The three-year-old who weighs a whopping nine-and-a-half stone

At 132lbs, Lu Hao is already five times the size of a normal child his age.

The three-year-old toddler from China eats a staggering THREE bowls of rice when he sits down for a family meal.

When Lu Hao was born he weighed just 2.6kg (5.7 lbs), however, from the time he was three months old he began to gain weight rapidly.

'His appetite is so good that for a meal he can eat 3 big bowls of rice, even larger than I and his mother,' said Hao's father Lu Yuncheng.

Since Hao was one-year-old his parents have tried to keep a careful eye on his diet.

However, Hao's mother Chen Yuan comments: 'We have to let him be as if we don't feed him he will cry non-stop'.

No matter how hard the family restricts Hao's diet and pushes him to move more the toddler has still managed to put on 10kg (22 lbs) in the past year.

Now Chen Yuan is unable to pick her son up.

'In both of our families, there was no such giant person,' said father Yuncheng.

Hao hates walking and each day his mother takes him to kindergarten on a motorcycle.

'He is quite happy that I could ride him to kindergarten instead of walking him there,' said Yuan.

Hao has many toys at home but his favourite is Superman because, he says, 'Superman can fly and beat bad men!'

When asked is he would like to fly like Superman Hao giggles and replies: 'No. I am too fat'.

To push Hao to do more sports, the family installed a basketball hoop in the yard and often take him to swim in a local river.

But the exercise just make him hungrier and results in him putting on more weight.

'We took him to three hospitals and one said he has a tumor in the head, while the other two said there is no tumour in the head,' said Yuncheng.

'Doctors said his hormones are at a normal level. It's hard to know why he could be so big.'

'We now worry the most about his health. As if he continues to grow at this rate his heart could fail,' said Yuan.

They also worry that when he gets older and more aware of his weight Hao will be bullied.

'Our biggest hope is one day Hao could get slim,' said Chen.