is it safe to breathe in second hand chewing tobacco?

Question

I just had a baby a few weeks ago and my mother in law who chews tobacco is always wanting to hold my daughter and when my daughter is with her she chews the tobacco right in front of her and i know tobacco it self is not safe for anyone to be around let alone a baby. I ask her not to do it around her but she neglects to listen and tells me its fine cuz its not smoke. Im worried for my daughters health and i just want to know if it's alright for my daughter to be around that..? please let me know so i can straighten this out with her.

Answer 1

its fine, there is nothing to breath in

Answer 2

There are no 'second hand' effects from chewing tobacco for your baby or anyone else..the tobacco is confined to your mother-in-law. It is more important for your baby to be held by someone who loves her..you can always make your feelings about the tobacco known to your daughter as she grows up. Trust me you will cause more problems than it is worth to your family's peace about this. Most tobacco users are so addicted that they will become very defensive about restrictons. If she were smoking it would be different but for now try to not make an issue of it no matter how disgusting it seems to you.

Answer 3

chewing tobacco does not admit smoke so their is nothing to breathe in, its an ugly habbit but it will not affect the baby.


for it to be harmful, for the chemicals to become smoke/fumes it needs to be set on fire.

Answer 4

hmmmm....perhaps not in short term, but in long term, you could be indirectly causing your child to identify this habit as something positive, and normal. Since we associate qualities with past memories, good or bad, the child could become biased in favor of this practice. You would essentially aide the child to mature believing the exact opposite of what you tried to instill in their formative years. This often causes a person to see cerain experiences in a light different from the norm-

Personal experinces I have to help clarify my explanation include:
1.a friend whose parents smoke, so she only dates guys who smoked because of the comforting feeling the association gives her- though she herself doesn't smoke
2.a friend who likes the smell of gas, he explained that it reminded him of being a child and being allowed to help a parent
pump the gas
3.i like the smell of mothballs- as it reminds me of my granny's house- i can think of many other examples

If a childs only experience, with the smell and use of the tobacco, is in the loving arms of a grandparent, they could associate
tobacco use and its qualities as a pleasant experience (including the habit of using tobacco could be seen as normal, after all granny does it) You could be essentially conditioning them to find tobacco as something fond, pleasant, and even appealing - and the child may not have the same negative opinion to tobacco as you obviously do once they are grown- (even if you taught them that the habit was bad, dangerous, or disgusting) They will experience other sources of tobacco influence in life, best thing is to try to limit the exposures while they are young.
Its a strange irony- and you hear it all the time how parents raised their children one way, and yet the child still does things as a teenager or adult that goes against all the years of good parenting. I guess we often forget that children are influenced by everyone and everything around them, not just the good teachings of their parents- and besides, they will probably associate YOU as accepting the practice too, just by you allowing it to appear "normal or acceptable" - just simply because it was a part of your ordinary lives, something they will perhaps smell 100's of times as a child- and only on pleasant occasions, favorable circumstances (seeing grandparents is always an exciting thing for children) If you arent questioning it, they wont question it either. If you only want the qualities of tobacco use seen as disgusting, unacceptable, and negative by your child, you yourself have to create the necessary associations- (by allowing exposure, you are allowing influence, so indirectly, you
endorse the practice- controlling what (negative) influences come into your childs life prevents a lot of "accidental undoing" of
your hard work, by others- An obviously "unintended" negative influnce is still a negative influence. It is possible the child
could pick up the same, or similar, bad habits partly due to all the psychological experiences in their past. What seems unacceptable, repulsive, or filthy to you may have no resemblance to how your child feels about it, unless you take part in teaching them how they should feel about this, or any area important to you. I wish you luck with this, it's a small sacrifice for granny to make- and it's for the best.

Answer 5

unless she is smoking the tobacco then it will not omit second hand smoke.

Answer 6

i dont think that it could do any harm, ive never heard of this before, but just tell her your concerns and let her know you dont appreciate her doing it in front of YOUR kids.

Answer 7

Y donnot she smokes around kidds???? that help them grow better!!!!