High calorie foods to fatten up a 3 year old.

[ashamednamechanger]

Ds2 is 3 years old and is really small and thin. He hardly eats anything, just pecks at food like a bird.
I have given up trying to feed him family meals and have decided to try giving him lots of small snack type meals throughout the day to try to get some meat on him.
Does anyone have any ideas for foods I could try?
Obviously, they have to be healthy, but as he eats so little, it must be calorie dense. I can only think of fruit and yoghurts (all seem to be low fat now).

Use butter and olive oil when cooking - full fat milk in pasta sauces/milky drinks for him. Ice cream in smoothies. Carrot sticks or pitta bread fingers with full fat houmous. Making dips with full fat natural yoghurt. Fromage frais also quite calorie dense.

DS1 didnt eat much when young so I found doing meals that way helped ensure he ate enough calories - a good meal for him was pasta with salmon, broccoli and cheese sauce. Didnt need to eat much as was calorie dense.

Don't you need high fat in this situation? I'd definitely not give low fat yoghurts in this situation. You need things like flapjack, chicken skewers, humous (full fat), porridge, olives, etc.

You can get some full fat yoghurt, usually in big tubs.

How about things like eggs? Quite high in calories, lots of protein and can be cooked lots of different ways.

Does he have any time of day when he has more of an appetite? I know my children tend to be starving for breakfast (porridge made with whole milk and honey and sometimes toast as well) not much for lunch, but ravenous by about 3.30/4pm so they may have a sandwich, or breadsticks and hummus, or muffins etc and a cup of pink milk.

Both of mine will eat cheese like it is going out of fashion too, would your ds eat cheese? Very high in cals.

Hi would you like to pm me? My dd is 3 and has always had high cal diet.

I've found the cystic fibrosis recipes online are a lifesaver, they're so high in calories.

If you want then I can give you info over pm when I have more time.

Peanut butter is a good one, a pb and j sandwich is about 500 cals, lots of milk, cheese, eggs in a variety of ways.

Bread, pasta and rice are calorie dense as are raisins. Dried fruits are good for weight gain. You can eat a dried plum much quicker than a whole plum but they both have the same amount of calories.

Higher calorie vegetables include peas, corn, potatoes, yams and sweet potatoes. Also nuts.

A bit of research (I seem to recall) has been done to show that cooked foods are better for weight gain than raw.
Hope this helps.

Quite an interesting list here

Thanks for this great advice.
So will try to get in more fat, but there's a LOT of foods he won't eat: eggs, cheese, only meat he likes are sausages (full of crap, but high in fat so keep them).
Can't seem to find any full fat yoghurts, but do use fromage frais and we already use butter, cream and full fat milk.
He's just so picky.
VickityBoo, thanks, that would be a real help, as I have no idea how to plan these snack meals at all. For the rest of the family we just have 3 set meals a day with the odd snack in between, but DS2 will not follow this plan.

I make DD porridge with full cream milk and add a big spoon of double cream, giver her mini croissants as snacks, egg custard made with extra egg yolk, add spoons of cream cheese to pasta sauces, risottos

Cheese, avocadoes, eggs and full fat yoghurt/fromage frais all good, calorie dense, but nutritious?

We had to do this with DS after surgery and prolonged illness.

Cream in porridge/on cereal. Gold top milk is fattier than full fat (IYSWIM!). Peanut butter on anything. Peanut butter smoothies (yum...)
Puff pastry with every meal (DS does not eat potatoes)
Creamy pastas
Creamy risotto
Flapjacks.

(really...it is no bloody wonder I am 3 stone overweight!!)

Thanks mrspink27....love the recipe for the peanut butter cookie dough, can't see them sitting on a plate for long in this house!

Tuna/sardines in oil on toast.
Bagel with humous.
Pancakes make yourself but can keep the mixture in the fridge.
Soup tinned or whizz up leftover bolognaise with bit of water.

Actually, there does seem to be a lot of fatty creamy stuff. Is it healthy for him to eat such a lot of it? Or do I have to put a limit on it?
Blimey, I really am rubbish at this. Am so used to feeding the family on foods that WON'T make them put on weight, that I think I have a fear of fatty creamy foods

I think you have to think about a good wholesome diet with small regular meals and lots of high cal snacks and drinks (hot choc, milkshakes + smoothies etc) in between.

greek yogurt is full fat

children do need healthy fats and avoidance of it completely gives the term "middle class/ muesli mal-nutrition "

ie too much fibre and low fat food

cream and full fat milk seem to be only options as you said he will not eat cheese eggs and most meat, bananas are more calorie dense than other fruits so are avocados

salmon and tinned sardines would be good too

if he is very small for height he can not gain weight with extra fruit etc, as you need quite a lot 100 calories is a heaped spoon of cream but 1 and a half apples or bananas 3 satusmas

could you stir extra spoon of olive oil into his pasta

Plinka, dairy/meat etc are high in sat fat so try to get a good mix of 'good fats' in there too eg. Olive oil, nuts, avocados etc. would he eat guacamole? You can hide things like avocadoes quite easily in smoothies...

I have pm'd you, in addition the avocado chocolate brownies are flipping amazing! Just google and see which recipe you like. They are so easy and really tasty.

Thanks all, there's been so much great advice on this. I feel so much more confident in tackling this now

Hi there I read this old thread and found some really useful tips - am hoping that some of you still read this...! My son is three and has always been on the small side even though was bf and eats most foods. He's about to do full days at nursery where I'll need to do a packed lunch for him. I liked the peanut butter and jelly sandwich idea here, he already has a lot of cheese so looking for other ideas + snacks?

My son is on a high calorie diet and I have taken a photo of his suggested diet sheet from the dietician for you. Hope you can read it.

Have you spoken to a dr about his weight?

My DS was a picky eater and hardly ate at all - turned out he had obstructive sleep apnea and found it hard to physically swallow much food . Definitely worth speaking to the GP if you haven't and also looking up obstructive sleep apnea - low appetite and slow growth can be classic signs.

It's so stressful having a child who doesn't eat and isn't growing as you want. I don't have much to add to what's been suggested above - butter, cream, full fat milk power (Nestle Nido is good) added to foods can help. Avocado and banana are healthy ways to get good fats into him. Good luck!

Argh zombie thread!

Thanks flutterby77, that's really kind of you. We've previously seen a Dr when he was two and he said that his height and weight were fine (25th centile at that time) so nothing to worry about as such but to keep doing what we're doing, which was using cream/ cheese, high calorie snacks etc. Some of it comes from my paranoia as he wasn't on 'a line' for his first few months. I'm going to book him in to see the Dr again to review (am assuming it's the Dr and not Health Visitor).

What's a zombie thread?!

Maranello4 it's a very old thread (this one was started in 2012!)