Food to help DD gain weight

[TillyTurve]

I am looking for high calorie ideas for my 11 year old who is struggling to gain weight. She is on the 1st centile on BMI calculator and is self conscious about her weight. She is a fussy earlier, hardly any meat, no fish and has a mainly beige diet and not much appetite.

I was exactly the same all through my teens and was also so self conscious about it. I was teased and people assumed I had an eating disorder. I even took myself off to the GP at about 14 and was brushed off, and bought myself some sort of powder from Boots but it didn’t work!

So I really understand and want to help. She has multi-vitamins and iron and does eat plenty of fruit. My focus right now is calories rather than anything else.

She eats pain au chocolate for snacks which are quite high calorie I suppose. Peanut butter and banana on toast, pepperoni pizza and lots and lots of Weetabix!

We don’t eat high calorie meals really as a family (and she rarely joins in anyway, she sits with plain pasta and cheese or pizza).

Any ideas? I hope that the more she eats the hungrier she will get. An online calculator says that she will need over 1800 calories a day to gain 1lb a week. That seems a lot!

Will she drink smoothies? You could add things to this, plus peanut butter. Mashed potatoes with butter and cream, butter on the pasta? Does she like avocados?

Drinks are a good way, milkshakes or smoothies, you could use blue top milk, peanut butter etc to make it more calorific.

My bil had this issue. He would make smoothies / milkshakes with milk, banana, peanut butter, and scoops of ice cream. You can add oats / Nutella / strawberries / cream etc whatever else she likes really! Ice cream, banana and peanut butter are good calorie wise which is why he usually picked that combo.

She does have smoothies with fruit, I could probably get away with some cream I think and a little peanut butter - she doesn’t like things that are too sickly ( likes chocolate though!) but she is motivated at the moment so would try more I think,

We are on full fat milk and butter in jacket potatoes but could add some more cream and more butter.

I think the weetabix are filling her up - she has at least two bowls a day - and could be replaced with something more fattening though.

Oh she likes Nutella too @Doowop1919 ! Looks like smoothies are the way to go then.

Metatone tonic
McDonald's
High calorie jelly
Protein bar- snickers, mars you name it

If she is just one of those naturally small reassure her that aslong as she is not calorie restricting or purposely t ray img to be thin then weight gain will come sure enough by the time she is 30

DH has protein shakes with peanut butter and oat bran -totalling about 800 calories a go!

If she likes pizza, put lots of extra cheese on it.
Double cream stirred into creamy soups and sauces.
Full fat yogurt.
Flapjacks
Ice-cream (the real thing, made with actual cream).
Scones with a large dollop of clotted cream.
Strawberries with thick double cream.

My teen son was very underweight, still is stick thin at age of 21. The dietician suggested full fat everything and to add a scoop of powdered milk to any milk he drank or on cereal.

You can probably find leaflets online about helping elderly people gain weight- should give you some ideas. There’s less online specifically for children but I’d have a read as the principles will be similar.

Full fat milk fortified with milk powder
Add butter or oil to everything eg vegetables
Add cream wherever you can
Sprinkle cheese on things
Fry foods instead of grilling
Offer calorific drinks
Snack on nuts

Here is a random example leaflet

ipswichandeastsuffolkccg.nhs.uk/Portals/1/Content/Members%20Area/Clinical%20Area/Medicine%20managment/CCG%20formularies/Dietetics%20formulary/Care%20homes%20Nutrition%20in%20Older%20Adults.pdf

Full fat milk
Chocolate spread on toast (not the low sugar stuff).
Peanut butter on toast, if she doesnt like peanut butter put a thin scraping of it under the chocolate spread.
Real butter instead of marge
If you can get away with it put real butter in mash potato, on veggies, in jacket potatoes etc
Protein yogurts.

We have had this too. DD is on the 0.2 centile but is tracking.

I was super skinny as a kid but we weren't weighed often back then.

If you can encourage her to accept her body as it is - encouraging her into regularly eating high sugar / fat foods may set unhelpful habits for the future.

My dd used to have to drink complan.

Dd is on the 1st centile aged 13 but 50 for height. She's under hospital for a few things and they've advised full fat everything and regular eating so has 5 meals a day which can be hard to get in. She doesn't like milk but will have cream/milk in hot chocolate so also encourage one after school everyday. It is very slow progress though.

Try powder peanut butter. You can add this to breakfast muffins before baking and they're yummy, you can't really taste it. You can quickly get sick of smoothies and they make you feel very bloated so she might not like that for long, although they're good for veg.
Courgette brownies are amazing if you want some fibre in her. Very moist and can't taste the courgette at all.
Some kids love berries thawed berries with cream (unwhipped) and some sugar. That has tons of calories.
Pasta sauce with tons of veg, in the blender with some cream to make it creamy. Top with cheese.
Some kids just have super fast metabolisms and the more they eat the more the metabolism speeds up so sometimes even bulking up doesn't work.
If she's into beige food she might like dauphinoise potatoes. They're loaded with cream and fat but are quite bland.
Lasagna is good, as is Mac n cheese.
Most of all, working on confidence helps.
We're coming out of the big ass small waist moment in fashion, she might find her built is back in very quickly.

Personally I'd try to avoid ultra processed food like Nutella, store bought pizza etc. They might be high in calories but they are pretty dreadful health wise.

I agree with the PPs who suggested homemade smoothies and ice cream. Could you get an ice cream maker?

My son has ARFID, an eating disorder. The only thing that's helped him put on weight is Fortijuice. Would your daughter try one a day? That's an extra 350 calories, I think.

Weetabix is great but not many calories for the fillingness. Try to find unfilling things that are higher calorie and also add butter, cheese, cream, creme fraiche, etc to meals and snacks. Make sure she has dessert every day - again high calorie and low fillingness, and also give her some supper.

Avocados can be whizzed up and flavoured to make a mousse (you can add cream too); peanut butter is great - eat it by the spoonful too; Greek yoghurt and honey is good: flapjacks are moreish and not too filling: olive oil can be drizzled over pasta, veg, salads, etc to add more calories; mayonnaise is better than ketchup, etc. Biscuits are obviously good for weight gain too. The trick is to keep up the calories day after day, week after week. I speak as someone who loses weight very easily. It takes consistent effort but it can be done.

My DD (now 10 but 9 at the time) was diagnosed with an eating disorder last year, her weight having fallen to way under the 1st centile BMI. She is now a healthy weight, pretty much bang on the 50th centile BMI, but it's been a long slog.

Over the summer holidays last year she managed to gain an average of a kg a week, but she was probably consuming 2,500 calories a day to do it. That seemed like an impossible amount to start with but we got there by ramping it up over time. The plan given to us by CAMHs was three meals and two/three snacks, along with calorific drinks with meals and before bed (whole milk, milkshakes or smoothies). I really wouldn't underestimate how many calories are needed to gain weight centiles for a growing child.

What about nourishment they are like milkshakes (strawberry,chocolate,vanilla) they are full of vitamins and around 450 cals a can,can be bought in most shops.

Does she like avocado? Brilliant for healthy weight gain
you can blend it into smoothies
power shakes too

I forgot to say, I second the no to processed food. It's so incredibly unhealthy, the studies coming out now are awful. Please don't stuff her with it.

My mum needed to gain weight and snacked on Bounce protein balls that are 160 calories for a relatively small snack.
Lots of nuts, savoury nut curry or satay, sweet peanut cookies or brittle.
Complan drinks in between meals.
Expand on what she does like..that pain aux chocolat..search out the highest calorie ones you can find.
Would she have a plain granola..far higher calorie than weetabix.
Chocolate mousse made with avocado, honey and cocoa powder.
I think jacket potatoes with butter and cheese sound fab and show me a teenager that doesn't eat a processed pizza etc
Deep fat fryer for fried veg, homemade chips, banana fritters etc

Have you tried the complan drinks, they’re high calorie with nutrients as they’re meant for people who can’t eat much. I had the same issue with weight gain when I was younger and my mum got me them and they worked.

I second trying Complan. Ds has these, they taste like chocolate milkshake, and are nutritionally balanced.
Much better than junk food.