Colombia's most obese baby — who weighs the same as a 6-year-old child — has been "rescued" by a charity so he can undergo life-saving treatment. 
 
 Santiago Mendoza, who at 8 months old already tips the scales at 44 pounds, was flown from his home in the northeastern city of Valledupar to the capital Bogota on Sunday. 
 
 Volunteers from Medellin-based Chubby Hearts Foundation (Gorditos de Corazon) stepped in to transport the boy after his mother Eunice Fandiño wrote in asking for help. 
 
 She confessed that her own "ignorance" had led to her son's unhealthy weight gain and that, every time he cried, she gave him food or milk to calm down. 
 
 Santiago Mendoza sits at a clinic for the obese in Bogota, Colombia, on Wednesday. The 20-kilogram 8-month-old will be put on a diet, therapist Salvador Palacios said. (John Vizcaino/Reuters ) 
 
 "He was born with an anxiety, so if he cried I just fed him," she told El Espectador. 
 
 Caracol Radio reports that Mendoza has suffered medical complications due to his weight since he was born, and has already been hospitalized on several occasions. 
 
 Chubby Hearts Director Salvador Palacio González said the tot would be evaluated by specialist doctors at the Colina Clinic. 
 
 Colombian infant Santiago Mendoza is 8 months old, but already weighs 44 pounds. Doctors are helping his parents get him to a healthy weight. (elespectador.com) 
 
 Medics will then try to bring his weight down to a manageable level before submitting him to a series of operations, he added. 
 
 "Likely, what he will need is a long-term treatment, education, healthy food, and when he is older, physical activity," surgeon Cesar Ernesto Guevar told El Espectador. 
 
 "Otherwise, in the future, he could suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure and severe problems with his joints," he added. 
 
 The 44-pound child weighs about as much as the typical 6-year-old child. (elespectador.com) 
 
 Fandiño revealed that she was practically confined to her home as the baby was "too heavy" to take out and about. 
 
 But she added that she was "optimistic" about the help she was receiving and has promised to follow the instructions she's given by doctors. 
 
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 Image 8-month-old baby weighs as much as six year old -- doctor 1:34 Play video An eight-month-old Colombian baby weighing 20 kilos (44 pounds) is treated by the Chubby Hearts Foundation in Colombia. Gavino Garay reports. 
 
 EIGHT-MONTH-OLD Santiago Mendoza might look like a happy, cuddly little tot but the reality is that he is very sick. 
 
 Santiago, who weighs 19.7kg — the equivalent of a six-year-old child — has been ‘rescued’ from his family by Colombian health charity Chubby Hearts. 
 
 Volunteers from the foundation spirited the grossly obese infant away from his home in the north east city of Valledupar to a hospital in Bogota for urgent medical treatment. 
 
 The intervention came after his mother Eunice Fandino wrote to Chubby Hearts for help after Santiago became too heavy to take outside. 
 
 Ms Fandino blamed her own ‘‘ignorance’’ for Santiago’s weight gain and admitted she fed him every time he cried. 
 
 “He was born with an anxiety, so if he cried I just fed him,” she told local media. 
 
 Santiago’s weight has landed him in hospital on several occasions in the past. He is now being assessed by specialists. 
 
 Chubby Hearts foundation director Salvador Palacio Gonzalez said doctors will attempt to reduce his weight to a manageable level before carrying out a series of operations. 
 
 “Otherwise, in the future, he could suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure and severe problems with his joints,” Mr Gonzalez said. 
 
 It was not clear whether treatment would include gastric band surgery. 
 
 Bogota surgeon Cesar Ernesto Guevar told El Espectador: “Likely, what he will need is a long-term treatment, education, healthy food, and when he is older, physical activity.”
– "Grossly obese" is a phrase that should never sit alongside another one: "8-month-old." But that is apparently indeed the case in Colombia, where a baby has been "rescued" from his family by a charity—at his own mother's request. Santiago Mendoza weighs a staggering 44 pounds, roughly equivalent to the weight of a 6-year-old, and after his mother found herself unable to carry him anymore, she contacted the Chubby Hearts Foundation (Gorditos de Corazon). Its volunteers removed him from his home in Valledupar and took him to the capital. There, the New York Daily News reports he'll be evaluated, put on a healthy diet that should spur weight loss, and will then undergo unspecified surgeries. His mother shoulders much of the blame for his weight, and admitted that "he was born with an anxiety, so if he cried I just fed him." Local media reports that the child has already suffered medical complications that required hospitalization due to his weight, notes news.com.au. (Click to read about a 2-year-old who was reportedly the youngest to ever undergo bariatric surgery.)