User blog comment:Damous/Why Bioware has NOT betrayed us/@comment-118213-20120317213602

''"-The child does not actually exist. He is an attempt to indoctrinate Shepard. Nobody but Shepard ever sees or interacts with the child.

-When Anderson calls for Shepard at the beginning of the game, when Shepard is talking to the child, Shepard turns back and the child is gone. Shepard has been "snapped out of it"."''

This really stood out to me, and thinking about it this theory about the child makes allot of sense.

Adding to the fact that NOBODY but Shepard sees or interacts with this child, when Shepard sees him board the shuttle, the people around him behave as if he's not there.... when the child struggles to get onto the shuttle nobody assists him - not the people on the shuttle not solders standing around the shuttle.

There is also the fact that when Shepard speaks to him, the child gives a rather cryptic response "you can't help me".