How to help 'bulk out' a super skinny 8 yr old?

[IndecentFeminist]

Odd question I know, but my 8 yr old boy is down at the 2nd centile and is seriously skinny. He is fit and fast, but practically non existent. He keeps saying he wants to 'get strong', and I wondered if anyone had any experience of putting weight on to children?! Or whether I should just keep on providing the normal healthy meals and trust he will develop as he should? He does various fitness classes which he enjoys.

He is my middle child, #1 (F) is an athlete and gymnast and has been for years...mid centiles and pure muscle and strength.

#3 is a toddler about whom I can't imagine having these concerns 😂

If he is fit and healthy, then it's clearly just the way he's made. My DH is the same racing snake build, he's 5'10" and under 9st. He's even had hospital consultants ask him why he's so thin. He just is, and he eats like a horse.

How much, and how often, does he eat?

Mine is now 11, and hovers around the 6th centile - so healthy according to NHS.
He eats as much as me. Same for breakfast, more lunch, similar dinner - more if it's something he likes, and I'm not keen on.
We had a crazy food schedule when he was younger - breakfast, second breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. With pudding (cake, crumble and custard sort of stuff) twice a day.
Full fat everything, with lots of fruit and veg.
Snacks were things like cheese and grapes, carrot sticks and dip, fruit and (ice) cream.
He is very good at self regulating, and dropped his intake drastically during lockdown.
His 25th centile younger brother eats lot less (but still more than most of his contemporaries).

He sounds like me at that age. So long as he’s eating healthily and has plenty of energy I wouldn’t worry.

Assuming he is well and full of energy I wouldn't do anything- my 9 year old dd is very skinny too, I think its pretty normal for little kids, my dh is tall and skinny so think its genetic. If he is unwell or there is any concern that he is malnourished then you should be speaking to your GP

I've got a pair of lean twiglets. Fit, fast, healthy appetites. You can not only see their ribs, but their abdominal muscles. They're clealy healthy so I have no concerns. If they were pasty, lacking in energy and got ill easily, I'd worry more.

DH and I were both twiggy children.
They'll body out a bit when they're 30

What's does he typically eat and drink in a day?

I agree that it's not a cause for concern in itself (are his height and weight in line), but is he voicing a fear that he is smaller than his friends or peers?

Ensure all dairy is full fat.
Add butter or a cheese sauce to veg.
Add ground nuts or nut butters wherever possible, stir into curries, casseroles, sprinkle on stir fries, if using breadcrumbs (on top of pasta bake etc) add nuts to that too.
Double up on sandwich fillings (toasties are perfect as you can basically have any sandwich then add cheese.)

My son is on the 9th, so not underweight, but also on it for his height. However his medication affects it so we have a lot of pressure from his consultants to help him out on weight.

Basically encouraging the opposite to everything we know we should limit. They advice me to give him stakes and biscuits when he watches TV, and add sauce to meals, full fat milk, that sort of things.

The problem is his favoured food is reddish and polo mints, so I'm not really lucking out in the high calorie options there.

I think he's just him, my husband was short and is now 6ft, and his family is very thin, so I just imagine that's him. His brother two years younger than him weighs more and his taller though and he's on the 50th percentile for both.

My ds just the same now 18 tho' ''twas the bane of my life. Full fat ice-cream and everything-else, bags and bags of cashew nuts, pasta. Good luck...don't beat yourself it is in the genes.....I just wish they were my genes........

@tinselfest

If he is fit and healthy, then it's clearly just the way he's made. My DH is the same racing snake build, he's 5'10" and under 9st. He's even had hospital consultants ask him why he's so thin. He just is, and he eats like a horse.

Worms?

Ds3 was exactly like this at your ds’s age, @IndecentFeminist. He ate a healthy diet and was fit and active, so I didn’t worry about it, and he filled out naturally when he hit his teens, and he is now a perfect physical specimen (not that I am biased).

He did decide, at that age, that he wanted to develop more muscles so he was using a 5l can of paint, that we thought we’d hidden well under his bed. This went fine for a number of nights, until the night when he dropped it, tracked paint down the hall coming to tell his dad that (whispers) ‘there’s a problem’. There was a problem - 5l of paint loose on his bedroom floor. That was one heck of a clean up job.

Extra potato, extra pasta...

Does he eat when he is hungry? Does he enjoy food?
Do you limit/restrict any types of food?
Does he have food aversions?
Is he underweight medically - have you seen a doctor/dietician?