No fasting

Patients with MCAD deficiency should not go too long without eating. They have to avoid that their body would start to break down body fat for energy.

An adult patient is recommended not to fast longer that 12 hours, which is a typical overnight fast.
Young children should not be allowed to fast for even shorter periods, because their bodies will more quickly switch to breaking down body fats.
The following table shows the maximum fasting periods:

Age Maximum fasting period (h)
0 – 6 months 3 – 4 gradually towards 8
6 – 12 months 8
1 – 2 years 10
> 2 years 12

Very young children need a nightly feeding.
After that the nightly feeding can be replaced by a late night snack rich in carbohydrates.
Uncooked corn starch (in Belgium known under the brand name of Maizena Plus) contains a lot of slow carbohydrates. Adding this to the late night snack can help to maintain blood sugar levels during the night.

If a patient is ill and can not eat, vomits or has a fever, specific precautions have to be taken. See also the page about emergencies.

Read further about the low fat diet >

References
The information on this website is a summary of information that is publicly available on other websites as well as information from books for sale on the internet and in public book stores.
The content of this website is not validated by doctors, scientists or geneticists.

This page was last modified on 1 March 2011