Getting more calories in....

[cuckoochick]

Not sure whether this is in the right place so feel free to move....

DD is slowly dropping down the centiles in her weight. I am not hugely worried but don't want her to go any further and some reassurance wouldn't go amiss.

She is BF although she has 1 bottle of formula on days I am working. She was having 4 BFs per day but has recently started to drop to 3 some days and 4 others. She has 3 solid meals a day. Breakfast is the meal she enjoys least and doesn't seem to have a big appetite at this time of day. Her appetite at other meals varies quite a bit. We are doing a mix of BLW (mostly BLW) and she has family meals with us as she will only eat what we are having but she will sometimes let me spoon feed her some especially if she knows it is quicker for me to give it to her (like her faves: peas, sweetcorn and some wet foods like curry or sauces with pasta.

Breakfasts usually one of the following:
porridge, Weetabix (not really keen on this), crumpets with butter, scrambled eggs and ALWAYS fruit! She loves fruit.

Lunches: often sandwiches with either tuna, eggs, cheese (she loves cheese), cream cheese and sometimes ham but not too much because of the salt; beans on toast or soup and bread. We always have salad vegetables and again fruit and yogurt.

Dinner: She has whatever we are having e.g. curry and rice, risottos, pasta and sauces, roast meats/fish with potatoes/couscous and vegetables then usually fruit again unless we are having a puddingy type dessert.

Some days she will eat loads and others not much at all. The HV said that her diet is nicely varied but that I need to get more calories into her. The only thing she suggested for me to do was to add grated cheese to a lot of her food but obviously hard cheeses do have a lot of salt into them. DD would eat loads of cheese as she loves it but I guess I would like some more ideas about how I could get good calories and fats into her. She has full-fat versions of everything.

Any thoughts/advice would be great as I can feel now that her sleep is pretty good the weight could be the next thing my anxiety transfers onto! 

TIA.

[Buntybear]

How about foods that contain lots of good fats - salmon or other oily fish, avacado, dark meat of chicken - skin on, mix olive oil into mashed potato or as a dressing on pasta or cous cous etc...

[cuckoochick]

Thank you for your reply. She loves salmon so I will try to include that a bit more and some of the other foods you mentioned. I actually bought avocadoes again as the last time she had them she seemed to enjoy them.

I don't want this to become a huge anxiety for me as then that will rub off on her but equally I want to ensure she is getting everything she needs.

Thank you!

Could I also ask about portion sizes? I really have no idea about the amount that she should be eating. :[

[Lemonthyme]

I have to say I used to worry but now I just give him what he wants and know some days he'll eat very little and others, especially if it's pasta, he'll eat loads!

[Shiv52]

First thing i would say if she is happy and content and taking her milk well and some solids then I really wouldn't worry.   

I actually had stopped taking M to get weighed at this stage because HV are obsessed with weight and centiles and don't actually use the graph for BF babies.  I haven't had R weighed since 4 months.  I think things even out over time.  You also have to look at you and DH.  If you are both petite/small then she is going to be on the lower centiles. 

R has days where she eats loads and others where she eats very little but so long as she is not getting junk then there is little i can do but offer and if she eats she eats.  KWIM? 

Did the HV have any other suggestions besides cheese?  I am surprised she didn't tell you to give her more formula!

[zeri]

my mostly BLW son (almost 10 months) is dropping percentile too, he is now around 40%. My dr told me not to worry, they do that when they get more active.
TBH, DD was 12% for weight and 75% for height at one point, and she is fine too!

[Shiv52]

My dr told me not to worry, they do that when they get more active.

Thats a great point!

[cuckoochick]

Thank you ladies. It is so hard not to worry and think that she is starving!

Did the HV have any other suggestions besides cheese?  I am surprised she didn't tell you to give her more formula!

No she just said add grated cheese to stuff like beans on toast. She did tell me not to worry but you know what I'm like! She is very pro BFing so I know she wouldn't say anything re the formula.

I had not been having her weighed because I had the feeling that she wasn't gaining as the graphs said but they weighed her at her 9mo check. Deep down I know that she is happy but obviously I don't want her to go down much further. She is petite in all of her features and quite long. She takes her feeds well (better now that I've dropped to 3 BFs) and her appetite varies.

This was our day today:
Milk 7am
Breakfast homemade blueberry pancakes (no sugar) and some slices of nectarine. Didn't eat that much here.
Lunch beans on toast with cheese (unsalted butter on the toast and low-salt beans). Sliced tomatoes. Yoghurt and a small clementine. Again not much eaten here- preferred beans to the toast.
Milk 2pm
Tea: she ate like a little piggy here. 1/2 a salmon fillet baked in the oven, 2-3tbsps of couscous and some roasted mediterranean vegetables. 8 large raspberries and a couple of spoons of custard.
Milk at BT.

[cuckoochick]

She's not that active yet but I suppose she is doing more than just sitting there iykwim!!

[zeri]

lol - my long, petite 3 yr DD still doesn't eat much more than that. I would consider it a coup to get her to eat 1/2 a salmon fillet!

[*jazzberry*]

Also helps to look at their intake over the whole week rather than just an individual day. All my kids are 75th for length and 25th for weight, perfectly healthy, eat what they want, tbh even if they ate cheese and cake all day I think they'd just eat less of it and still weigh the same iykwim. As long as you are not denying her milk or food ( I know you aren't obviously!) then I honestly wouldn't worry about what she weighs. These days I truly believe it's good to be on the light side, we have so many problems with overeating and obesity. Sorry to bang on but I've had these issues with all my kids and I feel pretty strongly about it!! Just keep giving her good, healthy foods just like you are doing and she will be just FINE!

[Shiv52]

I'd say they are good portions.

One thing you could consider doing is adding a few snacks.  I know at 10 months with M we were having 3 or 4 BFs and 3 meals and a couple of snacks. She tended to eat better if it was spread across the day more.   She also didn't wat well first thing at all so I always waited a good hour to give her brekkie.  She ate great then.  I would have offered a snack mid morning....raisins and crackers, veg sticks, fruit and one after pm nap to get her through to dinner.  She may prefer to eat little and often rather than 3 larger meals.  

[cuckoochick]

Thanks Shiv. Will add some snacks in. MIL was questioning me when I said I might do that. On some days I do add in some snacks. Any suggestions on those? HV said to give fruit with meal to be good to teeth (not that she has any!! ). In the past I have given fruit or sticks of cheese or leftover veggies or rice cakes.

We wait 1hr-1.5hrs for breakfast. It just seems to be the meal she enjoys least and I am struggling to find something that she really likes to eat other than fruit although she does like scrambled eggs but she gets fed up of porridge, is not fond of Weetabix and I think she's off toast now too.

Jackie- I know you are so right about the weight thing. I was really thin as a child (wish I had that problem now) and have always eaten like a horse. My mum was driven mad by being told I was really underweight so she has told me not to worry and to just continue on like I am. However, I think it has made me think maybe I could add some more good fats and things in. I won't be giving her pasties and fizzy pop though!!!


So snack and breakfast ideas would be super if anybody has any! Thanks

[*jazzberry*]

What about yoghurt with her fruit? Greek yoghurt is 10%fat. Scrambled eggs with cheese mixed in, avocado? Off to have a think....

[cuckoochick]

Thanks! Look forward to some more ideas too!

[Shiv52]

M still does have fruit and yogurt for breakfast and then a cereal about an hour later.  

Does C like cream cheese?  That used to help toast go down a bit better.  

[cuckoochick]

Yeah she loves Philadelphia. She has it on sandwiches so might try it on toast. Thanks Shiv.
Will try to add more snacks in too if she wants them!

[Lemonthyme]

How about puddings?  They don't have to contain sugar.  I came up with a sugar free rice pudding recipe the other day which is full of calories!  http://mamacook.blogspot.com/2011/08/rice-pudding-for-babies-and-toddlers.html

[jakobsmom]

Just following along as I am going through a similar situation.  I took J to md for a prescription repeat and he did gain over 2 lbs in 2 months, but he dropped from 70 to 58 percentile in weight (he is over 20 lbs and is quite tall as well - 98% for this).  My md is new and sometimes she says things without thinking and it really concerned me.  She finally said it is probably because he is so active now, but I still worry and am trying to come up with foods DS will enjoy.  He is not so into purees right now, he wants to be independant and do it himself.  Now I have to take him back every month to be weighed.

A friend of mine, her son did have a hard time with weight gain and she went to a dietcian who recommended butter as an excellent source of calories and 'good fat'.  She recommended putting it on pretty much everything - and it did help.  DS has mpsi so we can't do this
Protein and carbs are also excellent sources of calories.  I love bread and can attest to this   Good luck, and don't worry about C's weight.  Was she a lot taller at this check as well?  I know a lot of times LOs grow then catch up with weight.

[*jazzberry*]

I remember we had similar issues with ds1 (probably with ds2 and dd too if i'd had them weighed ) but pediatrician suggested mixing olive oil with everything too.

[*Kara*]

I have a friend who adds heavy cream to her DD's foods for extra calories - don't we all wish we had dr permission for this one

Olive oil is a good one too... as is greek yogurt... mixed with a sweeter fruit, it is rather yummy!