“I designed my six children.”

A mother in northern Nigeria was clearly upset while turning her two -year -old child, who burns and flies on his face and legs.

The 32 -year -old used products that give up the skin on all her six children, under pressure from her family, with results that she now strongly regrets.

Fatima, whose name has been changed to protect her family’s identity, says that one of her daughters covers her face whenever she goes out in order to hide her burns.

Another left a darker skin than before – with a pale circle around her eyes, while a third has white scars on her lips and knees.

Her little baby is still suffering from wounds – his skin takes a long time to recover.

“My sister gave birth to children with light skin, but my children are dark skin. I noticed that my mother preferred my sister’s children over me because of their skin color and my feelings are greatly harmed.”

She says she used the creams she bought in her local supermarket in Kano, without a prescription for the doctor.

Initially it seemed to be working. The grandmother improved towards Fatima’s children, between the ages of two and 16 at that time.

But then burns and scars appeared.

Skin or lightning defects, also known as bleaching in Nigeria, are used in different parts of the world for cosmetic reasons, although these often have deep cultural roots.

Women in Nigeria use more skin whitening products than any other African country – 77 % use regularly, according to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO).

In the Congo-Brazaville, the number is 66 %, in Senegal 50 % and in Ghana 39 %.

Creams may contain corticosteroids or hydroquinone, which can be harmful if used in high quantities, and in many countries can only be obtained with a doctor’s prescription.

Other ingredients used sometimes are toxic metal, mercury and cogkic acid – a secondary result of the manufacture of Japanese alcohol drink, a reformer.

Dermatitis, acne and skin color change are possible consequences, but also inflammatory disorders, mercury poisoning and kidney damage.

The skin may become thinner, which leads to the wounds take longer to recover, and are likely to be wounded.

The situation is so bad that the National Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC) declared a state of emergency in 2023.

It has become one of the most common for women to whiten their children, as Fatima did.

“Many people link light skin with beauty or wealth. Women tend to protect, as they call, their children from this distinction by whitening them from birth.”

It is estimated that 80 % of the women I have met had whiten their children, or planned to do so.

She says some of them were bleached as a child child, and they also continue this practice.

One of the most common ways to see if someone uses skin whitening products in Nigeria is the darkness of their joints. Other parts of the people’s hands or feet become lighter, but the joints tend to stay dark.

However, smokers and drug users sometimes have dark spots on their hands, due to smoke.

Therefore, it is sometimes assumed by users of skin lighting products that they belong to this group.

Fatima says that this is what happened to her daughters, between the ages of 16 and 14.

“They faced discrimination from society – all of them refer to their fingers and call them drug addicts. This has affected a lot,” she says.

They have lost potential fiancées because men do not want to be associated with women who think they are taking drugs.

I visited a famous market in Kano, where people who call themselves “mix scientists” create creams that tend to skin from scratch.

The market has a full row of stores where thousands of these creams are sold.

Some compact varieties are arranged on the shelves, but customers can also choose raw ingredients and order mixing the cream in front of them.

I have noticed that many bleaching creams, with stickers that they were children, were organized.

Other sellers admitted the use of organized ingredients such as cogk acid, hydroquinone and strong antioxidants, glutathione, which may cause rash and other side effects.

I also saw teenage girls buying whitening creams for themselves and density so that they could sell them to their peers.

One of the women, whose hands had been canceled, insisted that the seller add a lightening agent to a cream that was mixed to her children, although it was an organized and illegal material for its use on children.

“Although my hand is distorted, I am here to buy creams for my children so that they can be light skin. I think my hand is in this way just because I used the error. Nothing will happen to my children.”

One of the sellers said that most of his customers were buying creams to make their children “glow”, or to look “radiant and shiny.”

Most of them seem unaware of the approved doses.

One of the sellers said that he used a “lot of kojic” – above the crunchy limit – if someone wanted light skin and a smaller amount if they wanted to change.

A credit dose of cogk acid in the creams in Nigeria is 1 %, according to NAFDAC.

I even saw sellers who give women injections.

Dr. Leonard Omokariola, director of NAFDAC, says that attempts are made to educate people about the risks.

He also says the market is raid, and they are

But he says it is sometimes difficult for law enforcement officials to identify these articles.

“Some of them are only transferred in non -laboratory containers, so if you don’t transfer them to laboratories for evaluation, you cannot know what is inside.”

Fatima says that her actions will chase her forever, especially if her children do not fade.

“When my mom proved about what she did, because of her behavior, and when I heard the dangers of cream and the stigma of the shame facing her grandchildren, she was sad because they had to see this and apologized.”

Fatima is determined to help other parents avoid making the same mistake.

“Although I stopped … the side effects are still here, I plead with other fathers to use my position as an example.”