Underweight toddler. High calorie foods please?

[sneezecakesmum]

Will also post on child health.

DGS has Cerebral palsy, not too badly affected and not the issue. He has always struggled with his weight, just not a foodie unfortunately and 4.5 lbs at birth. He was going along OK and slowly gaining weight, but after a recent cold with lots of vomiting has lost weight for the first time.

He weighs 10 kg (22 lbs) is age 2.10 and on the 50th centile for height (normal height) his BMI is now 11.3

We have all the supplements under the sun and add butter, cream cheese etc to food. The dietician said loads of high fat calories. We have discovered mascapone (fabulously calorie laden!) but wonder if anyone else has any suggestions for REALLY high calorie food, so we can feed him up again.

PS CP really not the issue here, and we are going to get him checked for tongue tie but in the meantime PLEASE list the highest calorie foods possible to get his weight back up.

Olive oil, butter, full fat milk, cream, cheese, yoghurt. I think that's all I can come up with. Didn't the dietician give you any ideas? Just making the suggestion 'loads of high fat calories' is a bit duff IMO.

I don't know if this will help, but I read somewhere that you can add olive oil to peanut butter to make it more smooth and less likely to stick on the roof of your mouth. If your DS likes peanut butter, that could be a good snack added generously to toast. It could always be sweetened a little with jam as well (although you may not like this due to the sugar).

You could also add full fat yoghurt to milk to make 'smoothies'.

Bagels are quite high in calories - do you think your son might eat these with full fat cream cheese on them?

Egg yolks can be added to sauces; you might need to google for recipes. I agree that the dietician should have made some suggestions. Can you contact him/her to ask for ideas?

Olive oil added to peanut butter! Yes good one, as its really sticky stuff and he's not good on textures. I do a batch cook for him so could make a sauce with egg yolks with cream and cheese (pasta type affair) All good ideas from MNet as usual!

Dietician has given procal powder to add to foods, high cal milk shake stuff which he can have 150 mls a day between meals, some insipid chocolate pudding things we mix with pure cocoa powder, cream and porridge to make it chocolaty, but also said to add high calorie stuff like butter, cream etc which we already do, so basically looking at mega calorie rich foods!

On a good note the mascopone tub is 2/3rds empty after 2 days - a thousand calories a tub!

All a bit laughable when all the talk is of obese children!

How about making guacamole type dips with avocado and cream cheese. or Tahini?

I think dried fruits, like banana chips are pretty high in terms of calories by weight.

Fruit is high in calories, fruit juice even more so. Could you make smoothies that include banana and maybe throw in some yoghurt as an earlier poster suggested? Pear and avocado is very yummy in a smoothie! :) You could also hide some nuts in there eg. Almonds and he could drink them through a silly straw if that helps! (worked with DS2)

Thanks bubbly but the little monkey wont drink juice or smoothies - little monkey only drinks water - can u believe it He even likes a cup of tea (with cream sneaked in!) He does like those muller little star things (yoghurty?) I will try a bit of ground almond to see if we can get away with it! Already put it that fab mascarpone !

Avocado and cream cheese (or marscopone!!!) like this idea as the avocado also has vits I think.

Hope all his flaming arteries wont fur up

what about swapping all milk for gold top? My DD is tiny and a fusspot. she often eats peanut butter straight out of the jar. I have in the past mixed double cream into her milk when the shop was out of gold top. If you can make cheese sauce with gold top milk plus egg yolk plus cheese you could be onto a winner.

They give a peanut butter type thing when they are treating children for starvation.

Why not weigh in with the puddings? Then you have a host of extraordinarily calorie laden foods at your disposal - which are likely to be eaten - and as it's not the "main food" healthier options can be substituted once his weight is up, or the frequency can drop off.

So have eg breaded fish or chicken (that is v calorific) and creamy, cheesy mash, follow up with some kind of sponge pudding with custard or anything along those lines and you're onto a winner? You could even make it eg apple pie + custard or sponge with raisins in + chocolate sauce and you're getting some fruit in as well. Bingo!

In fact anything with pastry is going to be good - so that could be savoury or main.

How about a pie (chicken and leek or something like that?) with a creamy cheesy sauce and a good thick pastry crust? You could even fully line it.

savoury or pudding I mean

B elow are some suggestions. Also most Nigella recipes are high calorie. Try www.nigella.com. Toad in the Hole made with jersey milk and 2 eggs. Plenty of lard (honestly go for it) in the roasting tin before you add the batter. Scotch Pancakes with marscapone and jam on top. Griddle Scones griddled with lard or butter. Peanut butter and banana fried sandwich. Mozzarella in carozza (slices of mozzarella sandwiched between 2 milk dunked slices of white bread, edges squeezed together dip in flour then egg and fry). Dark meat from poultry, particularly duck and goose. Sweet potato and potato roasted together then cheese on top. Stew and dumplings. Beef Cobbler, Risotto with loads of parmesan and butter. Rice Pudding. Anything with coconut milk (v.high calories). Homemade ice cream made with just double cream (google non stirring ice cream). Meatballs and fresh egg pasta in a tomaotey sauce with cream. Involtini. Thats just some starters for 10...

Sorry for the lack of hard returns- keyboard playing up.

I will print pages out as there are so many ideas. Love especially the idea of creamy cheese sauces as I am sure his very samey meals can be boring. bless! He does love his yorkie puds so will go for that. Never thought of fatty duck and goose. v good idea and of course Nigella -- say no more!

We give petit filous etc between meals so gets plenty of sweet stuff, and try to feed him 2 hourly (laced with cream!). Cant wait to make cheesy straws!

Actually over the past few days he has been scoffing like mad, all laced with cream, cheese, marscoponi etc. Think his little bod must be saying 'feed me'! after his recent spell of poorliness and vomiting, such a relief and he hasn't puked once. Another week or two and we will get him weighed again, and this time not get complacent.

Thanks all.

Mascapone cheese mixed with banana....
Cheese biscuits
Cream cheese and grated cheese sandwiches

He had 2 whacking teaspoons of mascapone in his dinner today. Will try tomorrow with mascapone and banana - not been much of a banana fan really but will maybe add chocolate? Sounds good to me too!

He sounds like a game lad - trying to keep up with all the bizarre concoctions.

I hope you pop back after the next weigh-in and let us know how he is getting on.

Piprabbit - I will pop back as he is looking less skinny by the day (rose tinted glasses?) But today in Sainsbury was scoffing bacon, leek and potato soup with bread and butter pieces, and half a choc cup cake - with enthusiasm! Fingers x for the next weigh in