Salvador Palacio (centre), director of Gorditos Heart Foundation, poses with babies Santiago Mendoza (left) and Isabel Caicedo (right) who have been brought to his clinic in Colombia for life-saving weight-loss treatment
Babies' lives on the line after ballooning to more than three stone each
Santiago Mendoza sent to clinic after mother failed to control his appetite
Isabela Caicedo being treated after her mother heard of Santiago's plight
Charity hopes they will return to a normal weight in six to eight months
Two of Colombia's fattest babies have been brought together in a bid to save their lives.
At just ten months old, Santiago Mendoza and Isabela Caicedo tip the scales at an incredible six-and-a-half stone combined.
The severely overweight babies were brought together by Medellin-based charity Chubby Hearts foundation (Gorditos de Corazon) who work with weight-loss specialists.
At eight months old, Santiago reportedly weighed more than three stone - as much as a six-year-old - and his life hung in the balance.
Now the foundation have brought his weight-gain under control and hope to see signs of improvement in the coming months.
After seeing Santiago on television, Isabela's mother Niyered Martinez also contacted the foundation for help.
She said: 'In the first few months Isabela pestered me all the time - she didn't sleep, she was just eating and eating.
'We started to try to regulate her food intake but she wasn't losing any weight.'
Since meeting the foundation's director, Salvador Palacio, and working with a team of health specialists, Isabela has lost nearly 3.5lb.
'Thousands of children in Colombia - and millions around the world - suffer with obesity.
'From Colombia we have formed an international alliance to help people who are overweight.
Santiago's mother, Eunice Fandino, has 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.
She 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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