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meds vs. ketogenic diet
Sat, 07/28/2007 - 22:55Topic: Complementary Therapies
Hi,
I am new here. My 4 year old daughter has had complex partial seizures since the age of 6 months. She has broken thru on dilantin, phenobarb and topamax. Currently she is on keppra, trileptal and tranxene and has been seizure free for a little over 3 months, the longest time. She is very developmentally delayed and was diagnosed with autism at age 2, but they also said her difficult to control seizures would contribute to her delays. I am interested in the ketogenic diet as I am sick of the meds and wondering how and if they may be adding to her cognitive delays. She also walks very unsteady and has low muscle tone, and is in special ed in school where she gets PT OT and speech. I have read a lot about the succes of the diet in controlling seizures but cant find much information on using little or no AEDs and if it would make children learn better, become more alert and walk steadier. She is also on vitamin b6 and her neuro doc said keppra can cause behavoral problems and personalization problems. Anyone notice a difference with the diet and being off the meds as far as an improvement in learning, walking? We also had her evaluated for possible surgery and she is not a candidate.
Comments
Re: meds vs. ketogenic diet
Submitted by mwhaley on Thu, 2007-08-23 - 19:10
My daughter is 4 1/2 and started with infantile spasms which progessed into complex partial seizures with secondary generalization. She improved a thousand fold on the diet. She was on Tegretol, which numbed her down so much she didn't talk very much or even smile. That med changed and others were introduced and combined as the seizures kept breaking through. Her breakthrough seizures on combo meds stopped the first week she was on the diet. Her speech and coordination improved tremendously after we were able to drop one of the medications. We are in the process of weaning her off of all of meds completely and so far have had no breakthrough seizures. I hope this gives you a little hope, I personally wish we had tried the diet sooner. I think she would be miles ahead of where she is if we had.
Melanie
Re: meds vs. ketogenic diet
Submitted by Rainmanmama on Mon, 2007-08-20 - 10:25
Oh my gosh - I've been all over this board trying to find those with autism and seizures and who are using the diet and other CAMs. Please email me. Thanks!