A Spanish mother forced her 11-month-old baby boy to smoke a cigarette.

According to her, the little boy had been reaching for his father's cigarette so she thought putting it into his mouth would make him find it disgusting.

In the shocking footage, posted on Instagram, the infant is being handed a lit cigarette that is placed in his mouth twice before he bursts into tears. The woman gave her son the 'cancer-causing' object in their Madrid home.

Following backlash online, the mother told local media:

'I thought that putting it in his mouth would make him find it disgusting. I was wrong and I'm super sorry. My son always reaches for tobacco, if he sees the father smoking he wants the cigarette as if it were food. I want to apologise for uploading a video of my baby with a cigarette in his mouth, it's not funny and I'm very sorry.'