Diet Helps 7-Year-Old Girl With Epilepsy

BOSTON -- Most people go on a new diet to lose weight. But a 7-year-old girl, of Mashpee, Mass., is dieting to stop her seizures. News Center 5's Liz Brunner reported Tuesday on how a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet is being used to prevent Epilepsy.

Emily Dorman, 7, is an energetic girl who loves to swing on her jungle gym. But she wasn't always this way.

Diet Helps 7-Year-Old Girl With Epilepsy

"She was tired all the time," said Gillian Dorman, Emily's mother. "She would have anywhere between 50 to 100 seizures a day."

Emily has epilepsy. Medications alone could not control her seizures. But a new diet plan has changed her life.

"Right now, she has one seizure every two weeks, and it lasts maybe 20 seconds," said Dorman.

Dorman has been on the high-protein, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet to control her seizures for more than two years. According to Dr. Elizabeth Thiele, Dorman's neurologist at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, the strict diet has been used to treat epilepsy since the 1920s.

"It's very restrictive down to what toothpaste they use. Tom's of Maine is the only toothpaste available in this country that doesn't have carbohydrates to in it," Thiele said. "It's not easy for the parents but it can be effective at treating seizures," she said.

The Dormans can not just make a plate of food. The diet is high in fat so Emily eats lots of mayonnaise, butters and oils on the ketogenic diet. She drinks heavy whipping cream instead of regular milk. All her food must be measured and weighed.

"Children are limited to 10 grams of carbohydrates per day. And from that are subtracted any grams of carbohydrates in medications that they take," said Thiele.

And like medicine, Dorman eats at the same time every day. But her parents feel it's worth it. The diet has cut down her seizures and her medications.

"To see the improvement in her makes us want to do it everyday it makes it worth it to us," said Dorman.

Because the diet is so high in fat, doctors are concerned about high cholesterol. But Thiele said the long-term risk of heart disease appears small.

"We don't have any evidence that says this happens. In fact, we follow these children very closely. They're growing children. They have epilepsy. They probably are our most followed patients. Because not only do we want to make sure their seizures are controlled, but if we're manipulated their diet so dramatically we want to make sure they're growing normally," Thiele said.