Preparing your Epileptic Teen for College

Managing a Healthy Diet

Assuming responsibility for nutrition is difficult for all young adults. Fast food runs, greasy meals and unhealthy diets are part of college life, but for your epileptic teen, these foods could throw off the biochemical balance sustained by a ketogenic diet.

Living with a restricted diet can be difficult in a number of ways, especially because food is at the heart of social interaction. If your child is on a ketogenic diet, he will need to be prepared to resist the temptation to eat pizza and drink soda with the rest of the crew.

High school is a great practice ground for epileptic teens. Parents can allow students the independence to make mistakes; to encounter and overcome peer pressure; and to begin taking ownership of healthy habits.

During the last years of high school, when touring different college campuses, make a special trip to the cafeterias to assess how easily your teen will be able to construct a ketogenic diet. Also, begin considering what meals can be created in the dorm room using a microwave. In the summers leading up to your teen’s first year, make him responsible for some of his meals to prepare him for his independence.

Beer and other alcoholic beverages, though staples of the average college student’s diet, can throw an epileptic teen’s health off balance. Even epileptic teens who rely on medicine and not diet can be seriously affected by alcohol. Alcohol and illicit drugs can often trigger seizures and will need to be avoided.

Being Open with Others

Perhaps the most difficult part of entering college life as an epileptic teen is being honest with others about the condition. Again, high school is an excellent starting point for teens to become comfortable with managing epilepsy and shedding any stigmas that may be attached to the condition.

However, in college, students are often required to be upfront about their conditions with complete strangers. Although it won’t always possible to avoid an uncomfortable scenario, it is important to assure your teen that there is no shame in being epileptic.

When people react strangely to your teen’s condition, they are probably unsure of how to handle a seizure. After years of experience, you and your teen can work together to make friends and family confident in their abilities to respond appropriately to seizures.

The epilepsy conversation does not need to be serious or stuffy. It can be held while playing video games or eating dinner in the cafeteria. Obviously, your student will need to share the information soon; but when admitting to a chronic illness, there is always the risk of being seen as a patient and not a person. Your teen will have a sense of when it’s right, when he can trust his roommate to respond to his condition.

Encourage your student to sit at the front of the classroom to avoid desks or steps if a seizure should occur in class. Also, instruct your teen to have a one-on-one meeting with professors about course requirements and any extra accommodations that will need to be made. Create an emergency guide for each binder and share them with professors. If anything should happen in class, the professor could open the binder and follow the emergency instructions.

Encourage your teen to build strong relationships with roommates and professors who may be responding in a critical situation. A higher level of personal connection will make it easier for onlookers to respond.

Getting Plenty of Sleep

When looking back on college years, sleep deprivation and stress are two big components of earning a degree. Unfortunately, these are major triggers for seizures. Your student should avoid procrastination and late night studying. While sharing a room, sleep deprivation could be the result of an inconsiderate roommate; however, compromises can be easily reached or a new room mate can be found.

While a healthy lifestyle and a strong support system are the best bulwarks against stress and sleep deprivation; your teen will be entirely responsible for his habits. The epileptic teen has to balance diet, mental health, sleep and social obligations, and, in many ways, is forced to mature much faster than other college students. This maturity, paired with hard work and focus, could
actually give your teen the upper hand upon graduation.

About the Author:

Katheryn Rivas is a regular contributor to Online University. Like the name suggests, the online universities blog focuses on higher education and trends. She welcomes your comments at [email protected].