How to Protect Your Kids From Becoming Addicted Smokers

How to Protect Your Kids From Becoming Addicted Smokers
Kids exposed to secondhand smoke take nicotine and other chemicals into their bodies just like smokers. The more smoke, the more chemicals...no amount of secondhand smoke is considered safe.

If you, or someone in your family, smokes and you have children, then it is important to ensure that they are not the recipients of secondhand cigarette smoke, which is classified as a known human (Group A) carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Children who live with smokers are more likely to develop:

• asthma
• bronchitis
• pneumonia
• colds
• coughing/wheezing
• sore throats
• ear infections
• eye irritation
• allergies

It is even more damaging to children whose lungs and immune systems are still developing. Given the reality that the statistics highlight, the less exposure your kids have, the better.
What parents say, how they act, and the values they communicate through their words and deeds has an enormous influence on children; and that applies to tobacco use, as well

Specifically, parents can take the following actions to help ensure that their children remain (or become) tobacco-free

1.   Stop smoking.
If you or anyone else in your home smokes, the most effective way to prevent harm to the kids is to quit (or persuade the resident smoker to quit) as soon as possible.


2.   If you smoke, share your struggles to quit with your children.
Kids greatly underestimate how difficult it is to quit smoking. Showing how hard it is to quit (and making sure quitting doesn’t look easy) can help eliminate this misperception.
Continuing to try to quit, despite the difficulties, also sends a strong anti-smoking message

3.   Tell your kids that you don’t want them to smoke and will be disappointed if they do.
Parental attitudes, opinions, and feelings about their kids’ smoking status greatly influence whether or not kids will smoke, even when the parents smoke

4.   Make sure your kids have the facts they need. 
By making sure that their kids know how harmful smoking is, parents can help their kids to develop a firm, negative perception or attitude about smoking practices and their consequences, and kids with such negative perceptions or attitudes are less likely to smoke.