Fourteen years ago, a two-year-old Indonesian boy made international headlines when he started smoking up to 40 cigarettes a day. Now, he’s 16.
Ardi Rizal, a 16-year-old boy from the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, became known worldwide in 2010 for his shocking smoking habits. At the age of 2, he was already smoking 40 cigarettes a day, more than many adults, earning him the nickname “Indonesian ashtray”.
Ardi Rizal also drank three bottles of condensed milk a day, which made him overweight compared to other children his age. His mother Diana revealed that Ardi started smoking when he was only 18 months old, learning to smoke from his father. Although she tried to stop him, when there were no cigarettes, Ardi would get angry to the point of hurting himself, such as banging his head against the wall to demand cigarettes.
“The boy goes crazy and harms himself if he doesn’t smoke.”
As Ardy grew older, Diana became increasingly anxious and sought help from local authorities and experts. The boy was interviewed by CNN in 2017, where he described his early steps to quitting smoking:
“It’s very difficult to quit. If you don’t smoke, your mouth will feel bitter and your head will be dizzy.”
Fortunately, Ardi was able to successfully quit smoking with the help of a local child psychologist. The specialist found ways to distract him through playing, running, climbing, and gradually reducing the number of cigarettes he smoked each day.
He also changed his diet by adding more vegetables and fruits and reducing his consumption of foods high in sugar and fat, such as sweetened condensed milk, which gradually brought his weight back to normal.
In a recent interview, 16-year-old Ard Rizal said that he had successfully quit smoking, was doing well in school and hoped to become a doctor in the future. However, some sources state that he dropped out of school due to family problems and currently helps sell vegetables at the โปรโมชั่น ufabet market.