Keto Kid

When all the doctors and nurses are telling you, "This is a hard diet." believe them. And believe them we did, we just could not have imagined how hard it would be.

Will's favorite things to eat before the diet were things like peanut butter and jelly, gravy and biscuit, pancakes, pizza, oatmeal with blueberries, i.g. After starting the diet: hot dogs, peanut butter (with lots of extra butter), coconut oil and fruit, whipping cream with MCT oil and stevia and vanilla flavoring (I think this tastes pretty darn good myself), ranch (LOTS) with butter added in and a (VERY) few pieces of chicken, and scrambled eggs literally swimming in butter. That's not all he eats, but pretty much. He has lost about 5lbs and sometimes can't understand why Jack gets to have seconds or a piece of bread; that is really hard for me to explain and live with.

When we first started preparing meals for Will, it would usually take 30 minutes to an hour. The reason for this is because everything has to be weighed on a gram scale. If he can have 33 grams of eggs I have to crack it, whip it, then measure it out on the scale to be exactly 33.0 grams; no more, no less. Then measure milk out  to 10g, add some whipping cream measured in grams, a few grams of cheese, and a whole lot of grams of butter; it is intense in the kitchen 'round here! But we are getting better.

Will has been remarkably easy to get a long with. I attribute that to lots of prayers. He is still having seizures, but most days I can count them on 1-2 hands. Every week I'm emailing or calling the dietitian and tweaking his diet for his needs. Recently we had to add 10g of MCT oil to every meal to get the ratio higher. That oil is a godsend. It is tasteless, odorless, and doesn't leave a oily residue in your mouth. A lot of times it is the only way we can get the fat high enough for Will's meals. Every morning and afternoon we check Will's ketones. He pees on a little stick so we know how ketotic he is. 160 -180 is the goal. Jack makes me laugh when he goes into the bathroom and says "ketones, ketones," meaning he wants to check his ketones. Oh how I pray I never have to check his ketones!

On Saturday the boys got haircuts and it's customary to get a sucker after you finish. Jack went first and before we could tell the lady not to offer one, she offered. We didn't have the heart to tell Jack no; his life has changed in a big way too. I was sitting by Will and he expectantly and hopefully looked at me. I reminded him about his "magic" diet and that I knew he'd like to have a sucker, but that wasn't good for him. I instead offered to take him to Publix after his haircut, and let him pick out some jello (sugar free mixed with whipping cream). He happily agreed, and my heart broke yet was full with love for this little boy and our Heavenly Father. How good He is. How merciful, how patient, how kind...