Starting to play with nutrition

There was one particular posting on the epilepsy kids group which set me off about thinking on various aspects which I started trying at different times, with intervals in the middle. This parent had weaned off her child off the only AED he was on solely on the basis of careful monitoring of his schedule and diet. I had to keep in mind that what works for one does not necessarily work for another but there was the hope that this is entirely possible. I don't have to go on with the drugs forever.

            So in the middle of 2005 I started with giving V a banana a day. Initially he was reluctant to have it everyday – it became like medicine but he slowly resigned himself to it. Now he has two large bananas a day very happily – one of the best medications one can give one's child – full of potassium and B6, both of which are very vital for brain development.

            The other thing mentioned in the message was just the right balance of exercise to tire him out but not too much – this was very tricky. It was something I used to struggle with – he needed and loved being outside but he would get tired so soon – way faster than kids the same age.

            Everybody talks about the wonderful Omega 3 and how fantastic it is for the brain. So did this message. I hadn't specifically given V any supplements so around the summer I thought maybe one should try this. So I added flaxseed flour to the wheat flour for making rotis. The next two days his seizures shot through the roof – I had to really think back – what was it that was different about his diet/routine/anything? Guess what? It was flaxseed – removed that and he came back to where we started. So this was also trial and error just like medication; the difference was that we weren't pumping any external chemicals in his body.

            We grow vegetables in our garden every summer. That year I grew beets. We had so many beetroots, my mother said lets make beetroot parathas. So we had those very often. This lead my husband to suddenly realize – well, beet seems to be helping him because he seemed to be doing better with beet which meant that he needed more iron. Unknowingly, we had started on our journey playing with his nutrition. We had introduced bananas, now iron. We had ruled out omega 3.

            The next  big item was magnesium – so I read all these wonderful things about magnesium and how it helps especially with bowel movement, which as I had said had become an issue with V. So I decided to go to Whole Foods and check out what supplements they had for kids, and bought Calcium and Magnesium supplements. I must say that the person in there was very knowledgeable. The Mg turned out to be a huge disaster though – it just backfired and I never went the supplement route again. Whatever extra nutrition that V gets is through his regular food/drink intake. I decided to stick to sneaking in daikon when I could for the magnesium.