{"id":7,"date":"2012-02-06T03:59:28","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T03:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/modifiedketogenicdietforepilepsy\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2015-05-10T16:20:30","modified_gmt":"2015-05-10T16:20:30","slug":"aboutketodiet","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/oregonketokids\/aboutketodiet\/","title":{"rendered":"About the Keto Diet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Does the Ketogenic Diet for Epilepsy Work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our families tried the ketogenic diet to treat our children\u2019s epilepsies because medications were not working, and we stuck with it because the diet worked. It is an effective treatment for many epilepsy types, such as Jaron\u2019s Doose Syndrome, and can be effective for epilepsy with an unknown cause, such as Nora\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Typically, a neurologist will recommend anti-seizure medication as a first treatment, but up to 30% of epileptics will not respond to medication and many have difficult side effects. If two medications fail, a diet treatment is more likely to be effective than a third drug trial.<\/p>\n

Neurologists have recently stressed the importance of quickly finding an effective treatment in childhood epilepsy because children have the best chance of recovering and avoiding long term impairment\u00a0(learning difficulty, etc.)\u00a0if seizures are controlled early. Studies show that regardless of age or seizure type, about 1\/3 of the patients that try the ketogenic diet will see a 90% reduction in their seizure frequency, some (like Nora and Jaron) will become seizure free (Henderson et al., 2006). (See Recommendations of the International Ketogenic Diet Study Group, 2008).<\/a><\/p>\n

We have the scientific evidence and the clinical procedure for administering diet therapy. Ketogenic diets must be used under the supervision of a neurologist and\/or dietician.<\/strong> Your child\u2019s neurologist can help you decide if your child is a good candidate for diet therapy. Generally, if two anti-seizure medications have not worked and blood tests show that your child can process fat properly, your child is a good candidate for diet therapy. Some types of epilepsy also respond particularly well to the diet, so the diet should be the first choice of treatment in those cases. A hospital with a ketogenic diet program is a critical support in doing the diet right. We are thankful that Doernbecher Pediatric Neurology brought in Dr. Wray to handle the ketogenic diet program just when Nora needed to try the diet. She was one of his first patients, and the program was up and running when Jaron needed the diet.<\/p>\n

Parent\u2019s Role in Ketogenic Diet Treatment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Parents and children are key team players in dietary treatment for epilepsy. Before dealing with Nora\u2019s epilepsy, I treated doctors as the experts and looked to them for answers. But epilepsy treatment isn\u2019t so straightforward. As a parent, you have choices about your child\u2019s epilepsy treatment. Every person\u2019s epilepsy is unique and you know your child the best. In consultation with your child\u2019s doctor, you must weigh the benefits and risks of every treatment. You will also weigh the burden of seizures and the burden of treatment options.<\/p>\n

Your child\u2019s medical team can give you the basic rules of the diet, and there are materials at The Charlie Foundation that explain the ratio and carbohydrate limits (see their FAQ page<\/a>.). Your child\u2019s dietician will do the calculations, may give you access to The Keto Calculator, an online meal planning tool, and basic recipes to get started. But taking the ketogenic diet home isn\u2019t easy. Many parents feel discouraged from trying diet therapy because neurologists and others depict it as \u201ctoo hard.\u201d We were told by one neurologist that the diet \u201cworks great for kids on feeding tubes,\u201d but it would be too hard for a regular kid like Nora. Mainstream news articles emphasized the difficulty and sacrifice, such as the 2010 NYT Magazine article, “Epilepsy’s Big Fat Miracle.<\/a>”<\/p>\n

However, the response I have heard from all of the keto parents I have talked to is this:<\/p>\n

If you think the ketogenic diet is hard, try watching your child have seizures.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thankfully, adding the Ketogenic Diet Program at at Doernbecher changed the attitude by the time Jaron needed the diet. When they diagnosed him with Doose syndrome, Amanda and Jason were given the diet as a first choice and they started the diet immediately.<\/p>\n

If you are able to try the ketogenic diet for several months and see a reduction in seizures, it is a wonderful and motivating relief to see your child doing better.<\/p>\n

But there are some hurdles to giving the diet a good trial at home. You have to be prepared to spend a lot of time in the kitchen learning the meal preparation methods. Most importantly, your child has to eat all of the food you prepare in order to get the benefit of the diet. But you don\u2019t have to do it all alone. Advice and support from other parents is a critical part of epilepsy treatment.<\/p>\n

In our experience, the ketogenic diet can be customized to meet every family’s twin goals of seizure reduction and quality of life. Some people tell us that we are \u201cspecial\u201d because we can administer this diet, other parent tell us that they could \u201cnever do it,\u201d but I do not agree. I think any parent who sees benefits from the ketogenic diet can do it, but each family is unique and requires different kinds of support. Doctors, dieticians and parents are a powerful team to help our kids grow up healthy and strong, and we all have a unique role to play in epilepsy treatment.<\/p>\n

How we customized the ketogenic diet at home: Nora\u2019s story<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jaron\u2019s family has used the traditional ketogenic diet to control his seizures, and you can learn more about their experience in Jaron\u2019s Epilepsy Story<\/a> and through Amanda\u2019s blog posts (see posts category Jaron\u2019s History).<\/p>\n

My goal here is to describe our “modified” version of the ketogenic diet that has given\u00a0Nora freedom from seizures. Your doctor and dietician can give you the training and nutritional targets to hit, but I strongly believe that you have to figure out how to fit the diet to your child\u2019s needs and tastes to keep it up for the long haul. The goal is to achieve at least 2 years of seizure freedom before withdrawing therapy, but it can take many months of diet treatment to achieve seizure freedom. If diet therapy is right for your child, it can do amazing things if you are in it for the long haul and make it a part of your daily routine. It is very hard at first, but it gets easier.<\/p>\n

The ketogenic diet for epilepsy hit the mainstream in 2010 with an article in the NYT Magazine, “Epilepsy’s Big Fat Miracle.<\/a>”\u00a0I recommend it for a history and description of the typical keto experience; read the article first and our “modified” approach will make sense when I describe Nora’s diet.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few things in the article were daunting to me. The image of the weekly intake of bacon, butter and cream was a little shocking:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Stephen Lewis for The New York Times; Food Stylist: Brett Kurzweil<\/p><\/div>\n

You should know that there is a continuum of diet options for epilepsy treatment with 3 major categories: The least-strict is a low glycemic index diet, which allows 40-60 carbs per day, 1:1 fat to carb+protein ratio, and estimates of these values rather than weighing food. Some people benefit greatly from this less-strict approach. The medium approach is the Modified Atkins Diet for Seizures (MAD). Like the Atkins weigh loss diet, you start with an “induction” phase of 10 carbs per day for 1 month, then liberalize to 20 grams of carbs per day. Fat ratio is 2:1, generally. Values are also estimated not weighed. <\/span><\/p>\n

Most strict is the ketogenic diet. The article gives you a good description of the traditional ketogenic diet: 4\u00a0grams of fat for every 1 gram of carb + protein (4:1 ratio). No more than 10 grams of carbs per day. Calculating, following meal plans and weighing food on a gram scale to meet the carb\/protein\/fat requirements. Scraping out the weighing bowl and getting every bit into the kid. Being sure that each meal meets the diet’s requirements to keep the ratio constant. A hospital stay to initiate the diet with a fast and monitoring. And not to be overlooked, making sure your child happily eats all of their carefully prepared food at every meal.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we started the diet approach, we agreed to start with the medium-level MAD diet to see if we got any results. We were given very little\u00a0guidance to start the diet, just a website,\u00a0www.atkinsforseizures.com<\/span><\/a>, a page run by parents, not medical professionals. It was helpful, but we felt like a do-it-yourself project.<\/span><\/p>\n

In time we found that Nora was doing better on a higher ratio of fat to carbs + protein. We were keeping records of her foods and were still counting seizures. We found that when we kept her ratio closer to 3:1, her seizures decreased. <\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to record keeping, we moved from estimating portions to weighing with a gram scale for our own peace of mind. And honestly, we found weighing\u00a0easier. Some foods are difficult to estimate. An online nutrition database will tell you the macronutrients in 1\/4 avocado, but avocados range in size. I was not always confident in my estimates, so the gram scale became my friend, not a burden.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I was reluctant to move to the traditional\u00a0ketogenic diet. We were having very good success with our own methods at home, and learning the official KetoCalculator database required more time and effort invested. Our family was already eating\u00a0whole, organic foods, and wanted\u00a0to continue to use the foods that I found most wholesome for Nora’s\u00a0growing body and brain. We were not using nearly as much bacon as the NYT article suggested! I had been successful in estimating the carb-protein-fat breakdown of our regular foods, judging by the seizure-reduction Nora experienced.<\/span><\/p>\n

At our next\u00a0appointment with Dr. Wray, who specializes in the ketogenic diet at Doernbecher Pediatric Neurology, he agreed to let us continue with our\u00a0current approach. Nora was almost seizure-free after a few weeks of a consistent 3:1 ratio. We continued to use our own methods for calculating meals, kept the ratio consistent for each meal and spread her carbs evenly over the day. <\/span><\/p>\n

Because of the consistent 3:1 ratio, he was calling it the ketogenic diet, even though Nora did not start on a hospitalized fast, we were not using the official\u00a0database, and we were not measuring and planning as rigorously as \u00a0described by the NYT article above.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, I called\u00a0our approach the modified ketogenic diet. We know that there are different “levels” of this diet approach that work for different people; we found the right mix for Nora. Doctors now know that the diet can be started with a less rigorous approach and increased if “stronger medicine” is needed. I think the key is to find an approach that is manageable for your family while getting the therapeutic \u201cdose\u201d of the diet.<\/span><\/p>\n

For examples of the kinds of foods that keto kids eat on a regular basis, see What Do Keto Kids Eat?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does the Ketogenic Diet for Epilepsy Work? Our families tried the ketogenic diet to treat our children\u2019s epilepsies because medications were not working, and we stuck with it because the diet worked. It is an effective treatment for many epilepsy … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3322,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"sidebar-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/oregonketokids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/oregonketokids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/oregonketokids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/oregonketokids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/oregonketokids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/oregonketokids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1527,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/oregonketokids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions\/1527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/oregonketokids\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}