Special Diet to Prevent Seizure Spasms in Babies with Genetic Epilepsy

This trial is testing whether a ketogenic diet—a special high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet given as a medical formula—can help prevent epileptic spasms in very young babies with genetic epilepsies. Epileptic spasms are a severe and difficult-to-treat type of seizure that can affect development. The researchers want to see if starting this diet early can stop these spasms from developing or make them easier to treat with medicine.

Epileptic spasms affect more than half of babies with certain genetic forms of epilepsy and can interfere with development. While this treatment has helped older children and infants with hard-to-control seizures, doctors don't yet know whether starting it earlier—even before spasms develop—might prevent them altogether and improve outcomes.