EIGHT-MONTH-OLD Santiago Mendoza might look like a happy, cuddly little tot but the reality is that he is very sick.
Santiago, who weighs 19.7kg — the equivalent of a six-year-old child -—has been “rescued” from his family by Colombian health charity Chubby Hearts.
Volunteers from the foundation spirited the grossly obese infant away from his home in the north east city of Valledupar to a hospital in Bogota for urgent medical treatment.
The intervention came after his mother Eunice Fandino wrote to Chubby Hearts for help after Santiago became too heavy to take outside.
Ms Fandino blamed her own “ignorance” for Santiago’s weight gain and admitted she fed him every time he cried.
“He was born with an anxiety, so if he cried I just fed him,” she told local media.
Santiago’s weight has landed him in hospital on several occasions in the past.
He is now being assessed by specialists.
Chubby Hearts foundation director Salvador Palacio Gonzalez said doctors would attempt to reduce his weight to a manageable level before carrying out a series of operations.
“Otherwise, in the future, he could suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure and severe problems with his joints,” Mr Gonzalez said.
It was not clear whether treatment would include gastric band surgery.
Bogota surgeon Cesar Ernesto Guevar told El Espectador: “Likely, what he will need is a long-term treatment, education, healthy food, and when he is older, physical activity.”
