10 Years Old South African Boy Eats Toilet Rolls Due to Rare Genetic Condition

Meet Caden Benjamin, a 10-year-old boy from Standerton South Africa, who constantly has the urge to eat as he suffers from a rare disease.

The teenager who weighs 14 stone 2lbs (90 kilograms) would often result to eating rolls of toilet paper if he is unable to get any food.

Benjamin had been diagnosed with a rare 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.

She said;

‘At one point, Caden was eating toilet paper. He’d eat rolls of it,’

‘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.’

Several years ago, he was forced to undergo a tracheotomy and he now breathes through a tube inserted into his windpipe’.

Prader-Willi syndrome is a rare, incurable disease that affects thousands of people worldwide, resulting in physical, mental and behavioral 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.

His mum also added that;

‘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.

‘We went to a number of doctors and no one could tell us what was wrong and why he was gaining so much weight.’

Eventually, a doctor at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria ran further tests and diagnosed Caden’s illness.