foods to fatten him up!!

[*Becky*]

DS is a skinny mini anyway but he has just had a horrid virus and has lost a lot of weight 

I need some ideas for foods to fatten him up - ideally healthy too

[mum101]

This article helped me when DS lost nearly 10% of his body weight.

http://www.pediatrics.emory.edu/divisions/neonatology/dpc/calories.html

As DS had giardia, which meant he'd been in pain for a while when trying to eat, he went off so many foods. So I added extra olive oil or cheese into his usual fave foods like spaghetti bolognaise. So he's still eating the same number of mouthfuls but many more calories. 'make every mouthful count!' was a good quote I remember.

When the antibiotics kicked in and he realised he was starving and eating didn't cause discomfort, he hoovered food, so I made sure he had lots of carbs, fat and carried snacks with me everywhere we went.
I also found that letting him eat from the coffee table from a platter helped him grow to love food again. Very large slathers of peanut butter on crackers etc, make for fun eating and extra calories. 

I know that activity can increase appetite, but I didn't want him to do too much and not gain weight... bit of a fine balance.

So hard to see when they get mini skinny 

[anna*]

Not something we've had to deal with but if H enjoys hot cereal in the morning, a spoonful of coconut oil melted in is really yummy and lots of good fats. Stan loves porridge with coconut oil, raisins, milk and a sprinkle of brown sugar. Also smoothies made with coconut milk have lots of calories. A few frozen berries, a banana and half a can of coconut milk is lots of good cals.

[Diana1981]

Oatmeal and pasta!

[flutie]

Avacado mixed with mango and them frozen makes a delicious great fat packed treat

[*Becky*]

there is so little of this he would eat. i post and then realise it is hopeless with a picky eater.

[C&B&E]

Why don't you write down some of his regular foods and maybe we can help you to think of some ideas to make them more calorific?   

[*Becky*]

ok he likes...

Potatoes
Baked beans
Sausages/Ham
Beef sometimes - will eat cottage pie.
Cheese
Pasta
Pancakes
Salmon - most fish
Porridge/R brek/Cheerios/Shreddies
Yoghurt


Any vegetable is really hard work tbh...I make a hidden veg tomato sauce and then he has that with macaroni and cheese on top.
Fruits he likes sberries and rberries and if he is starving he will eat banana.

He would happily live on baked beans!!

Then snacks he likes are raisins, cereal bars, humzingers, bears (dried fruit)

[*Becky*]

I meant to say I am trying lots of new fingers foods with M atm so it might be a good time to try out some new things with H. I think we are in a bit of a food rut.

Meant to say that he also loves butternut squash risotto although we call it special rice as if we said the name of the veg he would refuse to eat it!!!

[*Becky*]

one thing i did think of was going back to whole milk as he has been on semi skimmed since he was two.

[okinawamama]

I would just try and hide as many high calorie foods in things he does like. When baking we always use coconut oil ( I melt it down and put it in pancakes, waffles, breads.... 130cal/Tbsp), we also use the coconut oil to spread on toast, melt in oatmeal... I put olive oil into his pasta, or melt butter. We also melt butter in all his rice dishes.  Maybe try mashing an avocado or half of an avocado into baked beans, or other things that might disguise it (280 cal/avocado). We have a completely delicious full fat greek yogurt that has 310 calories per serving (granted, my little guy doesn't eat an entire serving a feed, but he eats at least half a serving) . If he would drink a smoothie we often put olive oil in the smoothie or a ground up avocado; all the fruit/juice hides the taste of the avocado or olive oil.

Good luck! I know how stressful it can be to see your little one not gaining as much weight as you'd like.

[mum101]

Def add fatty foods to his favourites, olive oil to cottage pie, extra cheese and cream in the topping. Also add cream to mashed potatoes, lots of stuff to pasta dishes.

It's not a long term diet, but it helps them add on layers for sure!!

[Lemonthyme]

Your son's 3?  I made this for my 21 month old, he's had a tummy bug recently too and I was worried about the fact he'd lost weight.  Anyway, coconut milk is high fat, high calorie and rice is a good dose of carbs.  A few hidden mushrooms snuck in! 

http://mamacook.blogspot.com/2012/02/thai-green-fish-curry.html

[*Becky*]

wow that looks yummy. I would love that - will try but he is really quite fussy so we will see xx

[mum101]

Full fat milk sounds good, or could also add some extra cream to your skimmed milk.

What really worked for us was allowing DS for a short time to eat from a coffee table and snack all day.  He actually got through a lot of food that way. He never really liked formally eating at the table, so this treat of eating somewhere special worked a treat!