The development of nonweighed pilot methods for estimating phenylalanine exchanges in non-phenylketonuria volunteers

Background: In children with phenylketonuria (PKU), the daily weighing of the phenylalanine allowance from food is advocated. There is a need to develop nonweighed methods of measuring dietary phenylalanine, aiming to ease caregiver burden and possibly improve dietary adherence. The accuracy of three methods (household measures, digital photographs and weighing) for measuring 50-mg phenylalanine exchanges for PKU was investigated in a randomised, controlled trial.