A MUM said she felt powerless to stop her 12-year-old child from vaping – even when she started suffering painful withdrawals.
Nicky Bowman’s daughter Holly was getting through one 20ml disposable vape a day – which has the highest nicotine content.
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It is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes and she quickly became addicted, spending £50 on average a week.
Mum-of-three Nicky, 53, from Reading, Berkshire, realised her daughter was doing something she shouldn’t when she began lying to her about needing money for bus fares, and saw large sums going out of her Revolut Junior account.
When she found out she was vaping, she was dismayed but eventually knew it was something Holly – now 17 – needed to stop on her own.
Nicky told the Sun: “I’ve been worried about it for years now, but the thing is with teenagers you can give them as hard a time as you like but they will find a way to do it anyway.
“I have berated her and restricted her access to money but they find a way.”
Holly is currently working towards quitting and has reduced her intake to 3ml alongside her boyfriend after failing multiple times to go cold turkey.
The teenager had started on cigarettes but didn’t really enjoy smoking.
Explaining her attraction to vapes, she said: “It was mostly the influence of social media, it was very romanticised and I suppose they put this idea in your head that it’s cool.
“I did know that it was addictive. Of course, I underestimated it. It’s not going to happen to me [I thought].
“I was more and more aware that I was getting addicted but by that point it had gone too far.”
She said her cravings became unbearable, while her chest would become tight and only relax when she was vaping.
“I get headaches and I’m very irritable when I’m not doing it as well,” she added.
“I first tried cigarettes and I didn’t really enjoy them. With vapes they are much easier to like for young people, they’ve got these bright colours and flavours like gummy bears, they’re very much advertised towards kids so I think they were more appealing to me.
“Not only were they addictive but they tasted nice, that’s so enticing for young people.”
Even after her mum discovered her habit, Holly said “I didn’t feel shame because it was normalised in my environment”.
“I guess I thought she doesn’t understand, I wouldn’t listen to her. Over time I felt this shame to be addicted to them.
“Currently, I am in the process of quitting properly. I’ve tried to do cold turkey many times and never succeeded…the cravings were unbearable.”
She’s already noticing the benefits of cutting her intake, and can now comfortably exercise and doesn’t get out of breath just going up the stairs.
Holly began thinking about quitting two years ago, having become fed up with having no money and feeling sick.
“They are about £7 each. It was about £50 a week,” she explained. “It was more than my pocket money. As much money as I could find I was spending all of it on vapes.”
If she was out with friends, she couldn’t buy food and could no longer afford video games or music.
“And I was nauseous all the time,” she said. “I heard of a lot of people getting nic-sick too, that was a big one for me.
“I felt nasty, I felt unwell. That was a big reason for me.”
DANGERS OF VAPING FOR CHILDREN
The NHS advises against under-18s from vaping due to the impact it can have on a child’s development.
According to its website, it says: “Vaping is not for children and young people.
“Their developing lungs and brains mean they are more sensitive to its effects.
“Nicotine vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking, but it is not risk-free.”
It adds that it is illegal to sell nicotine vaping products to anyone under 18, or for adults to buy them for children.
You can report a retailer selling nicotine vapes or tobacco products to under-18s to Trading Standards via the Citizens Advice portal here.
Holly’s school is “very much against” pupils vaping, and have tried to “add in as many ways to stop us as they can”, she explained.
This includes keeping the toilet doors open, but “there’s always a way”, Holly said.
“The thing is, young people find their way around everything. People just go in the stalls, blow it into sinks.
“The corner of the stairwell where the cameras don’t pick up on it. Anywhere we can get away with it.
“There were points in my addiction when I was leaving class frequently to go and vape.”
And due to the appealing odours vapes give off which don’t cling to clothes like cigarette smoke, Holly said it wasn’t difficult to mask what she was doing for a while.
Nicky said: “Parents want to believe their child is different. The number of parents I speak to who say my child doesn’t vape, and I know for a fact they do. They are in denial.”
She continued: “Anybody with teenagers is lying if they think they can force them into things. I’m delighted she’s made this choice herself.”
The family moved to County Meath, Ireland, in 2015. The Irish government is set to ban disposable vapes.
Earlier this month, cabinet approval was given to draft laws tabled by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
Under the proposed laws there will be a complete ban on the sale, manufacture or import of single-use or disposable vapes in Ireland.
While Nicky sees this as a positive move, she said many children will find a way around it, including buying e-liquid and non-disposable devices, despite them being more expensive.
It has also never been legal to sell disposable vapes to children as young as Holly was when she started, though she still bought them without an issue.
“The shopkeepers are very lenient,” Nicky said. “They wouldn’t dream of selling a 12-year-old cigarettes but are quite happy to sell them a vape.”
She also admits that her daughter is mirroring her own journey as a youth in regards to smoking.
She said: “I smoked cigarettes when I was 14 or 15 years old for the same reasons. I quit when I was 17, I didn’t really like it. I think for a lot of people that’s really common.”
She added: “Holly is committed to quitting, hopefully she’ll soon get down to zero nicotine or stop altogether.”
New research from Zurich reveals that 14% of kids are vaping and half of them are under 11, and two fifths of these have bought them at school.
Of those children who do vape, 13% of parents believe they do so on a daily basis.
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