Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The Fourth Day {Ketogenic Diet Update}

Today is the dreaded fourth day. Why do I dread the fourth day? Well, the good news is that we got to lower Owen's Onfi dose. The bad news is that Onfi recently changed their dosing. They came out with a liquid form that is now used in children, so the company stopped making the 5mg pills. We've been cutting the 10mg pills in half for the last several months. Owen can't use the liquid because it has too many carbs for the ketogenic diet. Okay, now to the point. Since we are cutting Owen's dose in half, that means we now have to cut the pill we already cut in half in half again.
For reference the little white oblong, you can barely see in this picture is the pill I now have to cut in quarters. The coin is a nickel. The pill has a nice little line down the middle that makes it really easy to cut in half, it's the next half that is a problem.
The good news is that I only have to attempt this once every four days, but oh how I dread that fourth day. I've tried several different methods for cutting that pill evenly, but I always end up with several mismatched chunks and a pile of powder that I then have to try to portion out evenly.


The above pictures contain all of Owen's nighttime medications and supplements.The pills he just swallows. We put them in a shot glass from the dollar store and tell him to "bottoms up", and then he makes them disappear. I know, I know, we're such great parents, aren't we? It's pretty sad that my 4 year old can swallow pills that easily, but it makes my life a lot easier. The capsules get opened up (yes, with Dr. approval) and dumped into his yogurt along with a scoop of calcium powder and half of an adult multi vitamin that we crush. I haven't tried having him swallow the half vitamin or the capsules yet. Then he gets two drops of vitamin D directly in his mouth. He likes the vitamin D, otherwise I could put it in his yogurt too. Finally he gets 5ml of sugar free liquid Carnitor which he absolutely loves and treats like dessert. That's our current bedtime medication routine. Hopefully, we will keep going down on the meds. So far, so good! We'll find out more at the VEEG in march.


4 comments:

  1. Do you have a pill splitter? Something like one of these: http://store.moreofmetolove.com/healthy-living/medical/pill-cutters/pill-splitter.html

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    1. Erin, I do have a pill splitter. It does a really good job of cutting it in half. Cutting it in half again seems to be the problem. The pill just crushes the second time.

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    2. I thought you might. We had a friend who stayed a while back who had to cut pills in quarters and had never even heard of one, so I figured it was worth mentioning.

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  2. Found your blog via Renee @Baker's Dozen. One of my boys was just dx'd w/ epilepsy (among other SN). I am just starting this med/diet journey. Thanks for blogging about your sweet boy!

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