Meet The 9-Year-Old Boy Who Could Die If He Eats Or Even Smells Food

Poor kid...can't even begin to imagine what the little boy is going through.

Nine-year-old Joshua from New York suffers from a rare disease called eosinophilic esophagitis which means that he is fatally allergic to nearly all foods. 

Pizza, hot dogs, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; any snack a normal nine-year-old might dream up is off the cards for Joshua, whose reactions can range from vomiting and diarrhoea to anaphylactic shock.

Even the scent of food could be lethal for him, meaning that his parents must cook meals for the rest of the family on a patio grill. 

His dad, Brant, told Anderson Cooper: 'The hardest thing for me is that he cannot eat what we eat.'

The only thing Joshua can eaton a day-to-day basis is baby food. Other than that he gets his nutrients from a doctor-prescribed formula fed through a tube into his stomach.

Joshua is home-schooled by his mom, Cara, because of his life debilitating disease. 'Every morning Joshua wakes up at 6.45 and usually it's because he hears the school bus,' she said.

'Sometimes he cries when he looks out the window because he can't be on that bus, he will never be on that school bus with those kids.

'Right now I am looking at a future for Joshua with absolutely no cure. Every day he is alive is a miracle.