By Birgitta Wolfe, Managing Editor
MANSFIELD Korey Walton is 8 years old and wants to be a policeman when he grows up. He’s a video game aficionado. He likes “Star Wars” and plays basketball.
Korey is also an epileptic and before placement on a new diet therapy a month ago, would have 15 to 40 seizures a day, some small where he “zones out,” others bigger where his eyes roll back and his arms and legs become stiff.
Since starting a ketogenic diet, the Mansfield Elementary School third-grader is making progress, although he had a setback Monday and had four seizures, said his mother, Dawn Walton of White Pine Road.
The ketogenic diet is intended to maintain a state of fasting over a long period of time. It is very high in fat and low in carbohydrates. When the body is in a fasting state, it creates ketones, a by-product of fat-burning metabolism. Seizures often lessen or disappear during periods of fasting in some epileptics, according to the medical literature. It is generally used with patients who do not respond well to medication.
”No one knows why it works,” said Ms. Walton, but she already sees an improvement in Korey’s focus. “Still, he struggles.”
But little guy has three high-powered support teams running interference for him.
The first, of course, is his family. There’s his mother, and his father, Jim Walton, owner of R.W. Tire Corp. on Route 206 in Bordentown Township, and Korey’s five sisters and two brothers ages 25, 24, 22, 20, 15, 14 and 10.
The siblings decided that since their kid brother couldn’t have sweets, cookies and snacks, they too would ban the goodies from the house.
”They said if that’s what we have to do, that’s what we’ll do,” said Ms. Walton. “They watch him like a hawk.”
The ketogenic diet is 90 percent fat, 7 percent protein and 3 percent carbohydrates and is measured out to the last gram, she said.
The second support team is at his school where there are big plans for a fundraiser next week to boost Korey’s Ketogenic Kitchen Krusade.
Proceeds will go toward establishing a ketogenic kitchen on the ninth floor of Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, where Korey was treated. Each family whose child is prescribed this diet must go through cooking classes at the hospital to learn how to prepare each individual meal which must be measured and prepared a specific way.
About 100 children at Children’s Hospital are on this diet, Ms. Walton said.
The diet is very high in fat and low in carbohydrates. When fat is the primary source of calories, ketones are formed. The diet must be followed very strictly and requires a significant commitment to work effectively.
PTA President Alison Perrone has enlisted kindergarten through second-graders at the John Hydock School for a loose-change contest with the winning classroom getting an extra recess.
The third- to sixth-graders at Mansfield Elementary will have a “penny war” called Korey’s Keto Coin Challenge. Each classroom gets a jar for pennies, but if you drop, say, a nickel in the opposing classroom’s jar that subtracts points from the opponent. Winner gets an extra recess.
Another member of the school team is Rita Christopher, a school aide assigned to Korey, whom Ms. Walton credits with guiding her son through some though situations and educating students about Korey’s condition.
Like the time Korey insisted on eating his lunch in the nurse’s office because he didn’t want the other kids in the cafeteria to see his special food.
” ‘I’m not going back to the cafeteria,’ he said. It was Rita who eased him back. It sounds like such a small thing, but it was a big deal,” said his mother.
”The kids are very good with him, very kind. They have been with him since kindergarten and they all know what to do when something happens,” she added.
The third support team would be the one at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia where the ketogenic kitchen is planned.
It is difficult to conduct cooking classes at the hospital because they cannot use the main kitchen and all they have to work with is a microwave oven, Ms. Walton said.
Korey’s Ketogenic Kitchen Krusade, which donates money in his name, has a goal of $10,000 and as collected $3,475 so far from 50 donors.
Contributors can go to the hospital’s website at www.chop.edu and go to create fundraising page, click on find a fund, and type in “korey.”

