To not really know how to get DS to gain weight?

[NoCapes]

Does he need more carbs? Or protein? Or fats?
Bigger portion sizes? Or more snacks?
I feel like I really should know this but all of the advice I've found is so conflicting and now I don't know what to do for the best
What's the best (and healthiest) way to get him to gain weight?

my mum gave me her nutribullet and I used to make a smoothie with porridge oats (put them in first to grind a bit), 2 bananas, some ice cubes, a scoop of protein powder, some full fat milk and a dribble of maple syrup. She had this for breakfast for a while when she really didn't want to eat anything.

Agree about the bread, is there a reason he has half a slice of toast? Does he refuse more?

My DS is older but underweight. I give him 2 complan milkshakes with full cream milk a day on top of his meals. He has calorific snacks when he gets home from school, too...in our case, Mars bars, sausage rolls and pork pies but my DS is 14 and was a stone below minimum healthy weight so calories took precedence over nutritional value. Your DS I am guessing is too young for that approach but complan is great as it is full of vitamins and minerals and is a complete food. We have used fortisip too, even better, but too expensive for us to use everyday.

Sometimes asthmatic kids cant tolerate blue milk well i heard that years ago it makes them more phlegmy and they feel full and ikky i used semiskimmed by time dd was 5 but upped her food intake well what she would eat

How much exercise does he do?

It might sound counter-intuitive but exercise can really drive the appetite. Mine will only eat a full dinner if they've had a couple of hours physical acivity.

Swimming in particular seems to leave them starving..

Could you swap the granola bar for something like a flapjack? You could make them in advance still with raisins / nuts in so they would be similar, but lots of syrup and butter too

Well he's not eating very much food... what is stopping him eating more?

Or even do some baking / cooking with him. Mine love making pizzas by putting the ketchup cheese and veg onto a tortilla wrap. They always eat more of things they have made themselves

Bananas instead of apples

I think at his age, think about what he will eat. My ds can lose weight quickly. He isn't a meat fan or in fact a fan of any protein rich foods. He is like dh, could live on carbs alone. We get whole milk, milk shakes down him and add things to it.

I bake him cookies (healthier versions with things like peanut butter in). Dd is older and like me, she puts weigh on easily, so I bake a less calorie dense version for her.

For tea yesterday we did home made pizzas and let him top it (it's the only way to get cheese down him) . He ate the whole thing.

Basically we go for high calorie food. Lots of carbs, fat and protein. We just try to avoid refined sugar as much as possible.

How does he eat op? By this I mean does he get full quickly during a meal? Does he like a variety of foods or is his diet a bit restricted? My 2 year old eats more than your average days posting there, although he'd have fish over steak. I'd introduce lots of nut butters. You say he likes bready type breakfasts so 2 crumpets with lots of butter and a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes with full fat milk for breakfast with banana for a snack between breakfast and lunch. Would he manage to eat that?

We have issues with DS2s weight aswell, he's 6 and was 19kg but 123cm so very definitely underweight!

He is very active, always moving or making a noise, doesn't sleep that well which I think contributes.

He eats a fair amount, we have found cutting out all snacks really helps him eat a better meal (even I it means tea at 4.30pm!) and if he's hungry before bed a snack then instead.

I try to give him a lot of salmon - fish cakes are a big hit and so I make them a couple of times a week. Also lots of full fat yoghurt (he doesn't drink milk) and eggs.

He is also a fussy eater (previous tube feeder so some sensory issues) so it's a source of discussion a lot!

A typical day now -

Breakfast - poached egg on 2 pieces wholemeal toast.

Snack - fruit/veg

Lunch - wholemeal sandwich/wrap with marmite, breadsticks/rice cakes, smoothie, yoghurt and a flapjack or cake/biscuit

Dinner - salmon fishcakes, peas or beans. Yoghurt/fruit and a treat for pudding.

I am mindful of sugar but it's a balancing act between worrying about or getting a nice big calorie laden food into him!

He sees a paedeatrician for previous issues and is super healthy just a naturally thin person!

I just bunged him in the NHS calculator thingy using a date of 25-3-10 as his Birthday ie just turned 6.

If he puts on just 2lb he goes up to the 8th%
Get him to 3 stone 3 and he's 31st%

I was a big baffled because my just turned 7 yo is 3 1/2 stone at 125 and (I measure him once a year...not obsessed with his BMI!) and comes out totally fine so it seemed odd that a child only a couple of inches shorter and 1/2 stone lighter could be so, so underweight. There really isn't much leeway with children it seems.

Hidden calories are your friend. Will he eat stews, soup etc? If so I'd swap something with sauce for steak/sandwiches as you can pack a lot of calories into a sauce or stew.

With DS1 I make sure everything he eats is max calories and also easy to eat and digest - so he doesn't feel full too quickly or for too long. So bananas rather than apples, softer cereal bars, etc.

You have my sympathies. DS1 is a very similar character.

Try to get him to drink between meals as water fluids will potentially also fill him up. High calorie simple carbs are used up quickly and any excess will be converted into fat. Once he has more body fat, he can then burn the fat to create muscle. Up thread people said about complan and high fat dairy - this could be good but this contains dairy and asthmatics often don't tolerate dairy. Btw Society is overweight because our bodies can tolerate high fat or high carb but not the mixture of both together. Some combination high carb/fat foods like this have already been mentioned peanut butter, doughnuts, Mars bars, flapjack, shortbread. Or perhaps you could make you own high calorie food, think sausages, Chinese spare ribs and biscuits. My DD would be so jealous I'd she could read this. He is possibly nutrient deprived, what about giving him liquid floradix? This is iron and some essential vitamins. I know he can't live KFC, Big Macs and pizza and will also need vegetables (I would get these into him in favour of fruit) and some better carbohydrate/protein sources as well.

I also meant to say if you give him fruit, favour high carb and lower water content fruits like bananas, if not, cherries, mango. Sweetcorn and peas are high carb veg.

Sorry I'm only just coming back to this, but thankyou all so so much for taking the time to respond, there's some really brilliant advice here I really appreciate it

I can't scroll back once I've started typing so can't reply to posters individually so just going to do a general response to some questions and comments

DS is actually nearly 7, not just turned 6 so it'll take more than a couple of pounds to get him to healthy unfortunately

Lots of posters have suggested hidden calories which is what we try to do for the most part, but he's not a fan of 'wet' foods so it's difficult, although I do make him eat these occasionally anyway (with a bit of bribery)

He would eat flapjacks/milkshakes etc like lots of people suggested, thing is we also have a 5 year old who is a perfectly healthy normal weight so it would seem I was rewarding DS with goodies for not eating his meals, which wouldn't be fair on her

To the PP who asked how he is with food, he is totally uninterested in food
He sees it as an inconvenience and only ever eats when I tell him it's time to eat and everytime its met with "eurrghhh do I have to?" If left to his own devices he wouldn't eat all day, food just does nothing for him, he's not excited by it at all
He also eats painfully slowly and gets "full" (or bored) very quickly
Feeding him is quite the saga really

I've taken on board people suggesting 'easier' foods like softer fruits and cereal bars and it's actually working, he's eats more of them and eats them much quicker so thankyou (this one seems so obvious now )

Oh and he hates bananas

Think I covered everything there, thankyou all again, I'm open to anymore suggestions

I remember hearing that various sauces help to gain weight if he'll tolerate them. Like pasta with cheese sauce etc.

If he has a small appetite and gets bored quickly then you need to maximise the calories in the smallest of portions so full fat everything. Whilst he obviously needs a balanced diet, i'd be tempted to replace some of the healthy stuff with higher calorie things for a bit so he isn't filling up on things that aren't going to add weight. SO things like raisins and nuts instead of an apple. If he'll only eat half a slice, buy thicker cut bread so he doesn't think it's more. Butter instead of spread or mayo instead. Pastry is high in calories so better a piece of pie or quich instead of steak. Pasta rather than potatoes, full fat milk with meals. Apple pie and ice cream for desert.

The brioche and croissants for breakfast are ideal - spread with jam and butter as well if you can.

Rice pudding, custard and cake - basically everything your head tells you not to give hime. Steak is too lean a meat, better with pork ribs or streaky bacon, eggs are good too, makes scrambled with cream and butter.

Don't worry too much about 'healthy' foods, at his age anything that he'll eat that gives him energy is healthy so long as he gets a good range of foods. That includes full fat milk, snacks like sticks of cheese, bread and jam, milkshakes, brioche, milk chocolate etc. You could swop the cordial for fruit juice (one of his 5 a day plus more calories) Nothing wrong with white bread if he prefers it.
DD was also fairly bored by food for a long time, chocolate brioche rolls went in though.
If your dd is a healthy and active kid she'll come to no harm by having flapjacks and milkshakes, surely.