Yang Yang is drinking ink.

A boy in southwest China's Chongqing with an alias of Yang Yang has a unique taste - drinking ink, toilet water, shower gel and things of the sort, the Chongqing Evening News reports.

Yang Yang has had this odd appetite since he was very young, according to his mother in the city's Shapingba district. The nine-year-old boy now weighs 65 kilograms, almost twice the weight of ordinary kids of his age.

In the beginning, his parents thought the boy might have lost his sense of taste. They gave him a bitter herbal drink in an ink bottle and proved that Yang Yang was aware of the bitterness after he took the drink with a grimaced face.

Yang Yang's parents took their son to many hospitals in the past year, but Yang Yang still retain the odd habit. He was recently sent to a special boarding training center in the city to get help from doctors.

A doctor in the center said Yang Yang may be suffering from a type of cittosis, an unnatural desire for odd "food" that disturbs patients' normal lifestyle and result in mal-nutrition. The doctor says his overweight may have something to do with his bizarre diet.

The doctor advised the boy's parents and teachers to work closely with the center to develop Yang Yang's understanding and cognitive capabilities so that he will gradually kick the habit as he comes to know that some things that are eatable might actually do harm to his body.

(CRI.cn September 14, 2007)