Yang Yang is drinking
ink.
A boy in southwest China's Chongqing with an alias of Yang Yang has a
unique taste - drinking ink, toilet water, shower gel and things of
the sort, the Chongqing Evening News reports.
Yang Yang has had this odd appetite since he was very young,
according to his mother in the city's Shapingba district. The
nine-year-old boy now weighs 65 kilograms, almost twice the weight
of ordinary kids of his age.
In the beginning, his parents thought the boy might have lost
his sense of taste. They gave him a bitter herbal drink in an ink
bottle and proved that Yang Yang was aware of the bitterness after
he took the drink with a grimaced face.
Yang Yang's parents took their son to many hospitals in the past
year, but Yang Yang still retain the odd habit. He was recently
sent to a special boarding training center in the city to get help
from doctors.
A doctor in the center said Yang Yang may be suffering from a
type of cittosis, an unnatural desire for odd "food" that disturbs
patients' normal lifestyle and result in mal-nutrition. The doctor
says his overweight may have something to do with his bizarre
diet.
The doctor advised the boy's parents and teachers to work
closely with the center to develop Yang Yang's understanding and
cognitive capabilities so that he will gradually kick the habit as
he comes to know that some things that are eatable might actually
do harm to his body.
(CRI.cn September 14, 2007)
