How to put weight on underweight dd 11

[Eolian]

Any advice? Dd is always pretty skinny with a small appetite and a bit of a fussy eater, but she's had flu, followed by a chest infection and is now run down and worryingly skinny. I don't normally trust much in BMI but I checked hers and the NHS calculator put her on the 0 percentile.

The NHS website isn't that helpful on how to get underweight kids to put on weight. Any good tips which don't involve attempting to stuff her with really unhealthy stuff? Is it best to have lots of snacks, on the basis that she can't seem to manage to eat much in one sitting?

I'm not normally stressy about the dc's eating habits, but I'm actually a bit worried about her.

You could get some of the nutritional milkshake buildup drinks. They sell them in chemists. I was given them in hospital when v thin and ill after surgery.

Hope your dd feels better soon.

Thanks everyone. I agree, ethelb. Dd is a picky eater with a small appetite anyway, so I don't think feeding her up for a little while is likely to do anything much to her long-term prospects of not getting fat. I did think about those nutritional milkshakes - don't know if they are recommended for children.

I would try the full fat ice cream, banana, peanut butter shake first over the artificial ones.

We actually tried both with my dad and he managed a lot better with the natural ingredient ones.

It sounds like you just need to get her to eat so I would let her eat whatever she wants.

If you want her to have hot food rather than just snacks, how about soups, pasta, risotto type dishes - ie something that she only needs a spoon or fork to eat? I know from my own experience that when you have no energy trying to coordinate a knife and fork at the same type can be exhausting!

Otherwise milkshakes, full fat yoghurt, anything that slips down easy

She had an afternoon milkshake with a big spoonful of peanut butter in, and is about to have chicken, chips and veg for dinner. Let's hope she manages a reasonable amount of it!

Brilliant! Good start. I was remembering horlicks... Full fat milk, malt powder. Mmm.

One other idea, can you get her into the fresh air? Beach for preference. She doesn't have to do anything, but I do think it helps promote good sleep & appetite.
Maybe even fish & chips on the front, well wrapped up.
Total woo I know, but I'm sure it's helped me when very run down.

Fresh air is not woo at all, very good idea.

Also I used to swear by minadex after my dc were ill when younger- it's a vile tasting iron tonic and can make you constipated, but every day for a week really really works.

I've dragged her out in the fresh air a few times. We live 10 mins walk from the sea (well, the estuary) so she gets a lot of coastal air. I've now got her taking vitamins and probiotics (to help counteract the side effects of the antibiotics). She's maybe looking a tiny bit better today but she's really miserable. She's got so used to lying in bed and feeling rubbish that I think it's psychologically made her lose all desire to do anything, quite aside from the actual physical symptoms.

On the upside, FIL is here to measure up for a high sleeper bed he's going to make for her, so maybe that will cheer her up a bit.

Oh bless her. Hope she picks up soon.

I think she's turned a bit of a corner- a bit perkier last night. She'll take a good while to get back to normal though. Thanks again for your suggestions and sympathy everyone.

How about "food for the sick", simple things like broth with a bit of chicken. Or make a real chicken soup with smallbits of veg and a few noodles (google Jewish penicillin )

Plain chicken and rice

Cream crackers with a bit of butter

A bit of mashed potato

Some scrambled egg

These things are easy to eat even if poorly

Chicken or vegetable soup can even be drunk from a cup and imo is very restorative

The calorie bombs can come later, when she's better

(My son has always been borderline underweight and used to get worryingly thin when sick, so these are all tried and tested!)

I too have a DS who was the same BMI centile as your DD after a bout of swine 'flu. I got his weight back up slightly (he'll never be anything other than thin!) by cooking higher fat versions of usual food. Extra butter in jacket and mashed potatoes, stealth oil in pasta sauce, extra cheese on food such as pizza and cottage pie. It got his weight back to an acceptable level.

As an aside, it was frustrating to have an underweight child in a system that assumes that the only issue is childhood obesity. There was a time when I was not "allowed" by the primary school to include any high fat food in DS's lunchbox. However, had I left him at that school for another year, he would have been weighed as part of a health monitoring programme, and I would apparently have had a letter to inform me that he was underweight.