after 1 to 10 days. Neither nicotine nor cotinine will be detectable in your urine after 3 to 4 days of stopping tobacco products.
Licensed NRT products are safe to use while you're breastfeeding. They increase your chances of quitting smoking, especially if you also have support from your local NHS stop smoking service. NRT is available free on prescription while you're pregnant and for 1 year after your baby is born.
Using e-cigarettes around your baby
As there is no direct research on using e cigarettes and SIDS, we suggest you do not share a bed with your baby if you use e cigarettes. The safest option is to give up smoking entirely, but if you choose to use e cigarettes instead then this is likely to be much safer.
The bottom line: No amount of vaping around your babies and children is considered safe.
Unlike during pregnancy, a nursing woman who smokes occasionally can time breastfeeding in relation to smoking, because nicotine is not stored in breast milk and levels parallel those found in maternal plasma, peaking ~30 to 60 minutes after the cessation of smoking and decreasing thereafter.
It's not safe to use vape pens or e-cigarette devices around kids. The vapor from e-cigarettes has chemicals in it that can be harmful to kids. There's another serious problem with e-smoking devices: Kids can get poisoned if they drink the liquid in nicotine delivery devices or refills.
Medical tests can detect nicotine in people's urine, blood, saliva, hair, and nails.
Lung function starts to improve 2 weeks to 3 months after quitting. From 1–12 months after quitting, symptoms such as coughing and breathing problems should improve as lung structures heal. If people wish to quit vaping, they can speak with a healthcare professional.
If you continue to smoke when you are breastfeeding, wait to have a cigarette until after you have completed a feeding. You might be advised to wait at least three to four hours before breastfeeding again–even if it means that you have to pump and dump (where you express and discard some breastmilk).
Wait as much time as possible between smoking and breastfeeding. This will lower the amount of nicotine in your milk while nursing. Be sure to smoke away from your baby and change your clothes to keep your baby away from the chemicals smoking leaves behind.
Studies indicate that smoking more than 10 cigarettes per day decreases milk production and alters milk composition. Furthermore, breastfed babies whose mothers smoke more than 5 cigarettes daily exhibit behaviors (e.g. colic and crying) that may promote early weaning.
Secondhand vapor (which is technically an aerosol) is the vapor exhaled into the atmosphere by an e-cig user. Like secondhand smoke, it lingers in the air long enough that anyone in the same room (assuming the room is small enough) is likely to inhale some of the exhaled aerosol.
For toddlers, the common symptoms of vaping exposures are coughing, severe coughing fits and vomiting. In serious cases, it can also cause loss of consciousness and seizures.
Poisoning is more common in children due to their smaller size. Symptoms include vomiting, rapid heart rate, unsteadiness and increased salivation.
Nicotine concentration in breastmilk may be higher than maternal BAC [2], and both alcohol and nicotine reduce milk production [3, 4]. Nicotine is also associated with changes in breastmilk composition and taste [3], which may further impact infant feeding and nutritional intake.
ESD aerosol is made up of a high concentration of ultrafine particles, and the particle concentration is higher than in conventional tobacco cigarette smoke. Exposure to fine and ultrafine particles may exacerbate respiratory ailments like asthma, and constrict arteries which could trigger a heart attack.
1: Vaping is less harmful than smoking, but it's still not safe. E-cigarettes heat nicotine (extracted from tobacco), flavorings and other chemicals to create an aerosol that you inhale. Regular tobacco cigarettes contain 7,000 chemicals, many of which are toxic.