Chain-smoking toddler cuts down to 15 sticks a day

The kid, named Ardi Rizal, is just a two-year-old boy, but is already addicted to smoking.

Shocking pictures and a disturbing video featuring the two-year-old boy puffing casually on a cigarette caused a firestorm online late last month.

Earlier this month, Rizal’s 26-years-old mother had agreed to seek help for her toddler son’s die hard addiction for smoke.

Rizal getting play therapy
Now, it’s being reported that Rizal’s parents are successfully cutting his nicotine habit down to 15 cigarettes day with the help of what they refer to as 'play therapy.'

Rizal is currently under the care of the National Commission on Child Protection and is receiving psychological therapy, commission chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait said.

The boy is successfully undergoing "play therapy" that has helped him cut back to just half sticks per day, according to multiple tabloid reports.

“We have managed to reduce cigarettes he smokes from 40 to 20," said Sirait, according to Times Live.

”We keep him busy with activities, learning stuff, playing games, doing small recreational outings, but it is very difficult to alienate a snuff addict,” he said.

The boy is successfully undergoing "play therapy" that has helped him cut back to just half sticks per day

Therapy working quickly
According to National Commission for Child Protection chairman Seto Mulyadi, simple toys and someone to play with were enough to take toddler’s mind off from craving cigarettes, at least for a while.

"The boy has been able to reduce his cigarette intake significantly, very quickly, after the treatment," News.com quoted Mulyadi as saying.

"The therapy focused on playing - we occupied him with toys so that he forgets cigarettes,'' he said.

Therapists encouraging the lad
Rizal, who is fond of singing, is also warned by the therapists that he could lose his voice if he continues smoking.

"The boy likes singing songs so we tell him that if he continues smoking, he won’t be able to be a singer one day, and it works," said Mulyadi. "It's much easier to help kids like him than teenage tobacco addicts.''

Bizarre story of smoking toddler
Rizal, who lives in a fishing village Musi Banyuasin, Indonesia, became famous after a video of him chain smoking cigarettes went viral, showing him on local as well as on international television.

The boy was given his first cigarette when he was 18 months by his 30-year-old fishmonger father, Mohammed, The Sun reported late last month.

According to the British tabloid, Rizal weighs more than 25 kilograms and finds it almost impossible to run with other kids and uses a toy truck to get around.

The sad and bizarre story of the smoking toddler boy that circulated all over the web showcased the extreme of a disturbing trend in Indonesia.