Dietary appraoch to Epilepsy is useful

Dear WDDTY

Re your articles in vol 5 no 12 about childhood earache and the epilepsy caused by gluten intolerance:

I have run a local branch of the Hyperactive Children's Support Group for around 16 years. During that time we have observed that many of the children we help also have ear problems repeated ear infections, glue ear, etc.

We help them to improve their diet, removing most chemical additives, a few fruits and sometimes other food allergens, and the ear troubles just disappear, along with the behaviour, sleep and learning difficulties.

We have also had a few cases where epilepsy was present and this also disappeared. It reappeared startingly quickly in one boy, when his pediatrician said that the diet should be stopped immediately and the child given whatever food he wanted!

Great Ormond Street Hospital did a study some years ago which bears out the usefulness of a dietary approach to epilepsy. Val Kearney, Knaresborough.