Clinicians prescribed him nutritional supplements, and referred him to a mental health service to treat him for avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder. Most individuals with this condition develop it in middle childhood, and are uninterested in food, are sensitive to textures and are worried about eating. However, their BMI will usually be normal.
The boy’s eyesight stopped worsening, but didn’t improve. The boy’s diet is much the same, co-author of the paper Dr. Denize Atan of Bristol Eye Hospital told Newsweek.
“Nutrition does not just depend on how much you eat but what you eat and this case illustrates that fact. Here was a boy who consumed enough calories—he had normal height and weight and no visible signs of malnutrition—but he restricted his food to crisps and chips [fries] and a bit of processed pork.
In other words, energy-dense foods of little nutritional value. The case illustrates the fact that calorie intake and BMI are not reliable indicators of nutritional status,” Atan explained
He now takes multivitamin supplements but I cannot say that his eating behavior has changed much—despite seeing gastroenterologists, dieticians, the child mental health team and eating disorder specialists,” she said.
Some 2 billion people worldwide are affected by micronutrient deficiencies, according to Atan. But there is little awareness among health professionals and the public of the damage this can do to visual health, she said.
https://www.newsweek.com/teenager-blind-fries-chips-white-bread-sausages-ham-elementary-school-1456937?amp=1