Friday, June 21, 2013

Ketogenic Diet - First Day On Our Own.

Karter was up quite early this morning.  He woke happily and played until I went into his room just before 7.  I could tell right at the beginning of the day, that he was alert and happy.  He did not have a seizure last night.

Karter ate breakfast and really like it!   It was a new concoction that is a cross between warm cereal and pudding, made from a powdered substance called "keto-cal".  Think of it as vanilla protein powder; its main purpose is to be used as a drink, however there are many other things they make from it.  It's all trial and error, I figured if he liked it,  it's just more variety that we have for his menu.  Funny thing is because of these new preparation methods and recipes, the last few nights I have been dreaming weights and measures (grin)!

I had decided to see how Karter was into the morning before I sent him to school.  It was clear to me by 10:00 that he was ready to go back.  He had a solid 30 minute nap and woke full of smiles and energy.  I took him to school around 10:30 and he stayed the rest of the day.  When I arrived to pick him up he was laughing and happily vocalizing loudly.  The report was that he'd had a great day! 

He was so engaged and alert and happy for the rest of the afternoon and evening; my heart was so full to see him returned to his typical happy self.  Again, he ate all his snacks and meals and he drank a lot of water (which is our biggest challenge, but of highest importance).

After dinner, I spent about two and a half hours, preparing meals for the next number of days.  I was surprised at how many variation I could make with just a few basic recipes.  It did take me a fair bit of time, but I think a lot of that time was just trying to get myself started.  That initial "jump in with two feet" was tough, but once I was started, things went fairly fast.

I am experimenting with a lot of different methods right now to see what will work the best for me.  Today's creative trial was taking an ice-cube tray, spraying it with coconut oil cooking spray and then portioning out 15g of sweetened cream for Karter's snacks.  My hope is that I can pop each individual portion out into a container with fruit, jello, cocoa or other "approved" ingredients for his snacks.  For immediate use, it would be like ice-cream.  We'll will see how it holds up if it thaws in a container for lunches etc.  I am hoping this will save me time each day as there are three snacks to prepare.

I think our first day on our own went pretty well...

#1 lesson learned...when you are out for the day, bring more meals than you think you might need.   I had brought Karter's morning snack and lunch (since I didn't really think he would go to school all day) and I had to run home to get his afternoon snack because he was able to stay the whole day.  There is definitely not as much freedom to "just grab something" when you are out.  So I just need to be sure that I over-plan for the day, to be sure that if something comes up and we don't make it home in time, we are prepared.

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