Toddler Contracts Parasitic Infection After Mum Forces Him To Eat Frogs

A three-year-old boy in southern China was hospitalised with a parasitic infection after his mother forced him to swallow live frogs in a bid to cure his ‘epilepsy’.

The boy’s mother, known as Ms Li, was said to have fed the unusual cure to her son on the advice of friends – when he began to show signs of epilepsy.

Explaining the unusual cure to Shenzhen Satellite Television, Ms Li said: ‘There is a child [in our neighbourhood] who has tried this method and it was a success.

’[My friends] suggested I give it a try too, so we went to catch live frogs to feed my son.’

Unsurprisingly, it failed to cure him – and several abnormal masses began growing on his tiny body.

He was admitted to hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with sparganosis – a parasitic condition responsible for causing blindness and brain damage.

And while doctors were able to remove the growths from his stomach and scrotum, it is feared that some remain in the youngster’s body.

Lei Min, a doctor from Shenzhen Children’s Hospital, said: ‘We think these are not all the tapeworms, though. There might still be a lot in his body.’

Sparganosis is a parasitic disease and can be contracted by drinking infected water or eating a raw infected frog, snake or mammal.