A TWO-year-old York boy ate food meant for a pet rat because his mother did not feed him properly, the city's crown court heard.

The toddler was so desperate for a proper diet that, after he was fostered, he would eat two or three helpings of his savoury course.

He would also stuff food into his mouth because he did not know when he would next have a meal, said Jeremy Hill-Baker, prosecuting.

When his mother saw him eating food prepared for a pet rat, she thought it was simply something he did, and did not realise it was because he needed more food.

She put him on a diet of vegetables when she could not cope with him and thought that eating additives with E numbers was making him hyperactive. However, when his foster parents started giving him a normal diet, his behaviour became normal.

The mother also failed to prevent others living in the same house from giving him bite marks and bruises on his head.

Her barrister, Jodie Beveridge said she had been under too much pressure to look after the child properly and was suffering from depression at the time.

The 27-year-old mother, from the Huntington area, pleaded guilty to an offence of cruelty to a person under 16.

"You need help rather than punishment," Judge James Spencer QC told her and ordered her to carry out 12 months community rehabilitation. Mr Baker said that the toddler was no longer living with his mother, and would be adopted soon.

Medical records showed the boy had lost a significant proportion of his body weight at one period.

For the mother, Miss Beveridge said she had never bonded properly with the boy when he was born.

She found him a difficult child and sought help from health professionals, but she did not get it. She now understood that his tantrums and aggressive behaviour was the result of not getting the love and comfort he should have had. She was now receiving counselling in parenting skills.

She was extremely remorseful and felt she had "ruined" her son's life.

Updated: 09:52 Saturday, October 12, 2002