Indonesia: 8-year old boy will undergo therapy to kick smoking habit-Child Welfare

Report by JENIFERLAMUG

A child welfare official in Indonesia said on Friday that Ilham, the eight-year-old boy, who smokes at least 25 cigarettes a day will have to undergo therapy in the capital of Jakarta to help him quit his smoking habit, the AFP reported.

"I hope the therapy works so my son can go back to school and live a normal life like the other kids," Agan Umar, the boy’s father said.

Having this habit for about four years now, the boy is in need of “emergency help” as his addiction in smoking had already reached the so called “alert level,” Indonesia's Child Protection Commission chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait told the press. He added that if the boy is not given a cigarette every time he asks, he manifests a “dramatic change of behavior” being wild and uncontrollable, acting as if he is possessed by evil spirits.

Umar also added that his son often throws tantrums and gets angry by crashing whatever is around him.

Reportedly, the boy who is from Sukabumi, a village in western Java, will start to receive therapy on Monday by specialists to check on the effect of his smoking habit on his health.

In addition, Sirait told reporters that the boy will be given a psycho-social therapy to divert his attention to playing.

In 2011, Chairul, a two-year-old baby was named “smoking baby” when a video clip of him smoking goes viral in youtube.

And sometime in 2010, another two-year-old and overweight toddler named Ardi Rizal in Sumatra Island who was also reportedly smoking at least 40 cigarettes in a day, had now stopped his habit after he was put in a rehab.

See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1281538/Smoking-year-old-Ardi-Rizal-40-cigarettes-day.html

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the smoking rate in Indonesia is so high with 89 million smokers that include high school and university students.

Worst is, more kids aged 2 to 15 are engaged in smoking habit.

A research made by Synovate also suggests that Indonesia is a country with lots of smoker especially males.

See: http://www.synovate.com/news/article/2003/03/synovate-smokes-out-the-facts-on-tobacco-use-in-indonesia.html