Paediatric Epilepsy

Welcome to the Matthew’s Friends Charity website. We hope that anyone searching for information relating to paediatric epilepsy and how the ketogenic diet can help to control this, will find that our website is a useful source of information.

For an introduction for our charity please take a moment to view the following video:

What is Paediatric Epilepsy?

Epilepsy affects all ages groups. But for children, a variety of issues exist that can affect one’s childhood.

Some epilepsy ends after childhood. Some forms of epilepsy are associated only with conditions of childhood that cease once a child grows up. Approximately 70% of children who have epilepsy during their childhood eventually outgrow it

However, for children struggling to control paediatric epilepsy, a proven form of therapy known as ketogenic therapy can be used to achieve positive results.

What Actually Is Ketogenic Therapy?

Ketogenic therapy involves the introduction of a high fat, low carbohydrate diet was first described in the medical literature in 1921 as a treatment for epilepsy in children, following other reports of the beneficial effects of fasting on seizure control. The diet was designed to mimic the metabolic changes that occur in the body during starvation, i.e. adaption to spare muscle protein breakdown and draw on energy reserves of body fat.

How Does it Work?

Muscles and other tissues progressively switch energy source from glucose to free fatty acids which are converted to ketone bodies (acetoacetate and b-hydroxybutyrate); these become the primary energy substrate for brain and other metabolically active tissues in the absence of adequate glucose supply. This state of ketosis is characterized by the rising levels of ketone bodies which can be measured in the blood or urine. The diet became known as the ‘ketogenic diet’ and is the basis of the classical ketogenic diet still used today.

Please Note

All those with drug resistant epilepsy should be able to gain access to these dietary treatments and be supplied with the correct information so that a properly informed decision can be made. These diets should be administered and supported by a trained team to include a Neurologist and Dietician. Matthew’s Friends will support all those involved with these treatments.

Why It Is Done

The ketogenic and other diets may sometimes be used to treat people who have severe seizures and who have not responded to antiepileptic medicines.

How Well It Works

In one study, children on the ketogenic diet had about one-fourth as many seizures as kids who weren’t on the diet. So a child who wasn’t on the diet had 4 seizures for every 1 seizure that a child on the diet had.¹

Evidence shows that the ketogenic diet works about as well as medicines to control seizures in children.

Contact Us

If you would like any more information regarding the Matthew’s Friends charity or regarding paediatric epilepsy and the ketogenic diet, please either give us a call on Tel. No. 01342 836571 or contact us through our Facebook page and we will be happy to help if we can.

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