The boys, who suffered from stunted growth, rotten teeth and distended bellies, were surviving by supplementing their meager diet of uncooked pancake batter and oatmeal with chips of paint and pieces of wall insulation, authorities said.

Meanwhile, a state case worker made regular visits to the home in the Philadelphia suburb of Collingswood, New Jersey.

Their conditions came to light when neighbors phoned police after seeing the 19-year-old rummaging through their trash can. Officers discovered that the teen-ager weighed only 45 pounds. His adoptive siblings -- aged 9, 10 and 14 -- weighed as little as 23 pounds.

"It really strikes at the heart of anyone that has any sense of compassion. And, quite frankly, it boggles the mind," Camden County prosecutor Vincent Sarubbi told a weekend news conference.

Parents Raymond Jackson, 50, and his wife Vanessa, 48, claimed the boys suffered from eating disorders but a physician found no evidence of inherited deficiencies, authorities said. The couple also had two adopted girls, aged 5 and 12, and were in the process of adopting a 10-year-old girl.

Authorities said the parents' two biological children, a boy and a girl both over 18, lived in the same house and appeared healthy.

The three younger boys were removed from the Collingswood home and sent into foster care, while the 19-year-old was hospitalized. The girls were also taken from the home.

The state case worker who had been visiting the Jacksons resigned, and 10 managers and supervisors from the state Division of Youth and Family Services were suspended with pay.

The division has been under fire over a series of child abuse cases, including one that involved a 7-year-old Newark boy whose decomposing body was discovered with his two starving brothers in January.