Saturday, 22 July 2017
Caden Benjamin, from Standerton in South Africa, weighs 14 stone 2lbs (90 kilogrammes) because of his constant overeating.
He has been diagnosed with a genetic disorder called Prader-Willi syndrome, which is characterised by an obsessive compulsion to eat.
His mother Zola Benjamin says it means Caden will eat anything he can get his hands on.
‘At one point, Caden was eating toilet paper. He’d eat rolls of it,’ she said.Several years ago, he was forced to undergo a tracheotomy and he now breathes through a tube inserted into his windpipe.
‘Actually, he’d eat any paper he would find in the house. If there’s nothing for him to eat, he’ll scrape together the dirt he finds on the floor and eat that.’
Prader-Willi syndrome is a rare, incurable disorder that affects thousands of people worldwide, resulting in physical, mental and behavioural problems.
The condition is made worse by the fact that people need less food than their peers because their bodies have less muscle and tend to burn fewer calories.
Ms Benjamin added:
‘At three years old he was 40 kg (6 stone 4 lbs) and at that time, we didn’t know what was wrong with him.Eventually, a doctor at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria ran further tests and diagnosed Caden’s illness.
‘We went to a number of doctors and no one could tell us what was wrong and why he was gaining so much weight.’
Ms Benjamin said: ‘Normally he would start off the day by eating four slices of cheese toast and then an hour later he would drink Coke and eat leftover food from the night before.
‘Then at lunch he’d eat two large pieces of chicken. He’d eat hourly for the rest of the day.’
