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A chubby toddler who shockingly puffed 40 cigarettes a day now looks almost unrecognisable.

Ardi Rizal, from Sumatra, Indonesia, would terrifyingly smash his head against a wall when deprived of a smoke but he has since successfully kicked the habit.

The lad hit global headlines a decade ago but after a tough 'sour and dizzying' process, Ardi is off the fags and looking all the better for it.

Tackling the addiction required intensive specialist care from the government as his mum Diana feared how much Ardi would hurt himself without a hit of nicotine.

Ardi told CNN in 2017: "It was hard for me to stop. If I am not smoking, my mouth taste is sour and my head feel dizzy."

But it was not just ploughing through dozens of cigarettes daily that left Ardi in desperate need of a lifestyle change.

The tot piled on the pounds tucking into three cans of fatty condensed milk a day. His diet has since been replaced with fresh fish, fruit and vegetables.

The impact not only left Ardi healthier but eventually happier too.

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He added: "I am happy now. I feel more enthusiastic, and my body is feeling fresh."

Ardi became a smoker at 18 months when his dad unbelievably handed him one and the lad became hooked.

Trying to break the habit saw Ardi launch into aggressive self-harming rages which his parents did not know how to handle.

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But it was her fear of Ardi dying early from lung cancer that meant they persisted.

Diane told the Daily Mail in 2013: "When Ardi first quit smoking he would demand a lot of toys.

"He (would) start to smash his head to the wall. He was crazy, hurting himself if he didn't get a cigarette.

"That's why I get him cigarettes in the first place – because of his temper and his crying.

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"Now I don't give him cigarettes but he eats a lot.

"With so many people living in the house it's hard to stop him from getting food."

Once his smoking days were behind him, Ardi swapped one addiction for another and developed a love for junk food which led for him parents to recruit a nutritionist.

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Tipping the scales at three and a half stone as a five-year-old, Ardi hit unwanted fame again for being almost a stone above the ideal weight for a child his age.

As a result Indonesia’s Woman’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry investigated Ardi's parents and community to find out why.

Ardi was pictured in 2017 addiction-free and excelling at school, one year after the release of an unconfirmed photo of him looking morbidly obese.

• Smoking
• Cancer
• Parenting

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