Eight-month-old Santiago Mendoza sits at a clinic for the obese in Bogota March 19 ,2014. Mendoza, who weighs 20 kg, will be put on a diet, therapist Salvador Palacios said. REUTERS/John Vizcaino
Eight-month-old Santiago Mendoza sits at a clinic for the obese in Bogota March 19 ,2014. Mendoza, who weighs 20 kg, will be put on a diet, therapist Salvador Palacios said. REUTERS

A charity in Colombia fighting obesity has stepped in to impose radical changes in the diet of an 8-month-old baby boy who no longer looks cute at his whopping 55-pound weight.

Volunteers at Chubby Hearts Foundation said they would evaluate young Santiago Mendoza's condition and try to bring down his weight to a manageable level before they conduct a series of operations. The organisation had agreed to fund the treatments.

Eunice Fandino, Santiago's mother, admitted the baby bloated to a Godzilla size because of her own doing.

The baby was born healthy and thriving, according to the mother, accepting in part some of the responsibility of Santiago's weight problems.

However, she claimed he was born with anxiety. "So if he cried I just fed him," she said.

Santiago has now been placed on a very strict diet to bring down his weight to 17 pounds. Once that weight is reached, Medellin-based Chubby Hearts Foundation will proceed with more advanced medical treatment.

However, doctors his early had said the child will likely have medical issues at some point in the future, such as joint problems, high blood pressure or diabetes.

"What he will need is a long-term treatment, education, healthy food, and when he is older physical activity," surgeon Cesar Ernesto Guevar told Colombian newspaper El Espectador.

Eunice promised to abide by doctors' orders, feed her son healthy foods and help him exercise when he comes home.