Use of the ketogenic diet in neonates and infants.

The ketogenic diet (KD) is still viewed as virtually last-line therapy in childhood epilepsies, and specifically as unsafe and difficult to initiate and maintain in neonates and infants. Information is presented to show that the KD is safe and efficacious in this population, and should be carefully studied to determine its real usefulness as first-line or early therapy (one or fewer anticonvulsants) in the catastrophic epilepsies of infancy.