A boy was hospitalized after his mother forced him to eat frogs that were still alive.

The 3-year-old boy was hospitalized with a parasitic infection after his mother forced him to eat live frogs to cure his epilepsy.

The woman, known only as Mrs. Li, became concerned when her son began to show signs of what she thought was epilepsy.

Li said that her friends and neighbors advised her to try an ancient way to cure the epilepsy by swallowing live frogs.

Neighbors said that another boy in their neighborhood tried this method and it was successful.

“So we went to catch live frogs to feed my son,” Li said.

After catching 3 live frogs, the entire family, who lives in Maoming, Guangdong, China, held the boy down and forced him to swallow them alive.

This did not cure the boy. Instead, the mother found several abnormal masses growing on his body.

The boy was taken to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with sparganosis, a parasitic infection caused by the larvae of tapeworms, which was caused by eating the frogs.

Doctors removed the growth from his stomach and scrotum. Doctors at the Shenzhen Children's Hospital, will continue to monitor the boy as they believe that there may still be tapeworms in the body.

The mother did not disclose whether the boy actually suffered from epilepsy in the first place.