Tips for Diet Management from PKU Families

• When your mother makes a new low protein recipe and gives it to you and your sister or brother (who also has PKU), write down whether you like it or not. Have your sister or brother write down an answer too. If you don't like it, your sister or brother will say she doesn't like it either, without even trying it. So try to say you like it.

• Make your milk the night before so it's nice and cold in the morning.

• Trade in your Halloween candy that you can't have for money (mom and dad's money)!

• Make Chocolate Crunch Bars: Crunch up some Aproten Cracker Toast (from MenuDirect). Then milt chocolate-flavored almond bark (from Ener-G Foods). Mix the cracker toast into the melted almond bark and pour into a candy bar mold (if you do not have a candy bar mold, you can use a square or rectangular plastic lid). They taste just like Nestle Crunch Bars!

• At school I have a treat box with low phe items in it. They are in Ziploc baggies labeled with what it is. Then I bring home the baggie so mom knows what I ate.

• I sometimes eat at school. We check the menu for the week and if they are having at least two foods I can eat on any day, I pack a juice box and maybe one low phe food to go with my meal.

• To go to a friend's house, we make a list of meals and snacks other parents can make. They just circle what I had and send the list back home with me. I bring along extra low phe or free snacks I can share with my friends.

• I love popcorn and sometimes forget to count it out. So I use a two cup measuring cup as my bowl when we have family popcorn night.

• Have your parents buy several neat colorful band-aids for taking blood. It's fun to pick a new one each time I have my blood taken.

• My mom makes a grab bag of toys we have not played with for a long time (you can use McDonald's Happy Meal prizes you don't know what to do with), and lets me and my little sister, who also has PKU, pick one after we take our blood. The bag is closed so what you get is a surprise.

• Shake your milk up a little before drinking. It helps get rid of the "fuzzies."

• We made a Phe Counter Wheel that counts 10 phes at a time. Whenever I eat something we count them out and turn the wheel.

• When my mom takes my blood, I wash my hands in warm water. Then I put a clothespin on the finger to be poked. When my finger is red, my mom pokes and it bleeds fast. She takes the clothespin off and keeps the finger tight until the blood is on the test paper.

• I count my phes with beads on a string. I count in reading order (left to right) and use a small clothespin to keep my place.

• Share what your mom says you can share with your brother or sister.

• Be a "self-manager" and try to always know what you can and cannot eat (or ask your mom if you are not sure).

• Read the ingredients list on food wrappers before you eat something. Make sure there is no aspartame or nutrasweet, or any kind of nuts or milk, or any kind of phe.

• Go grocery shopping with your mom and pick out things you want to eat, like fruits and vegetables and popsicles.

• Keep a snack box in the car for when you are hungry and you are not near a store or not able to get home right away.

• For going to parties, say "no" to things you can't eat. Take your own food along.

• When you go to your friend's house, take a box of low protein or other low protein food along. Your friends might want to taste them.

• For school, pack your own lunch. It will help your mom out.

• For taking your blood, hold your breath and look the other way!

• I like to "bag up" in small plastic snack baggies my total snacks for a whole week, one snack bag for each day of the week. The, when I run out of snacks from the bag, I know I have had all I can have for the day. This works really well for "portion control." It also helps remind me of which foods are "high" and which are "low" by seeing the amount I have put in the bag. I limit the bag to so much phe for each day. Here are just a few of the snacks I like to eat. I use a mixture of different items for each day: Fritos (just a few), pretzels (just a few, or more of low protein pretzels), apple chips, low phe cookies, apples, grapes, veggie chips, carrot and celery sticks, dried fruit snacks.

• We love to make "snow ice cream" in the Winter. After the first snow fall, or anytime you have newly fallen snow, take 4 cups of it, mix with 1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract and ½ to 1 cup of sugar. Mix together and eat! You can add food coloring or candy sprinkles. This is a family tradition in our house. We call it Snow Scream!

• To make "sandcastle brownies," use the Brownies recipe in Low Protein Cookery for PKU (p. 370). Instead of combining all of the ingredients as directed in the recipe, layer the dry ingredients in a pint jar, or double the recipe in a quart jar. Begin with the heaviest ingredient (the 1 cup Wel-Plan Baking Mix), then continue layering the remaining ingredients. Make several batches of the layered dry mix at a time and then when you want brownies, you just pour the fry ingredients into a bowl, add the wet ingredients called for in the recipe and you have brownies in no time! You can also do this with cookie and soup ingredients, etc. Also, this idea is great for gifts if you have a friend with PKU. Just decorate a canning jar lid with a fabric circle, leaving a 1-inch overhang. Place on top of the sealing circle but before the outer ring. Screw on the outer ring. Then just attach a note giving the "wet" ingredients and directions for making!

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