The Medical Ketogenic Diet At Grandma & Grandpa’s House

In today’s guest blog post, ketogenic dietitian Stacey Bessone provides some tips for keeping your child safe on the medical ketogenic diet while at grandma and grandpa’s house. Stacey is a ketogenic dietitian, RDN, LDN, based in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a Nutricia Keto Ambassador

stacey


I don’t know about you, but my grandmother was all about feeding me as much and as often as possible.  For many adults, preparing food for others is a way of showing love.  Sometimes being on a special diet does not fit in with this agenda of affection through food.  Here are some tips for helping your child’s grandparents to manage your child’s medical ketogenic diet while you are away.

  1. Educate. Educate. Educate.  If possible, have a grandparent attend the initiation classes or some of your follow up appointments with the dietitian.  Having the diet guidelines come from a 3rd party can be very impactful.
  1. Have grandparents participate in keto meal prep. Sometimes seeing that it is regular foods, only in prescribed amounts, makes it easier to understand.
  1. Send little food packages with pre-prepared keto meals and snacks. This will take the mistake factor out of the equation.  Many people want to help but fear they will make the menu wrong. There are really convenient bento lunch boxes and containers that make a great presentation.
  1. Have grandparents place non-keto foods out-of-reach and out-of-sight. Kids can be very convincing, especially to an aunt or cousin that is not sure of the diet guidelines.
  1. Provide different food or gift options that your child CAN have. This provides an alternative to grandparents when they want to show their love (with or without food).  It can be a keto treat that you had prepared ahead of time or a small toy such as a little car or a princess wand.
  1. Show grandparents educational videos or provide books on the medical ketogenic diet. Sometimes the impact of the story can really make the importance of staying on the diet a reality.

I hope these tips can make it a bit easier.  Grandparents can be a great supporter for the medical ketogenic diet with the right understanding.

-Stacey

I have been paid my Nutricia for my time to write this blog post but my opinions are my own. 

KetoCal is a medical food for the dietary management of intractable epilepsy and is intended for use under medical supervision. Talk with your healthcare provider about whether KetoCal is right for you.

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