PURPOSE Previous research has indicated that children with seizures may prefer high fat foods - a preference compatible with ketogenic and modified Atkins dietary therapies. The purpose of this prospective study was to examine the relationship between fat preference and efficacy of therapeutic diets in treating intractable seizures among a pediatric population. METHODS Preference for high fat...

The ketogenic diet is a high-fat diet used to treat drug-resistant childhood epilepsy. Given that negative meanings tend to be attached to fatty foods and children's food consumption is seen to be the responsibility of parents, the ketogenic diet may be problematic for parenting identity. This article draws upon in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 parents from 10 families that have a ch...

The evidence base for the efficacy of the ketogenic diet was assessed among pediatric epileptic patients by application of a rigorous statistical meta-analysis. Nineteen studies from 392 abstracts met the inclusion criteria. The sample size was 1084 patients (mean age at initiation 5.78 +/- 3.43 years). The pooled odds ratio, using a random effects model, of treatment success (> 50% seizure red...

As ketogenic diets become more frequently used as a standard treatment for epilepsy in children and adults, hospital and community neurologists, pediatricians, intensivists, general practitioners, and house officers will readily encounter patients who are receiving these dietary treatments. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that dietary therapies for epilepsy (classic ketogenic diet, medi...

PURPOSE Long-term ketogenic diet (KD) treatment has been shown to induce liver steatosis and gallstone formation in some in vivo and clinical studies. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the hepatic side effects of KD in epileptic children. METHOD A total of 141 patients (mean age: 7.1±4.1years [2-18 years], 45.4% girls), receiving KD at least one year for intractable epilepsy...