151 a georgia family is hoping to raise awareness for their 23monthold boy after he was diagnosed with a rare metabolic disorder that means he has to eat every hour to stay healthy owen torti was diagnosed with lchad longchain 3hydroxy acylcoenzyme a dehydrogenase when he was just a newborn his mother kayla torti told abc news the rare genetic disorder means owens body is unable to break down certain fatty acids into energy as a result he must eat nearly constantly or else his body would start to break down key muscles in the search for energy legionnaires disease reported in south bronx area of nyc girl who survived braineating amoeba swims again fat guy bikes across america to save marriage health if we had breakfast and skipped lunch our body would use up the energy from breakfast to break down stored fats for energy torti explained owens body cannot do that it breaks down his muscles and can cause problems with kidneys or liver or heart despite the genetic illness owen still looks and acts much like any other toddler torti said he wants to act like a normal 2yearold and he wants to go and play and run around as long as the other 2yearolds torti said unfortunately we have to have him sit down and take little breaks he doesnt know how to pace himself the national institutes of health does not have a firm estimate for how often the disease appears in the us but says in finland it appears in about 1 of every 62000 births torti said she was told by her doctors that the condition can be related to a syndrome called hellp syndrome which can affect a pregnant womans red blood cells liver enzymes and platelets since owen needs to constantly be fed he doesnt quite understand the purpose of a meal torti said from feeding owen so frequently he has a lot of oral aversion to eating torti explained to abc news solid foods is so hard for him right now torti said she is hopeful that as owen grows hell be able have a fairly normal life as he learns what his limitations are theres not a lot known about how this will affect him in future and what he will and wont be able to do torti said were hopeful that he can manage and hell know his body enough she said