Toddler on a ketogenic diet?

[k3am]

Has anyone ever.. attempted this? Had success?

DD hasn't had much success with with any of the anticonvulsants we've tried so far. We're going to start a new one today and weaning her off the others over the next 8 weeks, but one thing her neuro mentioned was that if this one doesn't work, we only have a couple of other options we can try, after which he'd recommend putting her on a ketogenic diet. And it sounds awful. I don't see how I could do it, so I definitely don't see how she could do it. 

It would be a two month trial period for up to two years, depending on how she responds.. just curious if anyone here has ever gone through it or something similar. 

ETA: DD has epilepsy - probably a detail that would help, huh?

[Life is interesting]

Mar 18, 2015 10:02:52 GMT -5 k3am said:

Has anyone ever.. attempted this? Had success?

DD hasn't had much success with with any of the anticonvulsants we've tried so far. We're going to start a new one today and weaning her off the others over the next 8 weeks, but one thing her neuro mentioned was that if this one doesn't work, we only have a couple of other options we can try, after which he'd recommend putting her on a ketogenic diet. And it sounds awful. I don't see how I could do it, so I definitely don't see how she could do it. 

It would be a two month trial period for up to two years, depending on how she responds.. just curious if anyone here has ever gone through it or something similar. 

ETA: DD has epilepsy - probably a detail that would help, huh?

It's been awhile but back in school in my clinical rotations with a neurologist I saw several children helped tremendously by this and it did decrease seizure threshold and number of seizures.

If you do it get guidance from. Pediatric dietitian but yes this is actually a treatment. I dont know any of the research or lack thereof behind it but know it is a very well established protocol.

[k3am]

Life is interesting, if we do it we'd be checking into the hospital for the first few days and working closely with a pediatric dietitian. He didn't go into much detail beyond that, but everything I've read suggests that the average person is not cut out to figure out this type of diet without a lot of guidance and help.

DD pretty much lives off grapes, pasta, and pouches, none of which be okay. And I can't imagine trying to explain to DC that it's not okay to sneak her snacks.. or let herself sneak snacks from friends.

[mcribster]

I would try it! There are some mommy boards I'm on that have people doing this. My kids are gf/cf/corn/soy additive free and I can't describe what a big change it made for them. It was a tough transition but it was so worth it.