BBC News, Kano
BBCA mother in northern Nigeria is visibly annoyed, as she hooks her two -year -old son, who has burns and furry fur on her face and legs.
The 32 -year -old used skin laundering products in the six children, under the pressure of his family, with results that now repent.
Fatima, whose name has been changed to protect the identity of his family, says that one of his daughters covers his face every time he goes out to hide his burns.
Another left with the skin darker than before: with a pale circle around his eyes, while a third has whitish scars on his lips and knees.
His child still has crying wounds: his skin takes a long time to heal.
« My sister gave birth to light skin children, but my children are darker skin. I realized that my mother favors my sister’s children because of her skin tone and hurting feelings, » says Fatima.
He says he used creams he bought at the local supermarket in the city of Kano, without a prescription.
At first it seemed to work. Grandma warmed up to the children of Fatima, who aged two and 16 years.
But then the burns and scars appeared.
Skining or lighting, also known as laundering in Nigeria, is used in different parts of the world for cosmetic reasons, although they often have deep cultural roots.
Women in Nigeria use more skin bleaching products than in any other African country: 77% use them regularly, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
In Congo-Brazzaville, the figure is 66%, in Senegal 50%and Ghana 39%.
Creams may contain corticosteroids or hydroquinone, which can be detrimental if they are used in high quantities, and in many countries they can only be obtained with the doctor’s recipe.
Other ingredients that are sometimes used are poison metal, mercury and kojic acid, a by -product of the manufacture of Japanese alcoholic beverage.
Dermatitis, acne and skin discoloration are possible consequences, but also inflammatory disorders, mercury poisoning and kidney damage.
The skin may be thinner, with the result that the wounds take longer to heal and are more likely to be infected, according to the WHO.
The situation is so bad that the National Agency of Administration and Drug Control and Control of Nigeria (NAFDAC) declared an emergency state in 2023.
It is also more and more common for women to whiten their children, as Fatima did.
« Many people connect the skin clear with beauty or wealth. Women often protect, as they call it, their children from this discrimination in whitening, » says BBC Zainab Bashir Yau, the owner of a dermatology spa in the capital.
It is estimated that 80% of the women they have known have bleached their children or have to do so.
Some were whitening as babies, according to her, so they only continue to practice.
One of the most common ways to know if anyone uses skin bleach products in Nigeria is the darkness of their knuckles. Other parts of the hands or feet of the people become lighter, but the knuckles are usually dark.
However, smokers and drug consumers also sometimes have dark patches in their hands, due to smoke.
So that the users of products that increase the skin are sometimes supposed to belong to this group.
Fatima says this happened to his daughters, 16 and 14.
« They faced the discrimination of society: everyone aims and calls them toxicomans. This has greatly affected them, » he says.
Both have lost potential promises because men do not want to be associated with women who could think they take drugs.
I visited a popular market in Kano, where people who are called « mixologists » create skin laundering creams from scratch.
The market has a whole row of shops where thousands of these creams are sold.
Some pre-greening varieties are arranged on the shelves, but customers can also select raw ingredients and ask that the cream be mixed in front.
I realized that many bleaching creams, with labels that said they were for babies, contained regulated substances.
Other sellers admitted to use regulated ingredients such as kojic acid, hydroquinone and powerful antioxidant, glutathione, which can cause eruptions and other lateral effects.
I also witnessed teenage girls who bought bleaching creams and bulk so that they could sell them to their peers.
A woman, who had her hands discolored, insisted that a seller add a relief agent to a cream that was being mixed for his children, although it was a substance regulated for adults and illegal to use in children.
« Although my hands are faded, I am here to buy creams for my children so that they can be clear skin. I think my hands are so just because I have used evil. Nothing will happen to my children, » he said.
A seller said that most of his customers bought creams to make their babies « bright » or look « radian and bright ».
Most seemed to be unaware of the approved doses.
A seller said he used « a lot of kojic », much about the prescribed limit, if someone wanted clear skin and a lesser amount if they wanted a subtle change.
According to Nafdac, the approved dose of Kojic acid in creams in Nigeria is 1%.
I even saw sellers who gave women injections.
Dr. Leonard Ookpariola, director of Nafdac, says they are trying to educate people about the risks.
He also says that the markets are attacked and that there is effort to seize ingredients that are thinning on the skin on Nigeria borders, as they are introduced to the country.
But he says it was sometimes difficult for law officials to identify these substances.
« Some of them have just been transported in non -labeled containers, so if you do not take them to the laboratories for evaluation, you cannot say what is inside. »
Fatima says that his actions will forever be pursued, especially if the scars of his children do not fade away.
« When I trusted my mother about what I did, because of her behavior, and when she felt the dangers of the cream and what her grandchildren are, she was sad that they had to go through it and apologized, » he says.
Fatima is determined to help other parents avoid making the same mistake.
« Although I stopped … The side effects are still here, I ask other parents to use my situation as an example. »
Getty Images/BBC
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