? on weigh gain and seizures still

[Guest guest]

Hi there, I'm curious what your children are doing re: weigh gain, Stella

(who is 5 1/2) seems to be always gaining weight on the diet, she's up to

44lbs now after 2 months being on the diet she was at 40. She is still

having seizures, mostly atonic and grand mals, but the funny thing is she'll

have a series of atonics one day then a good day of no seizures then she'll

have a Grand mal in her sleep during the early hours of the am. Her

calories are 1225 now (just dropped them by 50 for the day) with her protein

being 21. What are your children at? She is still on her meds of lamictal,

diazepam, and diamox. She has been on carnatine since she was first started

so that and her daily vitamin is what she is taking. I'm wondering if the

weight gain has anything to do with the break through seizures? Our

dietician is really new and has little info to offer here in Seattle. I've

also started giving her some MCT oil (just 5g) to try and get her keytones

higher. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Thank you

--

-mom to stella, 5years old, started keto diet May 10th 2004 still

waiting to be seizure free. Also on Lamictal, diazapem and Diamox.

[Guest guest]

With protein set at 21 gms, if they have used the usual protein allowance

for a 5 yr old which is 1.1 gm per kg of bodyweight, it looks like they are

aiming for ideal weight of about 19.1 kgs, which is about 41.5 pounds.

Calorie allowance for her age group is 65-68 per kgs, so if that 41.5 pounds

was her ideal weight then total calories would be set between 1241 and 1298

calories. So if she was on 1275 cals before this cal reduction,

that would have been around the middle cal range.

But it depends what that prt allowance has been set for - like is it 1 gm

per kg of bodyweight, or perhaps at the other end, 1.2 gms per kg, in which

case, it would mean it is a different ideal weight thay are heading

towards...

You would have to check with them direct about what they consider her

ideal weight to be, based on her height. Where has that recent weight gain

put her proportionately on the growth charts? It does sound like a fairly

rapid gain, and not one where you would expect to have total control until

she was where she 'needed' to be weight wise.

It also depends on her individual metabolism, like she may be one who

doesn't burn thru cals as quickly as others, or vice versa.

The fact that you are struggling to get ketones high enough, I would say

would point to the fact that she is/has been on too many cals, in which case

she has probably been storing cals/carbs in the form of glycogen. This

would be released from her tissues into her blood stream in between

ketogenic meals, as opposed to the opposite scenario where cals are too

low - where body fat is burnt, and where ketones can go too high instead.

I think you are probably on the right track by reducing, but you also have

a lot of meds on board still that may possibly be interfering with seizure

control, so it might be a case of peeling the layers back one by one to get

to the bottom of it all.....?

----- Original Message -----

> Hi there, I'm curious what your children are doing re: weigh gain,

Stella

> (who is 5 1/2) seems to be always gaining weight on the diet, she's up

to

> 44lbs now after 2 months being on the diet she was at 40. She is

still

> having seizures, mostly atonic and grand mals, but the funny thing is

she'll

> have a series of atonics one day then a good day of no seizures then

she'll

> have a Grand mal in her sleep during the early hours of the am. Her

> calories are 1225 now (just dropped them by 50 for the day) with her

protein

> being 21. What are your children at? She is still on her meds of

lamictal,

> diazepam, and diamox. She has been on carnatine since she was first

started

> so that and her daily vitamin is what she is taking. I'm wondering if

the

> weight gain has anything to do with the break through seizures? Our

> dietician is really new and has little info to offer here in Seattle.

I've

> also started giving her some MCT oil (just 5g) to try and get her

keytones

> higher. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

> Thank you

>

> --

> -mom to stella, 5years old, started keto diet May 10th 2004

still

> waiting to be seizure free. Also on Lamictal, diazapem and Diamox.

[Guest guest]

Too many calories is probably the most common error in starting the

diet. As the calories are estimated at the beginning and there is a very

large variation in actual calories burned during a day.

You should weigh your child very carefully on a weekly basis and use

that to calculate calorie requirements. The keto diet is an attempt to

mimic a fasting state so it will work best when calories are set to a

minimum amount.

My daughter is 28 years old and weighs 55 pounds and is on 830 calories

a day. I just dropped her calories as she was gaining weight on 880

calories a day. I believe that the calculations are not as accurate on a

lower ratio. She is on 0.66:1 ratio

Maybe when your daughter is having seizures one day, she burns up a lot

of calories from the seizures and then she is at the right level the

next day.

Bill

and Stansfield-lyons wrote:

> Hi there, I'm curious what your children are doing re: weigh gain, Stella

> (who is 5 1/2) seems to be always gaining weight on the diet, she's up to

> 44lbs now after 2 months being on the diet she was at 40. She is still

> having seizures, mostly atonic and grand mals, but the funny thing is she'll

> have a series of atonics one day then a good day of no seizures then she'll

> have a Grand mal in her sleep during the early hours of the am. Her

> calories are 1225 now (just dropped them by 50 for the day) with her protein

> being 21. What are your children at? She is still on her meds of lamictal,

> diazepam, and diamox. She has been on carnatine since she was first started

> so that and her daily vitamin is what she is taking. I'm wondering if the

> weight gain has anything to do with the break through seizures? Our

> dietician is really new and has little info to offer here in Seattle. I've

> also started giving her some MCT oil (just 5g) to try and get her keytones

> higher. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

> Thank you

>