A four-year-old is so ‘addicted’ to cheese that his mum is forced to shell out £1,800 a year on the dairy product.
Dawn Baker, 43, shells out around £35 per week on cheese blocks and snacks to satisfy son Alfie, who first tried cheese at three months and has since ‘not gone a day’ without it.
But while some have been critical about Dawn fuelling Alfie’s penchant for parmesan, the mum-of-four said it was a ‘godsend’, as she believes his cheddar-chomping ways have led to his ‘amazingly strong teeth’ and even ‘corrected’ his flat feet (so it can only be a...gouda thing).
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You can watch the video below.
Dawn, from Forest Hill, South East London, explained: “He's literally addicted to cheese. Apart from breakfast he has it with every meal. He won't eat school dinners because they can't incorporate cheese like we can.
"Everything in his packed lunch has to have cheese in it, from cheese strings to cheese dips. Then even when I make dinner I've got to grate cheese on it no matter what it is.
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"I have to make sure my fridge never runs out of cheese and it never will. It's a way of getting him to eat food he doesn't want. We'll put cheese on top of the veg and mash it up, and with his fruit I can get it in smoothies. It's been a godsend.”
Dawn believes Alfie’s been addicted to cheese since he was first conceived, as she found herself craving cheddar throughout her pregnancy.
“All I ever wanted to eat was cheese. I'd sit there with chunks of cheese. Any type of cheese as long as it wasn't stinky,” she said.
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"I wasn't having lots of it before I was pregnant. I was having the odd couple of slices of cheese on toast now and then, but that was it really. It must have been Alfie demanding it from the womb.
"He started wanting to eat solids at three months, so he'd sit there with cheese strings. That was his favourite cheese then.
"Then when he started walking I'd go to the fridge and there'd be cheese with his little teeth marks in it. The cheese would go missing and we'd find it half-eaten under the living room sofa or something.”
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Dawn says luckily everyone in her household in Dover, Kent, which includes husband Lee Knox, 36, and two of her other children Billy Payne, 19, and Isabelle Baker-Knox, 10, all like cheese.
She explains 'cheese connoisseur' Aflie's favourite meals are cheese-topped shepherd's pies and cheesy pastas, describing him as 'an Italian boy at heart', while he also loves baby bells, cheese rolls and mini cheddars.
Red Leicester and mild cheddar are his preferred cheeses, and it was the former which Dawn caught him eating directly from the cheese grater last month while they were making his Saturday morning cheese-only omelettes.
Finding the moment hilarious, Dawn filmed her son for TikTok - with the video going viral.
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Dawn said: "We were making omelettes and I went to the front door to let the kitten in, I went back and he's there with his grater, just grating it in his mouth. Luckily it's a safety grater.
"He took the lid off because the bowl was full, so instead of eating what's in the bowl he grated what's left into his mouth. It's a great shortcut. He loves cheese so much he had to cut out the middle man.
"He said he was bored and that he's tried cheese every other way so he wanted it this way. I just thought it was hilarious. I told him he shouldn't be doing it but he reassured me the angle he had it at so he wouldn't get hurt.
"It was weird to see it go so viral, but perhaps it's because so many people like cheese too."
Dawn's TikTok, posted to @dawnbaker18 with the on-screen caption 'this boy is crazy for cheese', has been liked and commented on more than 29,000 times.
Leanne Ewan commented: "This boy is my spirit animal for real. Why have I never thought of this?"
Gemma Mitchell said: "We have been grating cheese wrong this whole time."
Tilly.idk replied: "He's a genius."
Anay Rose added: "Cheese and glow in the dark pyjamas. This boy is going places."
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