Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-32617252-20180505055143/@comment-734582-20180505121040

Lorenzo.r.2nd wrote: if every time he eats a fruit, and gets stronger, him as a child... Not how it seems to work. He turns fruits into those pills, which temporarily grant him power and longevity. Only eating the fruit directly grants permanent power and natural chakra.

EDIT: to be clear, since he obviously did have to eat one of those fleshy fruits to obtain his power in the first place, as a kid he was indeed a powerless regular human.