Parents Gone Wild: Bleaching Children's Skin:
by Oluseye Igbafe
I heard about this for the first time a year ago at the birthday party of a friend's child. One of our mutual friends walked up to me and after pleasantries, said to me:

“Sis, your daughter is very pretty oh.”
“Thanks”, I replied.
"What cream do you use for her?” She asked
"Cream?! I use Johnson Baby lotion."
"Only?! What do you use to bring out her colour?” she persisted.
“I don’t really understand you,” I answered her, “What colour am I bringing out?”
"No oh, you should use something that will bring out her colour. Don’t you know she will be prettier (sic) if she has fair skin?”

I cringed inwardly. All the while, I had struggled to believe she couldn’t possibly be saying what I thought she was saying.
“You mean I should start bleaching her skin? At what age and why would I do such a crazy thing?! It’s not necessary my dear,” I answered her firmly.
"It is oh my big sister. Especially for a girl but not bleaching; haba, not even toning! It’s just to bring out her colour oh and it’s not a sin," she said. "Even you should bring out your colour more,” she added.

I swallowed my raging retorts and simply said, “I hope you don’t do that for your son? He is way too small to have anything being rubbed on him. I beg of you."
*Well, since he is naturally fair-skinned, I am just maintaining it, I have been mixing his cream with Movate since he was born,” she replied
I was unable to dissuade her before we got interrupted and I eventually forgot about the conversation. Till about 2 weeks ago.
I walked into a supermarket and saw a heavily bleached woman with three beautiful girls who were looking “toned”. Their faces were conspicuously lighter than the rest of their body and their knees and knuckles were quite dark. Their ages ranged from age 10 to possibly 5.

I then decided to research the concept of parents bleaching their kids and what I found out is that there is indeed a craze for fair-skinned children; and many parents are turning their dark skinned children to fair-skinned. They claim they are helping their kids maintain their “natural skin colour”.

A lady told me it’s not bleaching or toning if it’s done with natural products. She uses Shea butter, Turmeric, Lime/Lemon, Camphor etc. to prepare “natural” soap for her daughter. Another lady recommends mixing their creams with hydrocortisone or clomatrizole creams for a “clear” smooth skin. I was simply shocked.
First, I think this generation has totally gone bunkers with vanity. No, this isn’t vanity, its shallowness of the highest order. I wrote a post last year on Sexualization of Children and though it went viral, I can assure you we are getting worse.

Why does your child need to be fair to be beautiful? What is the correlation? Where did that concept come from? What happened to Black is Beautiful? I believe every child is beautiful and even then the very beautiful ones are not just beautiful because of their skin tone but their facial structure and features.
Secondly, it’s way too early to start enhancing your child’s features to promote beauty. Children should have no vanity issues. Again I say, allow them to be children and do not give them self-esteem issues by acting as though they are not beautiful enough. Tell your children, they are beautiful irrespective of their skin colour or tone. If you as a parent can’t accept them for who they are or what skin tone they have, how do you expect them to grow into confident women who value themselves?

Lastly, do you have any idea the possible side-effects these creams will have on their skin? Rubbing chemicals on their skin for years could possibly be setting them up for skin cancer. I mean, a lot of those creams contain Mercury and hydrocortisone which have been linked to cancer even in adults.
And please do not hide behind, “I only use natural stuff so it’s harmless”. Are those things meant to be rubbed into the skin? Is Turmeric meant to be rubbed into the skin every day? Lime and lemons are acidic and will definitely have their own effect. Camphor?

I know Shea butter is good but your motive should be just to Oil or moisturize their skin to prevent it from dryness. If there is a vanity aim to your “natural method” then you are part of the problem.

Leave your child’s skin alone. Don’t set him or her up for future problems due to your own narrow view of beauty. Personally, I believe parents who bleach or tone their child’s skin should be arrested and prosecuted. It is the height of irresponsibility.

Let’s allow children to be children. Let them know whether they black, brown, yellow or white, they are all beautiful.

nd so?

There skin is really too delicate for all that..... When they growup to age 15 now, they will now look 35. Please let the kids be joor...... kids got the best skin ever.

I remember a neighbour whose children used Caro white. It's really sad. The most common one is the use of funbact A on newborns. When I had my daughter, at least 4 ladies kept recommending it because she had a rash. It's scary how shallow ppl think.

I remember years ago in boarding school, a friend was using sivoclear right from primary school cos her mum bought it for her. Soon Enof, she always had injury and bled when the seniors asked us to fetch water and the bucket of water brushed against her leg. It was scary.

Sad sad sad. What

True talk...

Here we go again.

Bleaching is not always harmful, doctors even prescribe hydroquinone. But applying those creams on a newborn, I don't think is right.


I wonder why woman that relax their daughters hair don't get much heat?

Nigeria is not a country that appreciates dark skin. Someone here called the woman on my profile a black demon.

This is all a charade.

It is really rampant. I hear mothers mix funbact A in the baby's cream to lighten the skin. It is bad and unnecessary.

This is the first time I'm reading that parents bleach their children's skin. What manner of madness is this? What kind of foolish parents are we having these days, for God's sakes?

The children do not have to wait long to have uneven skin colours. Red face, green hands, dark legs.

Salute to the parents who bleach their babies skin.

Yea... Many slay mamas do that.

thats madness at that tender age when their skin is soft and tender , when the child grows up thats when the child will understand the harm the parents had done to her

Those days when I was small

My sis go rob her cream commot then I go steal am rob my own Naso my skin dey yellow dey go till she come hide the cream I returned to normal color na then I receive correct beating of my life

Some parent shares the same cream with their children

Mama go rub cream go work
Papa go rub the same cream
Children wouldn't rub the vaseline na they will sneak inside mummy's room rub their own

Na mumu people dey do that kin mumu thing. Na so life be, strange things dey happen.

But is bleaching really that bad?

Dats wat happens wen ur related to bobrisky

clap for yourself

Politicians dey cause am.....

This is really sad

yvelchstores:
I remember a neighbour whose children used Caro white. It's really sad. The most common one is the use of funbact A on newborns. When I had my daughter, at least 4 ladies kept recommending it because she had a rash. It's scary how shallow ppl think.

I remember years ago in boarding school, a friend was using sivoclear right from primary school cos her mum bought it for her. Soon Enof, she always had injury and bled when the seniors asked us to fetch water and the bucket of water brushed against her leg. It was scary.

Sad sad sad. What

Is funbactA bad for newborn?

...
U want white kids but you go marry black spouse and you self black join. Haba!

How does miracle happen?

Black is beautiful. I love dem black.

Ishilove:
This is the first time I'm reading that parents bleach their children's skin. What manner of madness is this? What kind of foolish parents are we having these days, for God's sakes?

How do you expect babymamas to bring up their children?

This ugly trend upsurged just after the year 2000 where Nigerian women especially started this craze for fakery and fairness instead of originality.. Its no wonder you now see very young children with all forms of cancer due to the dangerous exposure of the chemicals contained in these bleachers on their delicate body and system.. There are just lots of things we need to reset..

Shey na hypo wey dey 20 Naira sachet or 100ml jik? I no understand the bleaching level o

This is madness.

True story: a woman had complications while giving birth and so had to cut her stomach open and get the baby out. It was successful but yawa gas when they tried stitching her up and the skin kept breaking. Now I even hear that guys are bleaching. Its just like beans when you wash and wash the brown peel off beans and it becomes white it won't take up to 40 mins on fire before getting done, same with our skin, by the time u bleach finish small sun done peel skin already. I pity all these women making their skin spotted like 101 dalmatians. Black is beautiful

Na orioyo I dey use for my kids chikina

1Sharon:
Here we go again.

Bleaching is not always harmful, doctors even prescribe hydroquinone. But applying those creams on a newborn, I don't think is right.


I wonder why woman that relax their daughters hair don't get much heat?

Nigeria is not a country that appreciates dark skin. Someone here called the woman on my profile a black demon.

This is all a charade.

Bleached skins are disgusting! I'd rather be with that cute black beauty on your profile than have a woman with up to 4 different skin colors.

What's wrong with women?

What happened to baby oil and Vaseline?

Are people getting mad or something

Honestly, this is a worrisome issue here in 9ja that people's consciousness has to be brought to