The ketogenic diet that brought Gabriel back to life, with refractory epilepsy: “My son reconnected with the world”

The boy still did not speak, but he interacted perfectly with his older brother, he went to daycare… Everything was normal and no one had noticed anything strange until Christmas 2017, when they began to observe that as he fell asleep, “he made some strange movements.” , like spasms. We thought: ‘what a strange way to fall asleep’, but since it was very subtle and then he fell asleep, we let it go.

Until, on January 6, he began to do the same but in a more exaggerated way, opening his hands and bringing his face forward. “Then the child’s grandmother saw it, and she warned: ‘what this child is doing is not normal,’ and her observation alerted us.”

The electros arrived and, although they never registered a crisis as such: “they were very ugly”says Beatriz. “His crises, at first related to sleep, began to occur at all times, also when he was awake, while walking… And the worst thing was that the doctors couldn’t find the medication.” The crises were getting longer and stronger, and did not reverse, even spending a week in the hospital. “Once we had Samur at the door of the house, because the child did not come out of a crisis and, at one point – he recalls – they even thought that it could be due to a tumor and they planned an MRI.”

Until, after trying up to 7 anti-epileptic medications, four of them at the same time and all without result, the child’s family suggested to their neurologist that they try the ketogenic diet. “My husband is Canadian and had read something about a similar case in the press in his country, where a girl with refractory epilepsy had responded very well.” This is how the doctor ended up referring them to gastroenterology at the Puerta de Hierro Hospital in Majadahonda.

Gabriel stopped having seizures a week after starting the diet, when he was not even on a complete diet. «We started it on December 22 and on the 29th it was crisis-free and, in fact, it has not had any again. If they could tell us, we wouldn’t have believed it. “So we continued to increase the ratio to the levels that the doctors told us were recommended.” Due to the increase in fat that this diet entails, the little boy gained a lot of weight, but according to his mother’s own testimony, “thanks to the diet, Gabriel woke up and became an active child again, eager to learn, much more attentive to what was happening.” around him. In short, reconnected with the world that surrounded him.

This mother wants to convey to parents who may be in a similar situation “not to hesitate, to try it. At first it is normal to see it as something very complex, but then you get used to cooking in a different way and above all, if you see that it is a benefit for your child, it is always worth trying. It is true, this woman admits, “that the ketogenic diet is not and does not work in all cases, but it can help many patients improve their epilepsy. While in other countries it is better known, here in Spain it is still a fairly unknown treatment and about which many myths circulate, but when your child does not speak and has cognitive impairment, it is worth trying it.

Currently, Gabriel remains crisis-free despite the fact that they withdrew the ketogenic diet at the end of 2022. «We did it little by little, because it is like a medicine and the ratios have to be reduced progressively, although I keep in his diet some of the foods that were recommended to us, such as the intake of unsweetened Greek yogurts and the whole wheat flours (bread and pasta).

«Today Gabriel – Beatríz concludes – is a child who, despite his disability, is developing well, at school he has his support, he interacts with everyone, and he is hypersensitive. Thanks to this he was reborn again and so were we, because we were destroyed, knackered, we had a very bad time… The ketogenic diet gave us back our life, our happiness, the desire to live, and to get ahead.