After 40 Cigarette a Day Indonesia's Chain Smoking Toddler Now Turns to Junk Food

A couple of years ago news of a Sumatra toddler smoking 40 cigarettes a day amazed the world. This youngest smoker, who has kicked the habit, is again in the news for his latest addiction, junk food.

The Indonesian boy Aldi Rizal, 5, had set the world staring in disbelief when a video of him smoking a cigarette went viral in 2010, at just two years. But the young chain-smoking toddler finally kicked off the habit to turn to a new addiction 'Junk food', which physicians say is turning him critically obese, according to a documentary based on him.

The smoking video of Aldi forced the Indonesian government to take stringent measures to stop children from smoking. Public campaigns and special rehabilitation treatment programs were organized.

After attending a two-week play therapy session in the capital city Jakarta, Aldi was able to get rid of the smoking habit. During the rehab treatment, the toddler's parents were encouraged to keep him busy with toys and were also educated about the dangers of smoking. Apart from this, the doctors also met the parents at regular intervals just to ensure that Aldi had not fallen back to his old addiction, according to a report in The Mirror.

The documentary reveals that though the child has quit smoking, he still has an unhealthy life as he is highly addicted to 'junk food' and has gone obese .

After cigarettes the family is now worried about the boy's heavy weight as he has an enormous appetite and constantly demands food similar to what he used to do for cigarettes by throwing tantrums.

Aldi's mother Diane Rizal, 28, told the DailyMail, 'When Aldi first quit smoking he would demand a lot of toys. He would bang his head on the wall if he couldn't get what he wanted. That's why I get him cigarettes in the first place - because of his temper and his crying. Now I don't give him cigarettes, but he eats a lot. With so many people living in the house it's hard to stop him from getting food."

The parents plan on taking Aldi to a nutritionist and put him on a healthier diet that will help shed some excess fat.

"Aldi is very overweight, his weight doesn't match his age,' said nutritionist Fransisca Dewi. 'His ideal weight is 17kg to 19kg. He's 24kg already.... One obvious thing is they let him have too much condensed milk. He drinks three cans a day and eats too many carbohydrates."

But shedding weight is going to be tough for the child because of his early smoking habit. According to Dr William Nawawi, pediatrician, excess intake of nicotine increases the amount of endocrine hormone in the body due to which the body develops resistance to insulin and the blood fails to break glucose present in the food causing a person to become overweight.

We hope the Indonesian boy surprises the world by kicking off this addiction too.