What went down inside the months that have followed together with what continues today is nothing lacking one school's mission for change Eric's life: to construct his confidence, to change his health, to save him from an obesity problem that plagues too many.

Indiana may be the eighth most obese state in the usa, using the 2013 F just like Fat report with the Trust for America's Health insurance and the 2 day diet original Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In the about 1.6 000 0000 children moving into Indiana, 17% or about 270,000, are obese, said Laura Hormouth, nutrition coordinator for that Indiana Department of Health's Division of Nutrition and Exercise.

Given his girth, Eric's scenario is special. So, too, may be the effort of his classmates who now tend to be likely to offer words of encouragement when compared to a hurtful remark, to inquire about Eric to sign up them for just about any walk rather than shun him, to consider notice of their own diet program.

On the way, his teachers say, Eric the invisible is becoming Eric the muse.

"I was that certain kid tend to hid from everything," Eric said. "Now that everyone's started helping me, I'm a good deal better."

A weighty history

Eric always has been bigger than most children his age. At green lean body approximately age 2, he was often mistaken for almost any 4-year-old. His mother Laura asserted their loved ones includes others with weight loss.

In May 2010, when Eric was 11, his father, Sam Ekis, died of the brain aneurism. Later that year, still reeling within the loss, Eric slipped on the wet floor and shattered his leg.

Damages resulted in numerous surgeries where doctors pieced bones together with screws and rods. They broke his other leg to prevent it from growing longer than the damaged one.