The ketogenic diet is not nutritionally balanced, therefore, vitamin and mineral supplements are needed. Some medications and other products, such as toothpaste and mouthwash, contain carbohydrates. It is important to avoid these products if your child is on the ketogenic diet. Your child may not make ketones in their urine if too many carbohydrates are included in the diet. Your child's physician and dietitian can give you a list of medications, and other products, that are free of carbohydrates.
Children usually stay on the diet about two years.
The diet is then slowly changed back to a regular diet. VNS is currently only used for children over the age of 12 who have partial seizures that are not controlled by other methods. The pediatric neurosurgery team at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital was the first in Northern California to perform this procedure, and our team has performed this procedure on the youngest patient in Northern California. VNS attempts to control seizures by sending small pulses of energy to the brain from the vagus nerve, which is a large nerve in the neck. This is done by surgically placing a small battery into the chest wall.