SURABAYA, INDONESIA: A parent who reportedly fed a two-year-old with hunger substances and pills for over a year has been charged under two local regulations, including one on domestic crime.
In order to stem a possible wider tendency, authorities are also looking into other reported instances of babysitters feeding their employees stimulants.  ,
The South Sulawesi woman, 36, told the police that she had given the child the medications to help him gain fat.
Kombes Farman, director of the East Java Regional Police’s General Criminal Investigation Directorate, stated that the “temporary motive was because she wanted to see the child get fatter” at the East Java Regional Police Headquarters on Tuesday ( October 15 ).
He added, however, that the parent lacks the necessary knowledge to do so.
According to local internet outlet Kompas.com, Mr. Farman claimed that the parent had been charged under Articles 436 and 436 of the 2023 Health Laws, which require a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years in prison.
The two-year-old child, who was undergoing treatment due to problems feeding, has gained over 6kg in a year and then weighs 19kg, Kompas reported.  ,
However, Madam Linggra Kartika, the mother of the toddler, posted a photo of blue and orange supplements that she discovered were being used to help her son gain weight in an Instagram post on October 7 that has since gone viral and received over 41, 600 memes and 1, 145 responses.
” Not only have they been unjustly used as appetite substances, these drugs are also given in mature dose, and not appropriate for children”, she added in the article.
She wrote in a separate article on October 6 that she thought the treatment was effective, but she discovered that he gained weight as a result of the medications that were administered to him from September 2023 until August 2024 without my knowledge.  ,
It was discovered that the arrested parent bought the drugs through an online platform for around 27, 000 to 38, 000 ringgit ( US$ 1 to US$ 2), according to Mdm Linggra’s content.  ,
She added that the drugs given to her child were stimulant corticosteroids and hunger drug cyproheptadine, commonly known as “pronicy” in Indonesia. She claimed that these were adult-use drugs that were combined with water and given to the child.  ,
” After nine weeks we stopped the treatment, my mother’s condition worsened, he does not want to take or drink”, the family added.
According to regional news website Detik.com, she reported the incident to the police on August 30 and the caregiver was detained on September 27.
This was after Mdm Linggra, concerned for her father’s well-being, brought him to the emergency division and he was hospitalised for a year in Surabaya, Detik.com reported on Monday.
She announced on social media that she would send her brother to the Singaporean medical school Boon Teck Puat National University every three months for regular appointments.
Since the arrested woman claimed that it is a common exercise among her own parent friends, Mr. Farman made it clear that the East Java Regional Police staff will investigate various instances of babysitters feeding children under their care appetite stimulants.
” She admitted that ( feeding children with ) appetite stimulants is common, and is also practised by her friends”, Mr Farman explained.  ,
The police are also examining the suspect’s mobile phone conversations with the other babysitters, who she claimed used similar methods.  ,  ,
Through an Instagram post on October 15, Mdm Linggra also shared messages from other mothers who have had similar experiences.
” Babysitters who administer medications like this are common. The babysitter gave her appetite stimulants until she became extremely fat. Once she left, she could not eat anything and lost a lot of weight until she was taken to the ICU, according to a message she received.
Another message read,” This happened to my child; my babysitter has been working for me for more than two years, and I would not have known if I had not checked the CCTV.”  ,