Children, barely able to walk, are being introduced to alcohol by the very hands meant to protect them. Across parts of Nigeria, the age of first contact with intoxicants is dropping, sometimes as early as two years, fuelled by ignorance, cultural myths, and unchecked adult behaviours. In this special report, GODFREY GEORGE investigates a growing, silent epidemic: the normalisation of alcohol use to lure children to sleep
“It’s a normal thing here na. When they cry too much, just deep your finger into alcohol and let them lick it. They will just sleep,” said Mrs Beatrice Ukpono, a mother of four, seated outside her one-room apartment in Bariga, Lagos.
“My mother did it. I saw my aunties dem do it. It’s really nothing, my brother.”
Once an auxiliary nurse in the Uruan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State for 11 years before relocating to Lagos in 2017 after her husband’s death, Ukpono insists there’s nothing wrong with the practice. She adds that giving toddlers alcohol is a common, age-long remedy used not to harm, but to soothe.
“It’s just for them to calm down. Nothing else,” she told our correspondent when asked if she was aware of the health hazards that could result from repeated exposure to alcohol at such a tender age.
Her eldest child, Clement, a final-year student at the University of Lagos, confirmed the practice had been part of their upbringing for as long as he could remember.
“I watched her do it for all my siblings,” he said, leaning back behind a wooden door in front of a small shop in front of their home.
“Even when our father was alive, he would drink and give us a little in a glass for us to share. It’s normal for us.”
For Clement, it was never framed as abuse or neglect. It was simply a part of life.
“Even my grandfather, when he was alive, used to give us a little to drink. It’s like a rite of passage, especially for male children. We used to call it ‘shiny eye’.
“I don’t see it as a bad thing as long as it didn’t make us drunk and we were not sick or anything.”
But the effects have lingered, even if unnoticed at first.
Asked whether he now consumes alcohol regularly, Clement was blunt.
“I’ve become an actual alcoholic, make I no lie. I dey drink wetin no good. E no get mixture wey me and my guys for area never mix.”
He smiled wryly before elaborating. “My guys know me for school na. When we mix our skushies (a deadly alcoholic cocktail), na me dey first drink am to see whether e don catch abi e never catch. E no dey high me agan. My head don too strong.”
“But I dey control am, my guy,” he added, as if to assure himself as much as anyone else.
Behind the easy tone and gallows humour lies a troubling pattern that experts say is not isolated.
Across Nigeria, especially in low-income and rural communities, alcohol is being introduced to children as early as infancy, often under the guise of tradition, survival, or ignorance. What begins as a coping mechanism or folk remedy quietly rewires lives, creating dependencies that may not fully manifest until adulthood.
Woman feeding alcohol to infants
It is a scene that has left many Nigerians stunned, a jarring glimpse into a quiet menace hiding in plain sight.
In a viral video that began circulating on social media earlier this week, a young woman, barely more than a girl herself, is seen tearing open a sachet of what appears to be Triple Action Bitters with her teeth.
She takes a swig, then turns to an infant, no older than a few months, and presses the same sachet to the baby’s lips.
The footage, first shared by influencer @ChuksEricE, has triggered a wave of national outrage, setting off a flurry of online debates about parenting, poverty, and Nigeria’s deep-rooted culture of normalising alcohol exposure in children.
But beyond the hashtags and indignation, the Nigeria Police Force is treating the incident as a serious breach of the law.
“We are aware of this distressing video and are investigating urgently,” the police said in an official statement posted to their social media pages. “Exposing a child to alcohol is illegal and dangerous.”
Calling for the public’s assistance, the police urged anyone with information that could help locate the woman to contact 09169967000. They added that ensuring the child’s safety is their immediate priority.
The act captured in the video is more than careless parenting; it is, in the eyes of the law, an offence against Nigeria’s Child Rights Act and a direct threat to the child’s health and development.
Medical experts have long warned that even small quantities of alcohol can cause lasting harm to infants, including brain damage, developmental delays, and future dependency.
Still, for all the condemnation, what the video depicts is not an isolated case. As authorities work to trace the woman, many are asking deeper questions: How many children across Nigeria are suffering similar fate, off-camera, in homes without smartphones, in corners of society that no one is watching?
A cup of beer with every meal
At just four years old, the child was already being served beer at every meal.
This was the chilling testimony brought before the Ile Tuntun Customary Court in Mapo, Ibadan, Oyo State, where Abbas Olaitan sought to dissolve her four-year-old marriage to Ibrahim.
Her claim was damning and specific: her husband and his mother were not only drunks but had initiated their only child into the dangerous habit of alcohol consumption. A cup of beer per meal, Olaitan told the court. The boy reportedly drank it “within seconds,” licking his lips in satisfaction.
Olaitan’s plea for divorce seemed like a desperate bid to escape a household that, in her words, was soaked in moral decay and substance abuse.
“My mother-in-law does the cooking in our home,” she told the court. “I can’t remember ever cooking for my husband since we got married, because she never allowed me to do so. And at each meal, she served our four-year-old a cup of beer. He gulps it down like water.”
Chief Ademola Odunade, who sat with two other arbitrators, when giving judgment later in the year, did not hide his displeasure.
Though reluctant, he granted the dissolution of the marriage, handing full custody of the children to their mother.
‘My wife gives our child ogogoro’
In yet another divorce case at the Mapo Customary Court in Ibadan, child abuse on alcohol took the centre stage.
In the dock stood Femi James, a barber from the Academy area. His plea was simple: dissolve a six-year-old marriage that, in his words, had long since ceased to be a safe space for their child.
Femi told the court that his estranged wife, Adewumi, had not only abandoned their home to live with another man, but was also feeding their four-year-old son with locally brewed alcohol, Ogogoro.
He said he had gone to retrieve the child after months of separation, only to find him inside the home of Adewumi’s lover, sipping the strong liquor like an adult with no future to fear.
“I saw the child with Ogogoro in his hand, drinking it,” Femi said, visibly shaken. “When I confronted him, he told me his mother gives it to him regularly.”
The boy, he said, had even suffered a head injury, one Femi suspected was caused by drunken imbalance. “He’s just four,” he repeated, as if trying to convince himself that what he had seen was real.
In her defence, Adewumi denied ever feeding the child alcohol and blamed Femi instead.
“He comes home drunk nearly every night,” she told the court. “He beats me, sometimes without reason. I feared for my safety and the child’s, which is why I left.”
“There is no justification for sustaining a marriage already destroyed by reckless behaviour and bad parenting,” Odunade, president of the court, declared.
Custody of the child was granted to Adewumi’s aunt, a decision Odunade said was necessary to prevent the child from having what he called “a defective beginning in life”.
Similarly, an Ibadan-based woman, Folake Ojo, in 2018, approached the Oja Oba/Mapo Grade C Customary Court, seeking the dissolution of her eight-year-old marriage to Samson Ojo. Her plea was rooted in what she described as years of neglect, abuse, and trauma, especially following the loss of their last child two months earlier.
The most shocking part of her testimony came when she told the court that her husband gave their second child, then barely two years old, sachets of dry gin to drink.
She said she was horrified the first time she witnessed it and immediately protested, but he silenced her. Over time, she said, this dangerous act became a routine.
Commonplace anomaly
Findings by Saturday PUNCH revealed that in several areas, especially in southern Nigeria, it is common practice to feed babies and toddlers with a little alcohol. The reasons may range from inducing sleep to making them calm down.
A child rights advocate who is from Rivers State, Mrs Mercy Yohan-Davidson, confirmed to our correspondent that she saw the practice growing up in the Okrika and Bonny areas of the state.
“I saw it growing up. I was lucky that my father was a reverend minister with Assemblies of God, and we grew up in a deeply religious background, but I cannot deny seeing mothers and other relatives feeding their toddlers alcohol.
“Their reasons are always bizarre. Some would say it’s just to make them strong. We see children themselves scampering for the remnants of alcohol from the bottles. It’s very unhealthy, and I believe it is the beginning of alcohol addictions in both children and adults,” she added.
The expert called on mothers and stakeholders in the area to engage in sensitisation to end the deadly cycle of alcoholism in young children.
Another indigene of Rivers State, Miracle Morgan, an engineer, said he, too, was exposed to early alcohol intake as a child by his father and relatives.
“It was commonplace. It took me a conscious effort, especially after I became much older, to say no. It’s unhealthy, and I am shocked people still do this deadly practice in 2025,” he said.
Another indigene, who is from Bayelsa, Pere, said she had had to report several mothers in her area who still engaged in the deadly practice.
“In October 2024, I reported a mother to the Child Protection Centre in Yenagoa. The child was always intoxicated and always sleeping. I saw the mother on many occasions mixing alcohol into his pap, and when I confronted her, she said she wanted to rush to the market, so she wanted him to sleep.”
Growing public health concern
Alcohol and substance use among young people is a growing public health concern globally, but emerging evidence suggests the problem starts far earlier than many assume, sometimes in infancy.
Though most researches have focused on adolescents, recent findings indicate that even children under the age of 10 are not excluded.
In Uganda’s Mbale District, a 2014 study revealed a startling trend: 8.4 per cent of children aged five to eight showed signs of harmful alcohol use or dependence. These children had already been flagged for high levels of mental health symptoms, but the alcohol-related findings, though drawn from a small sample of 119, raised serious concerns about the broader picture in low-income settings.
In a 2022 qualitative study published in BMC Public Health, researchers found that in some Ugandan communities, children begin consuming alcohol “as soon as they can hold a glass.”
The study, led by V. Skylstad and colleagues, painted a troubling portrait of early childhood alcohol exposure rooted in both cultural normalisation and familial influence.
Many of the local brews, made from bananas, sorghum, millet, or maize, are easily accessible, and because brewing is often done by women at home, children are frequently exposed from a young age.
Globally, early alcohol use has been strongly linked to a host of long-term risks, including mental illness, cancer, infectious diseases, accidents, and violent behaviour.
Studies show that children who start drinking before the age of 11 are more likely to develop alcohol dependence as adults, compared to those who begin during adolescence. More alarmingly, alcohol can interfere with brain development in children, impairing cognitive functions such as planning, learning, emotional regulation, and social interaction.
Data from the Global School-Based Student Health Survey, which covered 45 low- and middle-income countries, found that the prevalence of alcohol intake before age 11 ranged from 4.1 per cent to 43.5 per cent.
By 2016, the rate of alcohol-use disorder among adults was nearly twice the regional average for Africa. According to the World Health Organisation’s Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health (2018), 86 per cent of alcohol consumed in Uganda was unregulated, mostly comprising traditional homemade brews.
While drinking publicly is more socially acceptable for men, it is often women who do the brewing.
The findings from Mbale District and elsewhere have challenged policymakers and researchers to re-evaluate existing public health strategies. If babies are being introduced to alcohol as soon as they can hold a cup, then prevention must begin not in adolescence, but much earlier in the cradle.
Medical dangers of alcohol exposure in children
One of the most persistent misconceptions in low-resource settings like parts of Nigeria is the belief that alcohol can help infants or toddlers sleep.
In reality, alcohol is not a sedative. It is a central nervous system depressant that disrupts brain activity, impairs motor coordination, and in children, causes developmental delays and long-term neurological damage.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, even small amounts of alcohol can cause hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar), seizures, coma, or death in infants and toddlers.
The human liver, especially in children under five, is not mature enough to metabolise ethanol efficiently. What may seem like a harmless teaspoon of dry gin or herbal bitters to a caregiver is, in clinical reality, a potentially fatal dose.
“Children are not small adults. Their brains are still developing, and exposure to neurotoxins like alcohol can permanently alter cognitive functions, including memory, learning, and emotional regulation,” said a medical researcher based in United States, Dr Olabiyi Olaniran.
Olaniran said alcohol exposure to kids may have immediate and long-term effects, which may include confusion or agitation, vomiting, slowed breathing, hypothermia, seizures, loss of consciousness and even death.
He said, “Infants exposed to alcohol may appear drowsy, but this is often not sleep in the true physiological sense. Instead, it is alcohol-induced stupor, which mimics sleep but is medically dangerous.”
Citing the long-term effects, Olaniran said the child may experience impaired brain development, speech and language delays, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, behavioural disorders and physical growth retardation, amongst others.
Furthermore, neuroscientific studies show that alcohol disrupts the formation of synapses in a child’s brain. Synaptogenesis (the creation of connections between brain cells) is most active in early childhood. Alcohol interrupts this process, reducing brain plasticity and weakening neural pathways responsible for learning, memory, and social behaviour, according to a 2022 study by the the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
In more severe cases, children exposed to alcohol prenatally or in early life may develop Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, a cluster of conditions that include facial deformities, growth deficiencies, and permanent intellectual disability.
Nigerian medical perspective
According to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, alcohol exposure in minors is increasingly becoming a public health issue, especially due to the widespread availability of bitters and sachet gins sold without regulation or child safety warnings.
In 2021, NAFDAC flagged more than 35 herbal alcoholic products marketed as “safe” or “natural” that in reality contained up to 42 per cent alcohol by volume.
In an article published in the Nigerian Journal of Paediatrics (2023), Dr. Funke Adebayo of the University College Hospital Ibadan noted, “We continue to see cases of acute alcohol intoxication among toddlers brought into emergency rooms after being given bitters or palm wine. Many parents do not understand that a child’s liver cannot process alcohol. What calms the child today could kill them tomorrow.”
The false comfort of ‘sleep’
While alcohol may cause drowsiness, it’s a false sedative, said a medical doctor, Jennifer Emokai.
“Alcohol depresses the brain’s arousal centres, producing a sleep-like state that lacks the neurological benefits of real sleep. Normal sleep is essential for memory consolidation and brain development in children.
“Alcohol-induced stupor disrupts sleep cycles and increases the risk of sleep apnoea, hypoxia (lack of oxygen), and even sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
“When caregivers report that alcohol helps their babies ‘sleep’, they are mistaking neurological suppression for rest. What they’re witnessing is sedation, not restoration,” she added.
Global warnings
The World Health Organisation maintains that there is no safe amount of alcohol for children. WHO warns that early exposure increases the risk of alcohol dependence later in life and correlates with emotional instability, poor academic outcomes, and increased criminal behaviour in adolescence.
A 2018 meta-analysis published in The Lancet concluded that early childhood alcohol exposure, whether through direct ingestion or even through breastmilk, results in measurable deficits in IQ, attention span, and emotional self-regulation
Long-term psychological effects in adulthood
Early exposure to alcohol in childhood often sets the stage for a lifetime of psychological and neurological challenges, according to psychologist researcher, Dr Usen Essien.
The expert said there may be an increased risk of alcohol dependence.
According to him, children who are given alcohol, whether directly or passively, are significantly more likely to develop Alcohol Use Disorders (AUDs) later in life.
The younger the child, the more vulnerable their developing brain is to the harmful effects of ethanol.
A 2018 study published in The Lancet Psychiatry found that early alcohol exposure alters the dopamine pathways responsible for the brain’s reward and pleasure system. These neurological changes impair judgment, behaviour, and risk assessment as the child matures.
“Alcohol changes the brain’s response to stress and reward when introduced during neural development. You’re rewiring vulnerability into the child’s future,” explains Dr Johnbosco Chukwuorji of the the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State.
He added that children exposed to alcohol before the age of five were found to be twice as likely to become dependent adults compared to those exposed later or not at all.
Emotional dysregulation and anxiety
Early alcohol ingestion impairs the development of the prefrontal cortex and limbic system, areas crucial for emotion regulation and impulse control, Chukwuorji added.
He stressed that adults who were exposed to alcohol in infancy often struggle with anxiety disorders, poor conflict resolution skills, emotional detachment or oversensitivity, and difficulty managing frustration.
A 2021 report in The Journal of Adolescent Health revealed that adolescents who had been introduced to alcohol as infants were significantly more prone to self-harm and suicidal ideation than their peers.
Learning difficulties and low academic achievement
Educationist and child consultant, Mrs Jennifer Longjohn, The cognitive impact of alcohol on young brains is profound.
She stressed that long-term consequences include reduced IQ, impaired memory, and delayed language development.
She said, “Many children who grow up with these impairments struggle in school, are more likely to drop out, and face long-term job insecurity.
“The impact of early alcohol exposure isn’t just medical; it’s economic. We’re raising a generation at cognitive disadvantage.”
The role of government, communities, CSOs
While the Child Rights Act of 2003 criminalises child endangerment, including exposure to harmful substances like alcohol, implementation has been patchy.
Only 24 of Nigeria’s 36 states have domesticated the CRA, and even in those that have, enforcement is limited.
Public awareness campaigns are sparse, particularly in rural communities. Agencies such as NAFDAC issue public service warnings, but prosecutions for domestic alcohol abuse remain rare. Despite WHO pressure, the Alcohol Control Bill, intended to regulate marketing and availability, has remained stalled in the National Assembly since 2018.
Community response
In many communities across Nigeria, alcohol use in children is wrapped in layers of cultural normalcy and silence.
Traditional beliefs often defend such practices as ancestral wisdom. Neighbours are reluctant to challenge a family’s parenting choices, even when a child is visibly affected. Furthermore, children or teenagers exhibiting symptoms of dependence are often stigmatised rather than helped, further compounding their trauma.
A legal practitioner and community chief in from Rivers State, Mr Nathaniel Alabo, told our correspondent that this silence allowed the problem to fester unchecked, with many cases never reaching the attention of social services or medical professionals.
He said, “The onus falls on community leaders, teachers, and civil society organisations to raise awareness, provide support, and push for enforcement of existing laws.
“I don’t allow any child who is not up to 18 buy alcohol for any adult. I encourage parents and guardians to imbibe that culture. Don’t even ask your children to buy for you. That’s how it begins.
“We cannot be raising a generation scarred by early exposure to a silent, yet potent, poison.”
Ignorance, not an excuse – Rights advocate
Feeding babies or toddlers alcohol in any form or quantity is not only deeply harmful, it is also life-threatening and illegal, says Idara Kalu, Executive Director of the Child Solidarity Foundation. “It is mind-blowing that any mother would consider this,” she told our correspondent.
“Scientific studies have shown that alcohol severely affects brain development, especially in infants. Giving that to a child places them in grave danger.” Beyond the physical risks, she noted, the practice is a criminal offence under Nigeria’s Child Rights Act (2003), which prohibits not just the consumption of alcohol by minors but also their exposure to it.
“This is not a cultural debate. It is illegal, it is dangerous, and it is morally wrong,” she stressed. Kalu called for urgent awareness campaigns to educate caregivers on safer ways to soothe children.
“Psychological issues are already rampant. What a child needs is a routine, stability, and care, not alcohol,” she added.
Institutional response
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has consistently warned about the dangers of alcohol exposure among children, describing it as a gateway to deeper substance abuse. In a 2024 address, the agency noted that substances like alcohol, caffeine and nicotine are not as harmless as many Nigerians believe.
An NDLEA official in 2024 stated, “Alcohol, caffeine and nicotine are gateways to drug abuse,” explaining that many drug-dependent adults started with socially accepted stimulants in their childhood years.
In a July 2025 interview, NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa, described Nigeria’s drug problem among children aged 10 and above as a “national emergency.”
He advocated a multi-layered prevention strategy including education, school-based interventions, and the expansion of Drug-Free Clubs. Under his leadership, the NDLEA has launched a 24/7 helpline and expanded community outreach through its War Against Drug Abuse programme.
Since WADA’s inception in 2021, the agency has carried out over 10,500 sensitisation programmes, and provided counselling and rehabilitation for more than 24,000 drug users. A key focus has been vulnerable children in rural communities where education and healthcare infrastructure is weak.
Though the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs has not issued specific guidelines on child alcohol exposure, it has been part of broader anti-substance abuse coalitions. In October 2023, the House of Representatives called on the Ministry, alongside the National Orientation Agency and NAPTIP, to partner with NDLEA in sensitising adolescent girls on the risks of drug and alcohol abuse. The lawmakers also recommended the establishment of rehabilitation shelters for victims.
While these steps signal an institutional willingness to act, there is still a lack of direct and sustained programming addressing the issue of alcohol-fed infants or toddlers. The Ministry’s response remains embedded within larger discourses on gender, safety, and rehabilitation, rather than targeting early childhood harm specifically.
Gaps in enforcement and the need for reform
Despite the warnings and occasional interventions, a noticeable gap remains in enforcement. Few public cases exist of adults prosecuted for feeding children alcohol, even in contexts where it is widely known. Cultural normalisation of alcohol as a remedy or sedative for children often shields perpetrators from legal consequences.
The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs has yet to release targeted guidelines on early childhood alcohol exposure. This silence risks enabling the continued use of alcohol in familial, religious or traditional settings where medical harm is poorly understood.
Civil society campaigns, while effective, tend to focus more on teenagers and older youth. Fewer programmes directly address the most vulnerable group, children aged zero to six, who are often force-fed alcohol in the name of sleep, strength, or spiritual ritual.
Yohan-Davidson, the child rights advocate, noted that to truly address this crisis, Nigeria must adopt a multi-stakeholder approach rooted in prevention, enforcement, and education:
“The NDLEA and the Ministry of Women Affairs should issue a public condemnation of child alcohol use, backed by clear, enforceable guidelines. Law enforcement must prosecute cases where children are deliberately given alcohol.
“A National Alcohol Policy is urgently needed to regulate sachet sales, pricing, and advertising. Communities and CSOs must sustain grassroots campaigns that debunk myths around the “benefits” of alcohol for children.
“By closing policy gaps and confronting harmful cultural practices, Nigeria can begin to protect its children not just from criminal abuse, but from the quieter, often invisible violence of alcohol exposure.”
(punch)
