7 year old severely underweight

[krj260888]

Hello Everyone

I'm looking for some advice/support.

My 7 year old has ASD and hypermobility. We saw the paediatrician last month for a check up, she has picked up he is severely underweight. They ran full blood test and also coeliac screening to check for any reason why, it came back with low iron.

I wanted to add an example of his daily diet, to see if I can add anything else in:

Breakfast:
Either 3 weetabix, honey and banana semi skimmed milk
3 Scrambled eggs on toast/crumpet with 3/4 mushrooms

Snack:
Piece of fruit
Or smoothie-with peanut butter, flaxseeds, almonds, fruit
Raisins

Lunch:
Ham sandwich 2slices of bread or a wrap or pasta
Crisps
Boiled egg Or Chicken
Yoghurt
Watermelon
Cucumber
Tomatoes
Mushrooms

Dinner:
Pasta or spaghetti/chips/rice
Salmon/chicken/sausages/burgers/mince/hotdogs
Salad or vegetables- carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, sweetcorn or peas

Dessert:
Icecream or cake or rice pudding

Sometimes a snack before bed-fruit or a biscuit.

I add spinach to any tomato sauces. I feel he eats a pretty wide variety considering he can be quite fussy with textures and food touching.

He eats quite large portions but doesn't seem to put on any weight at all.

I had very similar with my youngest son, he is also hypermobile. He had a lot of feeding problems as a baby and lost a lot of weight, we never managed to get his weight up even with a feeding tube!

Like yours he ate a relatively good range of food but stayed so so skinny. He’s now 12 and still slim but has hugely filled out the last 18 months and finally in a normal range BMI after always being underweight.

I used to add in any extra calories I could - cream in mash potato, avocado (hidden!), butter etc We also tried a powder called Duocal which you could add to food and drink to up the calories. He also had spatone iron supplements as it was on the low side.

He eats loads now, easily more than his 14 year old brother and more than his friends yet is probably one of the slimmest. I think he must have a very fast metabolism, I wish I had it too!!

Thank you for this! I'm hoping as he gets older he may put on some weight.

He has just been put on an iron supplement so hopefully this will help.

He has just had a whole avocado at dinner, it's one of his favourites.
He honestly eats more than me, definitely a fast metabolism!

Could you try g8ving him the high protein yohurts/smoothies, think you get rice puds as well. My teen son took them for a while as he was very underweight after surgery & being ill after. A few weeks helped him regain some weight

This sounds a good idea! I will add them to the shopping list

It sounds like rather than a fast metabolism (does this actually exist?) he isn't absorbing what he eats properly. Can you get a gastro referral?

I will suggest this. He was diagnosed with cows milk protein allergy age 1 due to constant stomach problems- diarrhoea to the point he blistered, he would go around 10 times a day and would need a bath and full change of clothes. He lost weight as a baby until this was diagnosed then followed a steady curve until recently. The Gp kept saying it was normal. It took the health visitor seeing it for a referral to a paediatrician to be made. We completed the milk ladder last year and he seems ok now.

My sons 9 & has dropped right off the centiles too, also had full bloods & came back as low iron. I'm using full fat milk for him again, blending yogurt or cream into his smoothies & milkshake, we make our own pitta pizzas & I'm putting a layer of cream cheese under the tomato sauce. It's all extra little calories. He is however fussier than your son- mine would rather starve than touch avocado & eggs 😂 slowly trying to add different & new food but those the first easy things I did with his meals

my six year old son was diagnosed with CmPA as a baby and still struggles with cows milk now. He can tolerate it in cooked food and small amounts in chocolate etc, but if he goes over a certain tolerance level, he starts to lose his appetite and gets constipated. He’s always been right at the bottom of the growth chart and I feel like I’ve read every book out there about childhood nutrition to try and fatten him up! From my research (cure your child with food is a great book) cmpa can cause inflammation in the gut and cause absorption issues, even without obvious symptoms. I think this still is the case with my son and might be with yours? Also, vitamin c helps with iron absorption so I always give mine an orange after his beef!

DS was severely underweight from birth to age 8. I used to make peanut butter and banana smoothies - you could make them with almond or oat milk if he's intolerant to dairy.

A good tip from the GP was to give him a late night snack as he will just be sleeping so can't burn it off so quickly. Not too rich, but crackers with butter and a glass of milk or non-dairy equivalent. I noticed this helped him gain weight.