When parents smoke: a case for 'Do as I say, not as I do'
If you're a parent who smokes, how does it affect your child? Also, how can we get teens to quit smoking? Read more here to find out.
A 17-year-old has been smoking cigarettes since she was 14. She has asthma and frequent respiratory infections, and she knows that smoking is making her worse. She has tried to quit but has given up. She says that her mother also smokes.
I believe that most adults know that smoking cigarettes is harmful. Who doesn't know that it causes cancer, heart disease, and lung problems? Yet adults are still smoking. Research has found that 42.1 million adults (18.1 percent) smoke.
I believe that most teens also know that smoking cigarettes is harmful. Yet teens are still smoking. Research has found that half of high school students have tried it and one in five currently smokes; one in five middle school students has smoked cigarettes before.
How does parents' smoking affect their teens' smoking? In a study of 406 adolescents aged 12 to 17 published in the journal, Pediatrics, those whose parents smoked at the time of the initial survey were more likely to become smokers themselves within a few years. The more years that their parents smoked, the more likely they were to start smoking at an early age and to become heavy smokers.
Most teenagers who smoke wish that they never started. Recently I met a 15-year-old girl who has been smoking a half of a pack per day for a year. Here is the word-for-word transcript of our conversation, starting with me:
"Do you want to quit?"
"No."
"Since you're a cheerleader, have you noticed that it is hard for you to keep up with your teammates?"
"No, I'm the best cheerleader."
"Did you know that smoking causes wrinkles?" (She has no wrinkles and wasn't fazed by this point.) "How do you get cigarettes?"
"I wait outside the store and find someone to buy them for me."
"How do you find the time to smoke a half of a pack a day?"
"I smoke before school, at lunch and after school." (She admitted that she doesn't like all of the time that smoking takes.)
"Do you wish that you never started smoking?"
"Yes."
Finally, I was getting somewhere. In fact, 70 percent of teenage smokers say they wish they'd never started the habit in the first place.
How to get teens to stop smoking? That's the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. Clearly, the negative complications of smoking are not stopping them. It's time to change our approach and focus on the positive things that start to happen within minutes of quitting:
20 minutes: Heart rate and blood pressure drop.
12 hours: Carbon monoxide levels in blood become normal.
2 weeks to 3 months: Circulation and lung function increase.
1 to 9 months: Coughing and shortness of breath decrease.
1 year: The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a continuing smoker's.
5 years: Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus and bladder are cut in half. Cervical cancer and stroke risks fall to that of a non-smoker.
10 years: The risk of dying from lung cancer is about half that of a person who is still smoking.
15 years: The risk of coronary heart disease is the same as a non-smoker's.
My advice to all who smoke: Smoking is an addiction — a medical illness — and is not a weakness. So don't beat yourself up about it; instead, try and get help. Here are some resources to help you:
1. Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669), the national access number to state-based smoking cessation services.
2. Websites for free materials:
3. Set a quit date.
4. Remove tobacco products from your home, car and workplace.
5. Resolve not to smoke at all — not even one puff.
6. Anticipate challenges, such as nicotine withdrawal, particularly during the first few weeks.
7. Ask others not to smoke around you.
My plea to parents who smoke:
Please don't accept smoking in your children just because you smoke. Help your children not start. If you wish that you never started smoking then tell your children why.
Don't smoke in front of your children — not only because the secondhand smoke is also harmful — but to prevent them from learning this behavior. Don't leave ash trays, cigarettes or matches out for them to see or take.
Have a question for the Healthy Kids panel? Ask it here. Read more from the Healthy Kids blog »