Diet Therapy

LGIT Testimonial – Anna’s story

LGIT Testimonial – Anna had a terrible start. She could not drink and because of this she was hospitalized 3 weeks after her birth. They soon discovered she had epilepsy and here in The Netherlands I understood, almost all babies with epilepsy get Phenobarbital. Because I was not satisfied with the care Anna received we decided to move to another hospital. So almost 6 months later, the new neurologist advised us to stop with Phenobarbital and start with Keppra. And it was a good choice.  When Anna was 1 year old she finally got diagnosed: Angelman Syndrome.  With Keppra, we succeeded to keep her seizure free for almost 2 years. When the seizures came  back we started with Rivotril (Clonazepam) in addition to the Keppra and it helped her for 2 years but then the seizures came back again. Her neurologist advised us to start with a third drug but we didn’t want to give her more medicine. At the same time I read the research article about the LGIT and I got enthusiastic about it. I had to give it a try! Anna’s neurologist was a bit suspicious but I insisted so he helped us. The first month was terrible. Anna got more seizures and was very tired. I was so afraid I was only complicating her life instead of helping her. I was so down that I just wanted to stop the diet. But after a long phone call with Sybille Kraft I decided to continue the diet for just a few more weeks. And I’m so happy we did this. A week later, Anna’s absences were gone. She started to walk again, became more alert…. And the best thing of all was that for the first time in her life she slept for 6 hours without waking. This was so amazing!

The LGIT made a big change in Anna’s life. She is able to concentrate, she’s more active, and sleeps better. It’s just amazing! At first, the diet appears very complicated. This is because we are so used to eating a lot of bread, sugar and processed food. If you just use fresh vegetables, meat, eggs and fish you can easily cook something very healthy, tasty and LGIT. When travelling we always take our own food with us for Anna and there is always something on the menu in a restaurant that she can eat.

-Violeta Giurgi