“Hugo’s seizures started when he was 6-months-old and despite a combination of meds, his seizures continued. A further 2 years later we were offered the ketogenic diet, and although extremely grateful to be starting it, we were also slightly dreading it for the fear of the unknown.

Our Daisy Garland Dietitian gave us a computer program that allowed us to create ketogenic menus and although very cautious and nervous to begin with, we soon got the hang of things. We used to mass-produce pots and pots of basic meals which helped cut down on the work, when we had more time we would make special meals.

It was quite an amazing feeling to think we were making ‘medicine’ for Hugo that had no bad side-effects and was actually quite healthy and appetising. There were times in the first 4 to 6 months when we thought that the diet was just not going to work for him. Several times the medical profession said it didn’t look like it was working. But with the help of his neuro we decided to get Hugo off all the drugs that he was on, and at this point things became massively better and Hugo basically became seizure-free. After about 18 months we started to wean Hugo off the diet.

Hugo has been seizure-free for years now and is able to eat the same food as us. Yes it was hard work, but proper planning and organising helped to reduce the effort. In hindsight, we would definitely have tried the diet a lot earlier had we been given the opportunity and find it hard to understand why it wasn’t mentioned to us earlier.”