Rong Jing balloons to 43kg and she’s only 3

ALOR STAR: Lau Rong Jing tips the scales at 43kg, and she is only three years old.

The toddler’s super size has got her parents worried and they have started her on a diet.

Rong Jing weighed a normal 3.42kg when she was born in 2005. But as a baby, she was always hungry and consumed 10 bottles of milk daily. At eight months, Rong Jing already weighed 10.5kg.

“We stopped carrying Rong Jing when she was 20 months because she was 20kg and just too heavy,” said her schoolteacher father Lau Pee Choong.

“I think her weight is abnormal. Rong Jing is even heavier than some of my primary school pupils,” he added.

The little girl, who is 100cm tall, loves ice cream and chips and often munches cookies in between meals. She also enjoys packet drinks and can take up to three packets a day.

Apart from her own three meals, she would also eat when her uncles and aunts popped by for lunch and dinner, sometimes ending up with five to six full meals a day.

“Nowadays, we try to make Rong Jing stick to just three meals but it is difficult as she will sometimes scream when she doesn’t get to eat what she wants,” he said.

Lau, 38, and his wife Yuwaret Ah Tiew, 27, from Kampung China, about 50km from Alor Star, have taken Rong Jing, their only child, to the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital here several times for consulta-tion.

He was later informed that Rong Jing did not have any health problems despite her obesity.

“They cannot tell me what is wrong although they think her weight problem is genetic. But I don’t think so because my wife and I are medium built,” he said.

A consultant paediatrician with the Putra Medical Centre, Dr. K. Gunasegaran, said Rong Jing’s ideal weight for her height should be around 15kg.

Looking at her pictures, he said her condition could be genetic or due to hormonal problems.

Her weight, if uncontrolled, could lead to complications such as diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure as well as skeletal problems.

“She may also encounter breathing and sleeping problems,” he said.

Dr. K. Gunasegaran added that he was willing to examine the girl and get her blood samples taken for analysis either here or abroad.

Source: The Star Online