Ardi Rizal: Two-year-old Indonesian Addicted Smoker Toddler Who Dumps The Smoking Habit For Junk Food

  The two-year-old Indonesian boy who shocked the world with his 40-a-day cigarette habit has replaced nicotine with a new addiction… junk food. Ardi Rizal made international headlines as a toddler when he was spotted chain-smoking while riding a tricycle in his remote Sumatran village.

  The worldwide outrage over the photographs led Indonesia’s government to organise a special rehabilitation treatment for Ardi and launch a nationwide campaign to tackle the problem of child smokers.

  

  Now, two years on, a documentary team in the village filming Ardi’s recovery has found that although the five-year-old has successfully kicked his cigarette habit, he appears to have replaced it with an addiction to fatty snacks. The discovery will no doubt frustrate Indonesian authorities who spent a great deal of money on a high-profile campaign to rid Ardi of his bad habits, only to see him replace one addiction with another that is arguably just as unhealthy.

   In fact, it is Dr Seto that remains Ardi’s main inspiration. The boy’s 28-year-old mother, Diane Rizal, says that there are many people in the village who continue to offer Ardi cigarettes, but he now turns them down by saying “I love Kak Seto. He would be sad if I started smoking and made myself ill”.

 
  She also says that, due to the sheer number of people coming in and out of the family home, it is very difficult to prevent Ardi from taking food for himself. His favourite food is apparently condensed milk consuming at least three cans a day - and his

carbohydrate intake is also said to be extremely high. 

  

  With his poor nutrition proving such a concern, Mr and Mrs Rizal have put their son on a strict diet, taking advantage of the abundant fresh fish, fruit and vegetables available in the village. They have also demanded Ardi’s sibling refrain frm giving him junk food no matter how much he demands