After the birth of a child, most of the women are prescribed with codeine as a pain killer, but there were suspicions that this drug might be harmful to babies who were on the feed of their codeine consuming mothers. A Canadian study also suggested that these babies could be seriously harmed. Reason behind this is that codeine after ingesting gets converted into morphine by the body. Some nursing mothers, depending on their ethnic background, have a tendency of digesting them faster than other women; this way they can feed their newborn with a potentially toxic dose. And this was the reason that made codeine an unpreferred choice for doctors as a prescription to new mothers.

But in this regard, a new study has been issued in the journal Clinical Toxicology on Monday. Dr. David Juurlink of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto along with his co-authors writes in this journal that till now, no such evidence has been gathered that could prove codeine to be harmful for babies. After analyzing 7,804 infants whose mothers were receiving codeine as a prescribed pain killer immediately after their delivery, the team confirmed that this drug do not poses any kind of risk of death or serious harm to the babies.

Dr. Juurlink added, "Over a 10-year period, we found no evidence that the prescription of codeine to women following delivery was associated with various measures of neonatal harm, including death or hospitalization. Our results should not be construed as an endorsement of codeine therapy, either during breastfeeding or in any setting".

According to researchers, codeine is quite famous and known drug to all doctors. It is known as an inherently irrational analgesic drug because it is really difficult to predict that to what extent this drug will be converted to morphine, and in what ways, it would further interact with other drugs. But till now, no effects in babies have been reported.