the update to yesterday’s soil eating children provides more twists and turns.

While the earlier report says the children ate soil, today’s report says they ate stone and have been doing it for some time eve after being warned by the father. The father is not unemployed, but working as a laborer. He’s 43 years old, not in the 30s. I wonder how the same newspaper publish so many discrepancies without checking first.

So, looks like its a low income family but no negligence on the parents’ side.

“It tasted like chocolate, that was why I ate them,” said Year Four I. Yogeswary who was admitted to the Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital here with her two younger sisters and a cousin for eating stones.

The girls were hospitalised after they vomited and suffered stomach pains for eating stones collected from the compound of their house in Kampung Padang Lembu, some 20km from here.

Yogeswary, 10, her sisters Nageswari, eight, and Ganggadevi, six, and their cousin N. Vikneswary, nine, were admitted to the hospital after one of them revealed their condition to Jerai MIC division chairman R. Supramaniam on Friday.

They were admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit here but on Sunday have since have been moved to the observation ward.

Accompanying them at the hospital was their 61-year-old grandmother N. Bathumalai.

A visit to the ward yesterday showed that Yogeswary, Nageswari and Vikneswary’s condition had improved while Ganggadevi was still weak.

Yogeswary said she had been eating stones since last year, adding that it was very crunchy and tasted like chocolate.

Admitting that she was the one who had introduced the stones to the three girls, the schoolgirl from SJK (T) Kalaivani in Kampung Padang Lembu said they secretly ate the stones behind their parents’ back.

“I collected the stones and hid them in my schoolbag and would eat them in my room. One day, Nageswari saw me eating the stones and joined in while the others did so later.

“My sisters, cousin and I are never full after eating food prepared by my mother. We will only feel full after eating the stones.

“My father had caught me eating the stones a few months back and punished me but I was soon back to the habit,” she said.

Her mother V. Sarojini, 27, when met at home, said the girls were admitted to the hospital after her husband, R. Inderan, 43, searched their room and found plastic packages containing stones hidden in their schoolbags and closet.

“I had warned them numerous times about it but they denied doing it. Ganggadevi and Nageswari were admitted to the hospital for the same problem last June and in January this year.

“My husband may earn a small salary working as a labourer but we are never out of food. I am unable to visit my daughters and niece as I have two other daughters and a son to take care of at home,” she said.

Inderan said he and his wife had been branded as unfit parents by his neighbours after the media highlighted the matter, adding that the accusations were unjust as they had done their best for the children.

NST reported the following version:

Four children are in hospital after eating soil for a week, claiming they did so because they did not have enough to eat at home.

The four girls, between the ages of 6 and 9, claimed to have eaten pebbles and soil as their parents could not provide them with enough food.

The four are in the same ward at Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital, where doctors are conducting tests to determine their condition.

They have been vomiting and complaining of stomach disorder. Three of them are said to be out of danger while the fourth child is still weak.

Their plight was highlighted by Jerai MIC chairman R. Supramaniam, who will accompany State Welfare Department officers to visit the children and their parents today.

The four have been identified as sisters Yogeswary, 10, Nageswari, 7, Ganggadevi, 6, and their cousin, Vikneswary, 9.

On Friday, Yogeswary, a Year Four pupil of SJK (T) Kalaivani, was rushed to the hospital, after she admitted at a medical camp organised for poor children, that she has been regularly eating dirt and soil due to the lack of food at home.

She also said that two of her younger sisters and a cousin suffered the same fate. School authorities sent all four to the hospital.

Yogeswary’s mother, V. Sarojini, 27, however, was aghast when confronted at her home in Kampung Baru Padang Lembu in Gurun, near here, yesterday.

She claimed her daughter had been eating soil to spite her and her husband, R. Inderian. She described Yogeswary as rebellious and always full of anger.

“I found out that she had started eating dirt and soil from the front yard in June last year after my third child fell ill.

“We scolded her for the bad habit and for instigating her younger sister to follow her. We thought she would stop, but she obviously remained stubborn,” said the housewife.

Sarojini said Yogeswary remained rebellious because she and her husband would always reprimand her for misbehaving and not give in to her demands.

“How could any parent not reprimand his or her child for misbehaving or behaving strangely, like eating dirt?”

Meanwhile, Inderian, 43, said if they were bad parents, the children would have long died from starvation. “We are not rich but we try to give our children the basic needs. We even send them to school.

“I earn about RM400 a month as an odd job worker but I have managed to meet the basic needs of my wife, six children and a niece.

“We also have good neighbours who sometimes cook for us and even give us money to buy food and other items.”

Yogeswary, however, remained adamant.

At the hospital, she said her parents never provided enough food for the children. “I would swallow some small red pebbles with soil whenever there was not enough food at home.”

She admitted sharing her “strange” eating habits with her sisters and cousin.

Yogeswary is thin and appears weak. Her medical chart reveals she weighs only 16kg, about 12kg lighter for a normal child her age.