In Frailty, Fenton's Dad locked him in the basement for interrupting his killings.
After knowing his son was not responding from the basement, he took him out and tried to revive him. Eventually, he was restored back to health.
How did Fenton survive more than 7 days without food in the basement? Is that possible as a kid?
Yes. The normal adult can last a month or more without food as long as you have water. Without water, it's close to a week or less. A comatose adult would last 2 weeks without both.
Children don't fair as good due to lower fat storage. But even then, a 1 year old lasted six days and a 2 year old was in critical condition at nine days. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2352824/mum-leaves-toddler-starve-to-death-leaves-nine-day-jaunt-lover/
Fenton could easily last a week. Plus we don't know if he had any access to food or water, we are not explicitly told. His dad or brother could have brought food or there was a sink or something.
Andreas Mihavecz, an 18-year-old Austrian man, may have survived the longest without drinking water: Police accidentally left him in a holding cell for 18 days in 1979. It's a fuzzy record, though, since he allegedly licked condensation off the walls of the prison.
http://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-the-longest-people-have-survived-without-air-food-water-sunshine-or-sleep1
Thus it is possible, but hardly guaranteed that Fenton might have been able to survive for a week locked up and possibly without any food or water.
