VietNamNet Bridge – Following a neighbor’s advice, a woman in Tan Phu district, HCM City, removed fuzz on her one-month baby by pipe tobacco mixed with betel. The baby was hospitalized 30 minutes later.



Doctor Tran Van Cuong of the HCM City’s Pediatrics Hospital 1 said that early this week, the hospital rescued an infant baby of 40 days old from a rare skin poison.

Over a month after birth, the layer of fuzz on the baby kept growing. The baby’s mother talked with her neighbors about the phenomenon. A neighbor told her to remove the fuzz by ground pipe tobacco and betel.

The baby was brought to the neighbor’s home to apply that mixture. Only a half of hour later, the baby had trouble breathing and was in a coma. The family immediately brought him to hospital for emergency aid.

Doctors examined and said that the baby suffered from being poisoned with nicotine from pipe tobacco. They washed the baby’s skin where they applied the pipe tobacco and betel mixture and treated by antitoxin.

After four hours being cured by emergency methodologies, the baby gradually regained his senses.

Through this case, doctors have warned parents to not apply non-scientific practices in taking care of babies.

It is unnecessary to rid of fuzz for infant babies or bath babies by leaves, Vietnamese and Chinese traditional medicines of unknown origin.

Linh Ha