No Nicotine Replacement Therapy.. 
September 2, 2010 - A two-year-old Indonesian boy who smoked about 40 cigarettes a day has kicked the habit after receiving intensive specialist care, a child welfare official said Thursday, September 2nd.
Ardi Rizal shocked the world when a video of him drawing heavily on cigarettes appeared on the Internet in May and drew attention to Indonesia's failure to regulate the tobacco industry.
Directly related news briefs:"He has quit smoking and the most important thing is he doesn't ask for cigarettes anymore," national commission for child protection secretary-general Arist Merdeka Sirait told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Indonesia - CNN Video on 2-year old nicotine addict..;
Indonesia - more on the 2-year old addicted to nicotine..;
Indonesia - addicted to nicotine at the age of two..;
Indonesia - parents encourage 4-year old boy to continue smoking habit..
Six months after his father gave him his first cigarette, the overweight boy was smoking two packs a day and threw violent tantrums if his addiction was not satisfied. Accompanied by his mother, the boy left his village on Sumatra island in July to undergo treatment in the capital.
"He received psychosocial therapy for one month, during which therapists kept him busy with activities and encouraged him to play with kids of the same age," Sirait said. "We diverted his addiction from cigarettes to playing."
Seto Mulyadi, advisory chairman of the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak), said the two-year-old had fully recovered from his addiction after a month-long rehabilitation program, involving both the commission, pyschologists and doctors.
Ardi's case has highlighted the tobacco industry's aggressive marketing to women and children in developing countries like Indonesia, where regulations are weak and many people do not know that smoking is dangerous.
Sirait said the government had given financial support to Ardi's parents, who were ignorant of smoking's dangers and used cigarettes to keep the toddler happy as they worked long hours at a street market. "Ardi was very happy when he left Jakarta this morning as he has really missed his father in the village," Sirait said.
Four-year-old Adi (previously known as Sandi), a former foul-mouthed, smoking toddler from East Java made infamous by another YouTube video, has also been recently rehabilitated. (Indonesia - parents encourage 4-year old boy to continue smoking habit..)
Cigarette consumption in the Southeast Asian archipelago of some 240 million people soared 47 percent in the 1990s, according to the World Health Organization. (Indonesia - paradise for smokers and paradise for tobacco companies..)
References: Indonesia's smoking toddler kicks habit, Agence France-Presse (AFP), 9/2/2010; Infamous Infant Kicks Two-Pack-a-Day Smoking Habit, Jakarta Globe, 9/2/2010.
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