How Diet Can Control Childhood Seizures
The ketogenic (seizure control) diet is used for children and young people although it can be used for babies that are only months old.
80% of the diet by weight is fat and it makes up 90% of the calorie intake. A typical breakfast might be mushroom omelette with bacon. Hot chocolate made with 36 per cent cream. Lunch might include celery stalks filled with peanut butter or cream cheese, lettuce with mayonnaise and a slice of tomato, and a caffeine-free diet soda. Dinner might be hot dog with ketchup or mustard, lettuce and mayonnaise, a whipped cream sundae with a strawberry, and a diet soda.
This diet is not complete from a nutritional standpoint and the child will have to take multivitamins and minerals and calcium. The diet has to be very strictly adhered to otherwise it won’t control seizures.
Beginning The Diet
Four days of hospitalisation is required. The child is fasted for a few days then high fat meals are gradually introduced.
During this period the dietician teaches the diet to the family and provides them with a number of meal plans specifically calculated for the child.
The Diet Is Quite Challenging
Most children will find that their favourite foods are not to be eaten on this diet. There is no fries, pastas, pizzas, cakes, biscuits, sweets and ice cream. This will make them ‘different’ from their family and friends.
Every scrap of food has to be eaten, every last drop drunk, otherwise the precise calculations of the diet will be invalid. Every food item must be carefully weighed. Eating away from home, at school and on trips must be planned with vigilance.
Is The Diet Safe?
A diet which is so high in fat may not seem very healthy, but look again and the foods that are left out of the diet. Children do grow normally and weight remains stable. Nutritional supplements are provided to meet shortfalls.
The Diet Can Cure
The diet is effective for the majority of children who try it. Their seizures are eliminated or greatly reduced. They are able to reduce or discard their medications. After a few years, children can be weaned off the diet and return to eating normally. For children who became seizure and medication free on the diet, it means they are effectively cured. That is why higher blood lipids is not a problem. The diet is short term for most children.
