A HUNGRY child has died in the US after eating 180 times the lethal amount of methamphetamine, which he thought was a breakfast cereal.

Eight-year-old Curtis Collman III woke up early on June 21 and told his dad, Curtis Gilbert Collman II, that he wanted something to eat, the man told authorities, according to WDRB.

Mr Collman, 41, said there was no food in the house in Seymour, Indiana. But there was meth that he left on a clear glass plate, the outlet reported.

Meth can be crystal like, or brownish in colour and could have been mistaken for cereal in low light.

The child ate a staggering amount of the drug — 18,000 nanograms — toxicology results released this week revealed, the Seymour Tribune reported.

Mr Collman noticed his son was feeling sick about 10am and asked a friend to come over to help check him out, according to police documents obtained by NBC-Wave3.

But instead of taking the boy to a hospital like his friend suggested, Mr Collman allegedly ripped her mobile phone away, pointed a gun at her head and screamed, “I’m not going back to prison”, the Seymour Tribune reported.

He allegedly threatened to shoot her, himself and the boy if she called 911.

The father then picked up his son and allegedly rushed to his mother’s house instead of a hospital, according to WAVE TV.

When they arrived, the boy began turning blue and his grandfather eventually called authorities.

The boy was taken to the Schneck Medical Center, where he later died.

The dad is facing a slew of charges, including neglect that led to the death of a dependent and possession of meth, reports said.

A bond reduction request was barred by a Jackson County judge on Friday. He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted. A trial is set for December 4.

The child’s grandparents were devastated.

“We all wake up in the morning thinking about him and we go to sleep at night thinking about him,” the boy’s heartbroken grandmother, Rita Cook, told ABC-WLOX. “He was just a good little boy.”

He was remembered as a fun-loving kid, who especially liked riding bicycles, riding his scooter, watching SpongeBob SquarePants and playing the video game Minecraft.

“He was a Minecraft tutorial person — he could tell you anything about Minecraft,” Ms Cook said. “He just loved life. He never was still; he constantly moved and just never was still.”

Meth is a major problem in the area, which made up for more than one-third of the county’s arrests, WLOX reported.

“The meth is still our, hate to say it, drug of choice,” Jackson County Sheriff Mike Carothers said.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and is republished with permission