Tips on secreting nutritious energy dense foods for fussy eaters

[KnockedUpMell]

DS (14m) used to eat like a horse and would try anything, but in the last few weeks he's changed completely and is simply pecking at his food, and refuses to try something new. At the moment, he will eat yogurt, raisins, fruit purée, breadsticks, breakfast cereal and plain boiled rice. I am continuing to offer a variety of foods, but in the meantime I've been trying to come up with ways to ensure he is getting the calories he needs while waiting for him to outgrow this phase.

1. Adding blitzed dry roasted nut and seed mix to his yogurt and breakfast cereal.

2.Adding an extra scoop of almond milk powder to his almond milk drink to bulk it up. (he is also dairy intolerant)

1. I haven't tried this yet, but am going to try making him fruit smoothies and adding egg powder to it (he won't touch egg otherwise). It's pasteurised, so it's safe to eat, even if uncooked.

1. On a similar line to number 1, I am also going to try adding blitzed dry roasted bean mix to his food.

I couldnt really think of many other energy dense nutritious foods that we could secret into his diet! Anyone else have any suggestions??

Try and relax. It's normal for them to go through phases of eating less. I remember ds doing it and getting a bit twitchy about it. I was told to chart it over a week or so.

I also had success in getting ds to eat off my plate - we'd eat together and he'd steal food from me.

Quinoa's a good source of protein. Maybe you could sneak some into his fruit purée?

Fruit smoothie blitzed with tofu?

I actually probably wouldn't go down the road of sneaking extra calories in, because I think that children know quite well what they need and don't need, especially at that age, and if he's eating less it probably means that he needs less calories as his growth is slowing down.

Instead of sneaking it in, I would try offering high calorie foods like avocado etc. I do agree with your Number 1 and 4 actually, and another thing my DS loves is "nut butter" - it's just almonds, cashews and brazil nuts all creamed together, no sugar. My DS often finishes a meal with a couple of spoons and used to eat it spread on a cracker.

My DS is a little older now, but I seem to remember lots of us went through a phase where eating dropped off dramatically around 12ish months but it does pick up again, to a new "normal".

With my DS now (at 20 months) I don't give him snacks at all, he has breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea (which I suppose you could call a snack) after his nap and dinner and he eats fairly well at all of these, but I would say in a day he really only eats 2 good meals but yet he sits there on the 50th centile which he has not budged from since the week he was born, even through periods where he has seemed to live on air.

I agree with the others - he may just be going through a phase of needing less to eat and by artifically bumping up the calories in what he's eating you may be skewing things the wrong way. I know it's hard when they suddenly start refusing food, but try to relax. He's eating dairy, protein, carbohydrate and fruit so he's not doing badly (DS went through a phase of living on bread dipped in milk) - if you can get some veg puree in there (try carrot) then he'll be eating a completely balanced diet. You've really got nothing to worry about.

is he old enough to be eating pasta? homemade pasta sauce is ideal for hidden veg - you can blitz carrot, onion, courgette, red pepper, garlic and add it to tinned tomatoes and simmer, just add some cheese near the end of cooking for a perfectly balanced meal :) or if they like cheesey sauces you can add diced or blitzed mushrooms, onion and even (skinned/peeled) butterbeans. Do they like cauliflower or broccoli cheese? that can always be mashed up nicely. Does he like mash? mine does, so I will do mashed potato/sweet potato and carrot or mash potato/swede/carrot/butternut squash, with butter and cheese, they won't even know how much goodness you're cramming in. mine would eat those mashes on their own at 14m, now he will have fishfingers with it at 2 and a half. Baked beans are even one of your 5-a-day apparently, when mine wouldnt eat anything he would have a little bowl of those with a piece of toast, better than nothing... it seems like they're living on air when they have this stage of refusing food, learning independence, but they don't starve themselves, so being sneaky with a few bits of food that they will eat is a good idea :) best of luck

PS fruit smoothies with milk are a great idea, it was something mine would have when he wasnt eating hardly at all and he still loves his 'milkshake' now, I use asda's strawberry and banana, no sugar/additives, just fruit, and add milk :)

My dd can't have dairy either so I often have the same problem. The oatly cream (on shelf with other replacement milks in supermarkets) is great. 150cals per 100ml which is about 5 times greater than all the other milks. I make porridge with it, add to a sauce to make it creamy, add a bit to purée, can do custard with it too.

You mentioned yoghurt-he's ok with this or is that a soya one or something? If he can have any type of yoghurts I'd say you'll be fine to be honest.
My daughter is has breastmilk, the very occasional cup of coconut milk and 3 meals a day (but teething badly so been off her food a lot recently) docs and dietician not worried so I'm not either.
As your son is older you have more options for milk replacements and if he can have soy products, tofu etc you're lucky