Wow! It has been way to long since I have posted something on this website. A lot has happened in our life in the past year. We had another baby, Jaron hit the 2 year seizure free mark, was weaned off his diet, and celebrated another year seizure free. I plan on writing about all these events, but for now here is a post that I had been meaning to post a year ago.

It is not unusual for Keto Kids to struggle with stomach pains. My stomach would probably struggle with trying to digest that much fat, too. Jaron started having stomach issues within the first month of being on the diet. But we worked with his dietician and were able to keep it manageable over the past 2 years. If your keto kid is struggling with stomach issues, here are some options you can discuss with your dietician.

1. Make sure he has regular bowel movements. Jaron’s stomach pain in the first month was due to irregularity. It took us awhile to find the right amount of Miralax to keep things flowing, but not flowing too fast. After a couple of months we found the balance and that helped his stomach out a lot.
2. Make sure he isn’t getting too many calories. After we got the pooping situation under control, Jaron was still having some pain. The dietician noticed that Jaron was gaining weight too quickly. She suggested go down on his calories to see if the reason for the stomach pain was a belly that was too full. Sure enough after we went down, the stomach pain went away.
3. Smaller Meals more frequently. After about 6 months, the stomach pains came back. Our dietician suggested giving Jaron smaller meals. The smaller meals would be easier on his stomach to digest. This was more work for me, since I had to make more meal, but it helped his stomach.
4. Sugar Free Tums. Another 6 months later the stomach issues came back. Dr. Wray suggested Sugar Free Tums as an antacid. We only wanted to give Jaron one a day so we gave it to him in the evening when his stomach was most upset. This helped him sleep better at night. If you get a yummy flavor, this will be a treat for your keto kid.
5. Probiotic. Jaron was on the Tums for a while when he started having kidney stones. The dietician thought we should discontinue the use of the Tums because maybe Jaron was getting to much calcium which aided him forming kidney stones. To replace the Tums, she told us to give Jaron a probiotic. She suggested the brand Culturelle as it has minimal carbs. After 3 days on this, Jaron’s stomach pain went away and we haven’t had issues since.  I guess his digestive system was running low on good bacteria at this point.

There are many options for helping keto kids deal with stomach discomfort. If yours is struggling, I hope these ideas help you and your dietician come up with a way to ease the pain.