Five-year-old Zach Tahir suffers from a rare medical condition which means he's slowly eating his way through his bedroom.

Zach has a constant need to chew, but as he can't distinguish between food and inedible objects he wants to eat everything from window blinds to the plaster on his walls.

The youngster from Salford, Greater Manchester, who is autistic and cannot speak, has an extreme form of a disorder called Pica.

To keep him safe mother, Rachel Horn, has to go to extraordinary lengths ripping up celery to encourage him to eat it instead of thread and even sprinkling nuts on the carpet.

Rachel has now launched a fundraising drive to build a 'safe room', without objects Zach could try to consume.

Rachel, 32, said: 'He eats almost anything - mud and moss, stones, carpet, grow bags, thread, paper, wallpaper and hair.

'He loves to climb on his windowsill and eat his black-out blind. He likes to have something to chew on at all times. It is not the taste he likes, but the texture.

'It's frustrating as Zach doesn't speak - not one word - and meal times are a nightmare.

He doesn't sleep much and I get exhausted, but unlike other autistic children he loves to give me hugs and he dances.'
Zach, who lives with his mum and sister Isabella, two, was diagnosed with autism and learning difficulties aged three. His Pica, which is believed to be linked to autism, was diagnosed around the same time.

Rachel first noticed her son wasn't developing at the rate of other children when he was nine months.

She is hoping to raise £15,000 to make Zach's bedroom safe, furnishing it with items including a special mattress without seams.

Source : dailymail

Children as young as six who spend hours watching television or playing video games are at greater risk of developing heart problems later in life, a new study led by an Indian-origin scientist has suggested.

The University of Sydney study involving 1,492 primary school children found that those who spent hours glued to the screen suffered narrowing of blood vessels in their eyes – an early warning sign of increased likelihood of heart disease and high blood pressure.

However, those who exercised at least for one hour a day were significantly healthier, said the researchers.

For the study, Dr Bamini Gopinath and her team included 1,492 six- to seven-year-old children in 34 primary schools in Sydney.

Their parents were also asked to report the amount of time the children spent watching TV, playing video games, reading and engaging in indoor and outdoor physical activity.

The scientists then took digital photographs of the blood vessels at the back of each child's eye and calculated their size. They also measured height, weight, body mass index and blood pressure.

It was found that on average, children spent 1.9 hours per day watching TV or playing on their computer and only 36 minutes doing physical activity.

They had an average "retinal arteriole" narrowing of 2.3 microns. But those who regularly participated in outdoor physical activity had retinal blood vessels that were 2.2 microns wider.

"We found that children with a high level of physical activity had a more beneficial micro-vascular profile compared to those with the lowest levels of physical activity," Dr Gopinath said in a statement.

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