At 132lbs, Lu Hao is already five times the size of a normal child his age. The three-year-old
toddler from China eats a staggering three bowls of rice when he sits down for a family meal. When Lu Hao was born he weighed just 2.6kg (5.7 lbs), however, from the time he was three months old he began to gain weight rapidly.
'His appetite is so good that for a meal he can eat three big bowls of rice, even larger than I and his
mother,' said Hao's father Lu Yuncheng. Since Hao was one-year-old his parents have tried to keep a careful eye on his diet. However, Hao's mother Chen Yuan comments: 'We have to let him be as if we don't feed him he will cry non-stop'.
No matter how hard the family restricts Hao's diet and pushes him to move more the toddler has still managed to put on 10kg (22 lbs) in the past year. Now Chen Yuan is unable to pick her son up. 'In both of our families, there was no such giant person,' said father Yuncheng.
Hao hates walking and each day his mother takes him to kindergarten on a motorcycle. 'He is quite happy that I could ride him to kindergarten instead of walking him there,' said Yuan.
Hao has many toys at home but his favourite is Superman because, he says, 'Superman
can fly and beat bad men!' When asked is he would like to fly like Superman Hao giggles and replies: 'No. I am too fat'.
To push Hao to
do more sports, the family installed a
basketball hoop in the yard and often take him to swim in a local river. But the exercise just makes him hungrier and results in him putting on more weight.
'We now worry the most about his health. As if he continues to grow at this rate his heart could
fail,' said Yuan. They also worry that when he gets older and more aware of his weight Hao will be bullied.
'Our biggest hope is one day Hao could
get slim,' said Chen.
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