HOUSTON -- A 2-year-old boy survived for up to two days on pancake syrup and onions after his caretaker died in their home, police said.

The boy was found on Monday after a relative of Gladie Mae Johnson, 64, became concerned because she hadn't heard from her.

When the relative knocked on the door of Johnson's home, she heard knocking back from inside. She entered through an unlocked back door and found the boy and Johnson's body.

Johnson was last seen alive on Friday and may have died on Saturday, Houston Police Department Sgt. Paul Motard said. She apparently died of natural causes.

Investigators found an open and nearly empty container of pancake syrup on the floor. Some onions also were found lying near Johnson's body.

Johnson was a friend of the boy's family and had been caring for him since last year, when his mother went to prison, Child Protective Services spokeswoman Estella Olguin said.

source

Wow, people live off of all sorts of weird things.

This is totatlly believable. Anyone can live on sugar(syrup) for a number of days because your body will just change it to glucose, which is the main fuel for biological processes...but of course if it continued for too long you would be derprived of protein, vitamins and minerals....

I wonder who's going to take care of him. Imagine being 2 and seeing someone dead and on top of that, your mom in jail. I doubt he'll even remember though..

Due to the immaturity of the hippocampus (I believe) People usually don't remember things that happened to them before the age of three. It's called infantile amnesia.

i'm surprised he was ok... onions and potatoes are known to be poinonous to kiddies, particularly raw ones. he must have been pretty dehydrated

Really..hm learn sumthin new everyday

- Dark

yea weird hey.. i learnt that during my nursing.. apparently there is a toxin that lies just under the potate skins.. and is gone when cooked

-- Yeah.. I always heard you shouldn't eat potatoes raw.. but I eat raw onions all the time

Well people can survive off anything when they need to!

And to think... all those people wasting their money on formula!!!

Mrs. Butterworth is my new nanny!!

I'm glad someone at least checked up on the woman and child before something worse happened.

We had the case in Australia where a toddler died after her mother died and no one checked up on them for over 2 weeks. To think what the poor little girl went through before she died.

The thought of that is just sickening. I hate to hear about little children, or anyone for that matter die.

Yum pancakes.. Yuck onions.... but at least he is ok.. i mean it was only 2 days so he could have been fine even without food..maybe sad but he would live

It's under the age of two, not three.

Sad story, but yes I could believe someone could live on syrup for a few days.

Thanks Star child, that is just what I learned in my Psychology class.