Back to School on the Ketogenic Diet: Part 1

It’s hard to believe that summer is almost over. If your child started the ketogenic diet over the summer, you might be anxious about the thought of sending your little one back to school. Today’s post, “Informing the School About Your Child’s Ketogenic Diet” is Part 1 of the “Back to School on the Ketogenic Diet” blog series. This series will provide tips and resources to help make the transition back to school go smoothly.

Informiback to school busng the School About Your Child’s Ketogenic Diet

First, be sure to let the school know about your child’s ketogenic diet before school starts. If possible, arrange a meeting with your child’s teacher and everyone else that may care for him or her to educate them about the diet and how to manage it at school.

If your child has an Individualized Education Program (IEP), request an IEP review meeting so that accommodations associated with the diet can be added. Prior to the meeting, have your child’s physician provide a letter explaining the ketogenic diet and the requirements during school hours.

If there have been any changes to your child’s epilepsy medications, be sure to notify the school about these as well. Consider providing an updated Seizure Action Plan to reflect these changes.

Lastly, there are many celebrations at school that involve food so make sure that your child’s teachers and aides understand that your child cannot have the same treats that the other children get.  Ask them to let you know when celebrations are planned so that you can send a ketogenic diet treat for your child to enjoy. You might consider leaving a shelf-stable keto snack, such as a box of KetoCal®LQ, at school just in case of an unexpected celebration.

Stay tuned for next week’s post where we’ll continue the “Back to School on the Ketogenic Diet” series with some tips on packing the ketogenic diet lunchbox!

If you have already mastered sending your little one to school on the ketogenic diet, what advice would you offer other parents?

Mallory

For more tips & resources on this topic, read Part 2 and Part 3 of the Back to School on the Ketogenic Diet Series.

Photo: Flickr

Big News: We Have a Blog!

BlogWe are so excited to announce our blog, KetoConnect, an online resource for parents of children on the ketogenic diet for epilepsy. The purpose of KetoConnect is to keep keto moms and dads informed of the latest news and events, while sharing useful tips, recipe ideas and resources to support you in managing your child’s ketogenic diet. We hope KetoConnect will provide support for parents at various stages of their child’s ketogenic diet journey, from the time they start considering  and researching it, to the time their child is weaned off of the diet.

KetoConnect is written by a team from Nutricia North America, the makers of KetoCal®, so we will provide parents with useful information, tips and recipe ideas related to KetoCal. However, the goal of the blog is to provide support for the ketogenic diet in general so our posts will cover a broad range of topics. We’ll even have parents and health care providers as guest bloggers to provide a variety of perspectives. Please let us know if you are interested in contributing!

Starting next Tuesday, look out for our weekly blog posts. We hope you’ll join the conversation and welcome your questions, comments, topic suggestions, and feedback!

-The KetoConnect Team

Photo: Flickr user xioubin low