The diet of patients with phenylketonuria is actually like this

The best treatment for phenylketonuria is diet therapy, but what is the good diet for patients with phenylketonuria? But most people don’t really understand it. In fact, patients with phenylketonuria, especially children, have special requirements for protein in their diet.

1. Children with phenylketonuria have special dietary requirements for protein

Since phenylalanine is mostly found in protein, children with phenylketonuria have very special requirements for protein. The requirements for other nutrients: sugar, fat, vitamins, minerals (including trace elements) are the same as those of normal children;

2. A low-phenylalanine diet is recommended

It is not enough to eat ordinary food alone. They must eat some special phenylalanine-free (or low) protein. This protein is artificially made and belongs to a special type of nutritional food specially developed. Secondly, children with phenylketonuria must also consume enough protein, otherwise it will affect their growth and development.

3. Special nutritional foods

In order to grow and develop, 80% of the protein required every day must be supplied by artificial special nutritional foods, such as:

1) Phenylalanine-free (or low) nutritional powder-----commonly known as milk powder;

2) Phenylalanine-free (or low) protein powder;

3) Low-phenylalanine staple foods specifically for phenylketonuria - for example: staple flour, noodle flour, dumpling flour, self-raising flour, starch rice, etc. Because rice and noodles are also "high" phenylalanine foods for children with phenylketonuria;

4. For the remaining 20% ​​of protein, you can use protein from natural sources

Choose high-quality protein such as meat, eggs, and fish, as the content of essential amino acids in their proteins is more suitable for human use;

5. With these special foods, a low-phenylalanine diet becomes convenient and easy.

In addition to the above special foods, what other foods can children with phenylketonuria eat?

There are many foods that can be eaten, such as:

1. Starchy foods

Vermicelli, rice noodles, jelly, lotus root, lotus root powder, water chestnut, potato, yam, sweet potato, cassava, taro, pumpkin, etc.;

2. Sugar

White sugar, glucose, fructose, lactose, maltose, etc.;

3. Fats

Various vegetable oils (peanut oil, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil, olive oil, coconut oil, medium-chain fatty acids (MCT), etc.).

4. Animals that have had their oil residue removed after refining

Pig, beef, mutton, chicken, duck, goose fat, butter, margarine, etc.;

5. Low-phenylalanine foods

Fruits and vegetables (Note: beans among vegetables, such as beans, cowpeas, soybeans, mung beans, kidney beans, etc. cannot be eaten).

Feeding children with phenylketonuria

1. Infant period

Breast milk is also the best nutrition for children with phenylketonuria, and breastfeeding is also recommended for them. Breast milk is also the best source of phenylalanine for infants with phenylketonuria. When the doctor tells you that your child has phenylketonuria, don't panic or be anxious. Stop breastfeeding for a few days, but don't wean your child. Use special milk powder to feed your child during these days. When the blood test is normal, you can continue to breastfeed your child. Generally, the child should be fed breast milk at night and special milk powder during the day. During this period, children grow fast. You should pay attention to whether they are lacking in phenylalanine. If breast milk is insufficient, they can eat some 0-6 months old infant formula milk powder to avoid insufficient intake of phenylalanine.

2. Timing of adding complementary food

Children with phenylketonuria are the same as normal children. They should start eating vegetable juice, fruit juice, etc. from 4 months old. They should start with one kind at a time and then switch to another one after they get used to it.

1) The breastfeeding period of children with phenylketonuria can be appropriately extended until there is no more breast milk;

2) When adding natural egg whites, eat the yolk first

Start with 1/4 and add more gradually;

3. Childhood

Parents can make many foods and dishes for their children that are colorful, fragrant and delicious.

1) Staple food

Use the low-phenylalanine staple foods listed above for phenylketonuria: use self-raising flour to steam steamed buns/flower rolls/sugar buns/jam buns/dumplings (you can use vegetables, fat, sesame oil, and MSG as stuffing)/pancakes, etc.; use noodle flour to make noodles/lo noodle/soup noodles/cold noodles, etc.; use dumpling flour to make dumplings (use vegetables, oil, fat, MSG, etc. as stuffing) to make boiled dumplings/steamed dumplings/pot stickers/pies, etc.; use starch rice to make rice: starch rice (with the same appearance as rice) is the same as making ordinary rice, it can be made in an electric rice cooker, simmered in a pot, or steamed in a bowl, but the amount of water added should be less than when making ordinary rice; starch rice porridge: the same as making ordinary rice porridge;

2) Dishes:

Except for beans, all kinds of vegetables can be eaten cold, stir-fried, boiled, steamed, or deep-fried;

3) Snack foods:

Potato cakes, fried potatoes, fried sweet potatoes, onion rings, fried vermicelli, fried puff pastry, fried shrimp chips, homemade jelly with special milk powder, almond tofu, sugar lotus root, fruit jelly, fruit salad, potato salad, preserved apples, preserved pears, preserved crabapples, raisins, water chestnuts in sugar water, fruit candies, lollipops, fruit popsicles, homemade ice desserts with special milk powder, etc.

4) Beverages:

Various freshly squeezed juices, Great Lakes juice, Sprite, Fanta, Mirinda, sour plum soup, fruit essence, sour plum crystal, etc. When buying juice, be sure to check the ingredient list. If it contains sweeteners, protein sugar, and aspartame, you cannot drink it because these sweeteners contain more phenylalanine. Be careful!

Children with phenylketonuria are not something to be afraid of.

It is not a terrible thing for children with phenylketonuria to adopt a low-phenylalanine diet. As long as parents have the patience to make a diet that is colorful, fragrant and tasty for their children, the children can grow up happily and healthily, become excellent students, and become useful talents for the country in the future. However, during this treatment process, parents need to maintain a certain degree of patience and accompany their children to grow up healthily.