Mothers’ Experience Regarding the Relationship between Dairy Products and Their Children’s Seizures

Objective

Epilepsy is one of the most important problems in neurology. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between dairy products and seizures of the epileptic children based on their mothers' experience.

Materials & Methods

In a descriptive- analytic study, mothers' experience regarding the relationship between dairy products and seizures of their children was evaluated via a questionnaire. This research was done in the pediatric neurology clinic of Shaheed Sadoughi Medical Sciences University- Yazd- Iran in 2007.

Results

One hundred and forty eight mothers with an age range of 17-52 years (mean ± SD: 31.6 ± 6.6 years) were evaluated. Their children were 58.5% boys and 41.5% girls with an age range of 1-18 years (mean ± SD: 6.6 ± 4.2 years).

The most common dairy products which provoked seizure based on mothers' experience, were milk and ice cream. The effect of different kinds of dairy products was not different between males and female children. Mothers who experienced the effect of dried whey (kashk in Persian) on seizure were younger than others. Lack of correlation between milk and ice cream on seizures was reported in educated mothers.

Conclusion

Parent education on the diet of their epileptic children is necessary. On the other hand, extracting of suspicious food ingredients and testing them on animal models, should be done by other researches.