Ideas to help 5 year old gain weight?

[Troublesometooth]

My 5 year old has had a growth spurt recently but is now looking gangly. He hasn’t put any weight on for nearly a year and so shooting upwards has made him look thinner than before.

He is very active, and also very fussy with food (sensory issues). I think his appetite is good (he is always after snacks) but he still doesn’t seem to be putting weight on.

Today he has eaten;
Brioche and a crumpet
Half a banana as school morning snack
Packed lunch of 2 ham sandwiches, 1 rice cake, carrot and cucumber sticks, a small piece of homemade banana cake, watermelon and strawberries
Chicken nuggets as out of school club snack
An apple
1/2 tin of beans on toast
An ice lolly
A yogurt

I think that’s a rather large amount of food for a 5 year old but he isn’t putting on weight so I need to make some replacements. He won’t eat porridge for breakfast to fill him up longer and doesn’t like egg.

He usually has a better cooked evening meal with veg, but I was late home from work so it had to be a quick dinner tonight. I am also aware his sugar intake is higher than would be ideal. But due to his sensory needs there are lots he won’t eat so it’s hard to get a good balance.

I read somewhere that you're the thinnest you'll ever be at age 5.

He isn’t a big meat eater so protein isn’t easy

There are plenty of non meat protein sources -

Eggs
Dairy
Tofu
Quorn
Legumes

Eggs are a great source of nutrition generally

50th centile is perfectly fine so stop stressing and don't stress him

Just keep him on a balanced healthy diet (bearing in mind this inc healthy fats) keep a gentle eye on the weight sounds like he's fine

They fluctuate a lot when they're young it'll all balance out

How is his weight centile compared to height? 5 year olds do look lean and ribby so 50th centile wouldn't normally be underweight unless they were exceptionally tall.

I've got a naturally lean 11yo who's just slipping to the absolute bottom of a healthy weight which he hasn't been before. He's always light compared to height but that gap's opened up. It may just be part of the natural concertina of growing but as a result I've taken him off school dinners as he was finding the portions skimpy (and his sibling was also complaining). He's taking in a flask of food such as pasta/ chille (covering carbs, veg, protein) as well as flapjacks and crisps as back up if he needs more. For breakfast he has beans/ egg on toast. It's a recent change but his energy level has increased since the change.
It's difficult to get dairy into him due to an early allergy and he's gone off cheese. We have sensory issues too.

Chips and cheese with loads of mayonnaise. Macaroni cheese. Lasagne. Toast and peanut butter on top of cereals. Extra bananas.

Try smoothies from yoghurt(flavoured or plaon), fruits ( Aldi Lidl frozen Strawberries or similar), spoon of oats, honey and blitz up. Skyr type yoghurt has alot of protein.
Soups, tinned other otherwise, blitz with a tin of chickpeas or butterbeans, add knob of butter or cream if you wish.
Try banana pancakes, a few eggs added to mashed banana with a tablespoon of milk per egg. Whisk together and cook like normal pancakes, they won't know the egg is there.
Make cakes and substitute some ground almonds in place of the full amount of flour. I also blitz up oats and add in as part of flour weight too, this increases fibre content.

Recipe mistake.... should read add desert spoon of milk per egg NOT milk.

@saleorbouy for the wholemeal flour and oats I buy (from Tesco), wholemeal flour is actually higher fibre (wholemeal flour is 10g/100g and porridge oats are 8.3g/100g, so 20% lower). You can then use wholemeal flour to substitute only some of the white flour, unlike with oats where you can only substitute part of it. (Wholemeal flour is also higher in protein than oats, at least for the ones I get).

Sorry that should say wholemeal flour to substitute all the white flour!

You're saying he's 50th centile - so bang on average - so why on earth would you want him to gain weight? Deliberately feed him high calorie food and in a couple of years you'll be wanting him to lose weight. Assuming he's healthy and energetic, leave him be.

I wouldn’t worry about it - 50th centile is fine.

One of my dds was always super-slim as a child, I was the same, ditto Gdcs of 5 and 6 who were both exceedingly chubby babies.

If it were me, I’d just be thankful for not having the opposite problem!

I think it's fine if he's basically tracking his line. Do you have other, larger kids? My first has always tracked between the 75th and 91st, while my second tracked the 50th as a baby and is now between the 25th and 50th since he learned to walk. I always think he looks really skinny but he obviously isn't- I think it's just because in comparison ds1 is much stockier!

He is 75th centile for height so is quite tall. He has just had another growth spurt so need to check him again.

Thanks for the ideas. I agree he isn’t underweight, but his trousers have started falling down as he does seem to have lost some fat around his middle as he has grown upwards.

Primary school children are meant to be skinny!
I agree. A lot of people seem to have forgotten.

It’s normal for them to lean out as they get older. They are supposed to be slim. My 5 year old is really slim and his trousers today are age 3-4 and still fall down without a belt. If he isn’t underweight and is otherwise healthy I wouldn’t be trying to make him gain weight.

You can check his BMI, make sure you use a children’s one. My DS is 3rd centile BMI which is actually just ok - the healthy range for children is massive. I’m sure he’ll be well into healthy range at the height/ weight centiles you mentioned.