2 Year Old Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes - Keto Saves Her Life

Dear Dr. Berg, This is a very emotional story for me to put into words.

Not many mothers understand what it's like to see your baby wasting away, while doctors misdiagnose her multiple times and give no answers. In June of 2019, our family of three was living in Southeast Asia as language students.

We moved there from the US when Lilyana was only 7 months old. Lilyana was only 2 and a half years old by 2019. She suddenly began losing weight, vomiting, complaining of extreme thirst both day and night, soaking her diapers EVERY single night and nap time, and most concerning of all, she was completely unable to pass a bowel movement. She didn't pass bowels for over 10 days and was in a LOT of pain with protruding belly.

I took her to her Asian pediatrician, and he did not run any lab tests, but sent us home with an antibiotic! My motherly instinct somehow knew that I should NOT give her the antibiotic! So I didn't. She continued to lose weight until her ribs were showing and she was so weak! I took her once again to the pediatrician, and he once again told me that this must be a viral infection and gave me a suppository to help her pass a bowel.

My husband and I put the suppository into her and the pain it caused was so excruciating that she went into a seizure with head jerks. I think I injured her colon with the suppository. This scared me so bad! But she did pass a very hard but small bowel. Finally, the next day I left her with a baby sister and went to my language lesson. When I returned, Lilyana did not recognize me. She sat staring with glazed eyes. Her breathing was labored. When she got up to walk she fell over. I panicked! I immediately took a video of her symptoms and sent it to another language student - a good friend - who lived 5 minutes from our house (since Lilyana's doctor had been no help to us). Our friend was a nurse, and upon seeing the video, he rushed over to our house and took a urine sample with a sugar stick from Lilyana's soaking diaper. I will never forget the moment that he looked at me and said, there's sugar in her urine. She has diabetes. What?! The grief and shock were unbearable. My husband was sick with the flu that day (we were often sick).

But he managed to find the strength to get dressed and come along. I was in shock and incredibly stressed. I felt like everything was moving in slow motion. I had never heard of type 1 diabetes - ever! Our nurse friend drove our family quickly to the emergency, asking for the whole hour-long trip if Lilyana's eyes were still open. He didn't want me to let her go to sleep. Later, he told me he was worried about her slipping into a diabetic coma. Once we arrived, we found out that her blood sugar, even without food for several hours prior, was over 600 ml. How does a mother explain to a two-year-old what is happening, why everyone is sticking her fingers and arms with needles, why she is in so much pain, why mommy is crying, and why she has to stay hooked up to all kinds of monitors and machines? Diabetes?! I blamed myself. I grieved every waking minute. My heart was breaking as reality set in. This was a life-long irreversible condition, they told me. I couldn't accept it! I couldn't stop crying. The doctors in the emergency room were not familiar with T1D at all! Our nurse friend actually had to kindly coach the Asian doctors through how to slowly bring down the blood sugar, and what tests needed to be run (C Peptide and A1C, etc.)

After all night in the emergency room, our nurse friend told us that if Lilyana had not received insulin that very day, she most likely would not have lived another day. She was so close to a coma and so underweight. Only God knows. We stayed in the hospital for 10 days. It was the most horrible nightmare I have ever experienced as a mom. Lilyana had always been a difficult baby, ever since her very vaccine on the day of birth. But I had failed to connect the dots between her infantile high-pitched screaming day and night after each vaccine. She experienced notable regressions as she received more and more vaccine doses. And because of our travels to Asia, she received an overdose of at least two vaccines as well as extra vaccines that American babies do not usually get, such as the typhoid vaccine. Just previous to her loss of weight and progression into T1D, she had received the MMR vaccine AND the Typhoid vaccine!!!

I had always believed that the American medical establishment had our best interest in mind. But my eyes were opened to the evil side of the medical world when my own child suffered from this condition, due to their hiding the truth from parents. Back in 2019, T1D was on the MMR vaccine insert as a possible side effect!!! Every single day, as I watched Lilyana suffer from blood sugars often reaching 400mL or 500mL after sugary meals, had to consciously ask God to give me the strength to forgive the evil people who caused this condition. The doctors were telling us to feed Lilyana everything she always used to eat, and just to give the appropriate amount of insulin. We were doing 3 meals plus two snacks every day.

And it was a NIGHTMARE to chase the blood sugar. I can't even describe the roller coaster of blood sugars both day and night! We had to relocate back to the USA, where medical care and pump accessories were available. The stress of having a toddler with a new disability, complete lack of sleep, and the international move, as well as the death of our family's dream of ministry in Asia, was emotionally shattering, stressful, and cannot be put into words. I was so stressed upon moving back to the States 3 weeks after Lilyana's diagnosis, that I literally could not walk because of excruciating pain in my leg joints, both knee, and hip. My husband had to push me in a wheelchair through all the international airports on our way back to the US. I searched the internet frantically day and night, looking for anything, begging God for a cure for my baby!

I typed into Google: "Cure for type 1 diabetes" and I praise Jesus that your video actually popped up.

I watched it and was honestly disappointed that you didn't offer a cure. But I gradually came to accept that even though there still does not appear to be a complete cure, perhaps we could TRY your keto idea for Lilyana. At that point, I was at the end of my rope, crying buckets of tears every single day, grieving, stressed out and watching her suffer. So I was willing to try anything. So we completely changed her diet. I started cooking everything from scratch.

We changed to completely gluten-free and organic. Within the space of about 4 months, Lilyana went from eating the normal American diet to healthy and organic keto. I bought your kale shake, and she eats a half serving with a half cup of almond milk. I blend this with extra stevia, an extra tablespoon of 100% cocoa powder, AND an extra cup of fresh kale and a few coconut flakes. She loves this mixture! I make keto treats and fresh almond flour bread with stevia and erythritol - NO SUGAR!!!

She eats 2 eggs and a little unsweetened non-dairy yogurt every morning with stevia and warm stevia-sweetened fruit tea. She has meat and your kale shake for lunch, and sometimes an avocado with salt and pepper or nuts and seeds. She also eats berries or very tiny slices of sweeter fruits that are in season. Lilyana's A1C went from over 12 down to 6.4 !!! At first, her endocrinologist told us that keto has never been proven with toddlers and that we would be sorry to do this dangerous diet. She told us that it would cause seizures and brain malfunction.

But we saw JUST THE OPPOSITE was true! Every single time we have an appointment, I share with the doctor how wonderfully Lilyana is doing. And the doctor has actually slowly begun changing her mind about keto for kids! Lilyana LOVES your videos!!! She actually memorized most of the major body organs and LOVES the photos you show of these organs working. She talks about her liver, and her small intestine and her large intestine, etc. She talks about herbs and spices like basil, oregano, and curcumin!

What 4-year-old even knows what curcumin is?!!! Wow! She watches your daily videos along with me EVERY single day! She has a brilliant mind and excellent memory. She reads on a 2nd-grade level!!!! She has been reading well for an entire year now! We would be so honored and it would be a dream come true for Lilyana to meet the doctor who helped her condition to turn around. If I ever meet you or speak with you in person I will not be able to hold back my tears of gratitude for you Dr. Berg. THANK YOU for helping me to care for my child's condition.

THANK YOU for making her chances of diabetic complications minimal. THANK YOU for going against the flow, and giving me the confidence to stand up to the medical establishment and put my foot down and say to the doctor "We have decided to do the ketogenic diet for our child, and we believe that she will be fine." YOUR videos gave me the confidence to say that and to believe it. Your videos have given me more useful knowledge than most nurses and doctors that I know. And I have been able to share the knowledge with MANY friends and family members.

You are our hero! Dr. Berg, THANK YOU!!!!

Arnah Rudicil (and husband James)

P.S. Lilyana's A1C drops with every single appointment. Her weight gain is awesome for her age. She is 40 pounds. I included photos from the day of her T1D diagnosis in 2019 as well as photos of our family in 2020.