A mother in northern Nigeria caught the two-year-old and her skin was burned on her face and legs, apparently frustrated.
The 32-year-old, under pressure from her family, used a rotating skin product on all six children, and she now feels deeply sorry for her.
Fatima’s name has been changed to protect her family’s identity. She said that whenever she went out, one of her daughters would cover her face to cover up her burns.
Another person had deeper skin than before – she had a pale circle around her eyes, and one-third of her lips and knees had scars.
Her child still has crying wounds-his skin takes a long time to heal.
Fatima said: “My sister gave birth to light skinned children, but my children had darker skin. I noticed that my mother favored her sister’s children over my children because of her skin color.
She said she used a cream she bought at a local supermarket in Kano and had no doctor’s prescription.
One of Fatima’s daughters has traces on her lips due to using cream [BBC]
At first it seemed to work. Grandma warmed up to Fatima’s children, who were between 2 and 16 years old at the time.
But then burns and scars appeared.
For beauty reasons, skin degeneration or lightning in Nigeria is also known as bleaching in Nigeria, although these places usually have deep cultural roots.
According to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), women in Nigeria use skin fresh skin products more than any other African country – 77% use them regularly.
In Congo-Brazzaville, the figure is 66%, Senegal is 50%, and Ghana is 39%.
These creams may contain corticosteroids or hydroquinones, which can be harmful if used in large quantities and are only available through a doctor’s prescription in many countries.
Other ingredients used sometimes are toxic metals, mercury and kojic acid – a by-product made from Japanese alcoholic beverages, sake.
Dermatitis, acne and discoloration of the skin are possible consequences, but inflammatory diseases, mercury poisoning and kidney damage.
The WHO said the skin may become thinner, so the wound takes longer to heal and is more likely to get infected.
“Many people associate light skin with beauty or wealth. Women tend to block their children and bleach them from childbirth to discriminate.
This situation is so bad that the National Food and Drug Administration and Control Agency of Nigeria (NAFDAC) declared a state of emergency in 2023.
It is becoming increasingly common for women to bleach their children, like Fatima.
“Many people associate light-colored skin with beauty or wealth. Women tend to block their children because they bleached from childbirth, avoiding this discrimination,” Zainab Bashir Yau, owner of the Dermatology Spa in the capital Abuja, told the BBC.
She estimates that 80% of the women she meets have bleached their children or plans to do so.
Some people are bleached as babies, so they are just continuing to practice, she said.
One of the most common ways to tell if someone uses skin products in Nigeria is the darkness of their knuckles. People’s hands or other parts of their feet become lighter, but their knuckles tend to remain dark.
However, due to smoking, smokers and drug users will sometimes have dark patches.
Therefore, it is sometimes wrong to think that users of skin-infiltrating products belong to this group.
Sometimes it is believed that the color contrast on the bleached hands is similar to the marks on the hands of drug addicts [BBC]
Fatima said that this is what happened to her daughters at 16 and 14.
“They face discrimination from society – they all point to them and call them drug users. It has a big impact on them,” she said.
Both of them lost their potential fiancé because men don’t want to be associated with women who might be considered drug-taking.
I visited a popular market in Kano where people who call themselves “bartenders” create bright skin creams from scratch.
There is a row of stores in the market where thousands of these creams are sold.
Some pre-mixed varieties are arranged on the shelves, but customers can also choose ingredients and ask for the butter to be mixed in front of them.
I noticed a lot of bleach creams, which the label says are targeted at babies and contain regulated substances.
Other sellers use regulator ingredients such as kojic acid, hydroquinone and the powerful antioxidant glutathione, which may cause rashes and other side effects.
I also witnessed teenage girls buying bleaching creams for themselves and in bulk so that they can sell them to their peers.
Marketing salespeople use powerful substances mixed with skin brightening creams – adjust them at the request of customers [BBC]
A woman who once dyed her hands insisted that the seller added lightning agent to the cream mixed for the child, even if it was a regulated substance for adults and was used illegally by the child.
“Even if my hands change color, I’m here to buy face creams for my kids so they can peel. I believe my hands are just because I’m using the wrong person. Nothing happens to my kids,” she said.
One seller said most of his customers are buying creams to make the baby “shiny” or look “radiant and shiny.”
Most people don’t seem to be aware of the approved dose.
One salesman said he used “a lot of kojic” – exceeding the prescribed limit – if someone wants lighter skin and smaller amounts, if they want subtle changes.
Fatima’s toddler’s face still has pain in the skin-colored products that take time to heal [BBC]
According to NAFDAC, the approved Kojic Acid dose in Nigerian face cream is 1%.
I even saw salesmen giving women injections.
Dr. Leonard Omokpariola, director of NAFDAC, said attempts are being made to educate people about risks.
He also said the market is raiding and is working to capture the skin-containing ingredients on the Nigerian border when it is brought into the country.
But he said law enforcement officers sometimes have difficulty identifying the substances.
“Some of them are just shipped in unmarked containers, so if you don’t take them to the lab for evaluation, you can’t tell what’s inside.”
Fatima said her actions will always bother her, especially if the child’s scars don’t go away.
“When I revealed what I did to my mom for her actions, she regrets that they had to go through and apologize when she heard the dangers of cream and the stigma that grandchildren faced,” she said.
Fatima is determined to help other parents avoid making the same mistakes.
“Even if I have stopped…the side effects are still here, I beg other parents to use my case as an example.”
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