When a child looses the sense of hunger and thirst, it definitely would be something worrisome for parents.
Little wonder the Jones family from Waterloo, Iowa, United States, cried out for help when their 12-year-old boy, Landon Jones, hasn’t felt hungry or thirsty since October 14, 2013.
He went to bed on a full stomach of pizza and ice cream the night before, and when he woke up, he had simply lost all sensation of hunger and thirst. Instead, the once energetic kid has been sick and suffered dizziness in the last one year.
Lack of nourishment has caused his weight to drop from a healthy 104 lbs. to 68 lbs. While his parents try their very best to encourage him to eat, he is simply unable to eat more than a bite of his sandwich.
A year later, Landon’s parents are still baffled by his condition; they have no idea what is wrong with him or how to help him. “Landon always laughed; he was always very energetic, always wanting to ride his bike, wanting to go to the park. Then on October 14, 2013 he woke up and it stopped. He lost all sensation of hunger, he lost all sensation of thirst,” said the father.
The family pediatrician in Iowa prescribed antibiotics, but they made no difference at all. The boy was then taken to doctors in other cities – Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Madison, and the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Minnesota – but no one has been able to give the parents any answers.
Marc Patterson, a child neurologist at the Mayo Clinic said, “Landon’s case might be the only one of its kind in the world”.
Experts have speculated that the boy might be suffering from a malfunctioning hypothalamus – the portion of the brain responsible for regulating hunger, thirst, body temperature, blood pressure and sleep cycles, but there isn’t any conclusive evidence to suggest this yet.
The boy’s parent also suspect that the cause of Landon’s illness might be the treatment he received three years ago for absence seizures. At age 9, he would sit and stare into space, oblivious to the world around him. He was put on a drug called Depakote, which is commonly used to treat such seizures, for a year.
Doctors are now wondering if there is a link between the drug and the suppression of his appetite. But that isn’t the most likely explanation because Depakote is typically linked to increased hunger and weight gain.
Understandably, Landon has become weak and lethargic; he’s attended only 65 days of school in the past year and prefers to lie on the couch most of times.
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