Tips & Resources

These post offer a variety or tips and resources that may be useful for parents of children on the ketogenic diet.

The Medical Ketogenic Diet At Grandma & Grandpa’s House

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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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Keto-friendly Candy and Treat Recipes for Easter

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With Easter coming up, you may be searching for keto-friendly candy alternatives to put in your little ones’ Easter baskets. These recipes are perfect for making keto-friendly candy and treats. Use Easter-themed candy molds to make these even more festive.

Chocolate Candy (2.87:1)

Easter Marshmallow Treats (MAD Recipe)

Gummies (3:1)

 

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Celebrating Spring Holidays on the Medical Ketogenic Diet: Easter and Passover

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Zahava Turner, RD CSP LDN

Zahava Turner, RD CSP LDN

In today’s blog post, ketogenic dietitian Zahava Turner provides some tips and recipe ideas for celebrating the spring holidays, Easter and Passover, while on a medical ketogenic diet for epilepsy management.

It is the first week of Spring and with the excitement of warmer weather and melting snow on the east coast, we are also excited for the upcoming holidays of Easter and Passover. Like all holidays, it can be hard to find foods that fit into a medical ketogenic diet meal plan. I like to tell families to focus on one food or recipe that is special or traditional to the family or their child and try and build a special ketogenic meal around it. It can be a family recipe for ham or lamb on Easter or brisket on Passover. For example, if the recipe calls for a glaze, try and find replacements for the high carbohydrate aspect of the recipe, like using stevia to sweeten or a low carbohydrate jelly, or try a savory spice rub instead. The point is to make the meal feel special for everyone, so use your holiday dishes & present it in a beautiful way and it can become the new family tradition.

One of the common foods for both holidays are eggs. Eggs symbolize life in many different cultures and are used on the Seder plate on Passover and used in Easter baskets and Easter egg hunts. Eggs are also one of the most versatile ketogenic foods due to its protein and fat content and the ways it can be manipulated in many ways for so many different recipes. Eggs are a great way to “hide” fats and can be used for recipes as simple as scrambled eggs with cheese and butter, a soufflé, frittata with vegetables, and cheesecake.

One of the staples and treats in my house on Passover are crepes. Since we can’t use any wheat flour on Passover, the recipe for crepes is very similar to ones that are used on a medical ketogenic diet. We make both sweet crepes for dessert filled with cream and fruits and savory crepes filled with meat and vegetables. Below is an example of a crepe recipe at a 4:1 ketogenic ratio.

400 Calorie 4:1 Crepe Recipe

Ingredients

  • 35 g Cream, 36%
  • 15 g 10%Fruit
  • 50 g Egg (raw, mixed well)
  • 11 g Butter
  • 14 g Oil, Canola

Crepe Filling: You can fill your crepe with fruits, meats, cheese, or vegetables (just be sure to calculate them into the recipe to meet your specific ketogenic ratio. Ask your dietitian if you need help).

Cooking Instructions

  1. To make the crepe batter, mix egg with 15 g of cream and 5 g of oil until frothy. If making a sweet crepe, add liquid stevia and vanilla extract to the batter. If making a savory crepe, you’ll want to leave out the sweetener and vanilla.
  2. Melt 5 grams of butter in a pan.
  3. Pour a small amount of your crepe batter and swirl in pan, then let it cook for 1 minute until set.
  4. Flip over your crepe and cook the other side briefly.
  5. In a bowl, mix the remaining cream, butter and oil, then add your desired filling (fruits, meat, cheese, vegetables) and beat the mixture together.
  6. Pour the mixture into your crepe and roll it up.

For more tips and recipes for celebrating Easter or Passover on the medical ketogenic diet, see some of these previous blog posts:

-Zahava

I was paid by Nutricia North America for my time to write this blog post, however, my opinions are my own. 

The medical ketogenic diet for epilepsy should be used under medical supervision. 

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