Fatten up skinny toddler

[fermy]

Hi All.
Any advice on what I can give my skinny minny DS who's 2 and a half. He's lost weight after a tummy bug and sickness due to a reaction to antibiotics for a chest infection. He's on the mend now but is still off his food. And has definatly lost weight.
He's always been tall and lean and is on the go constantly. And I've never been worried about his weight until now.
I was wondering what to feed him that will build him up again. Don't want to go down the unhealthy route, so any ideas would be greatfully recieved.

If he's got loads of energy he's fine.just make sure h's got as much good healthy food as he wants. He'll be fine.

At his age, full fat (milk, cheese, yoghurt) is probably still appropriate (since he's only 6 months older than when you CAN switch down to 2%). Yogurts, custard with stewed fruit, etc. will probably be easier to eat if he's off his food, too.

Other than that, like seeker says, just make sure he has lots of good, healthy food available when he's hungry. Maybe have 3-4 snack times instead of the usual 2? Or put out a grazing tray for him to nibble from as and when?

My ds is 20 months old and we have issues with his weight, he only weighs 18lb which is less than he was at his 8 month health check. He isn't a big eater anyway but has had countless tummy bugs. He did go right down to 14lb a few weeks ago and I cried everytime I dressed him,

The GP told me to give him whatever food he wants and worry about healthy eating once he was back in the cycle of eating regularly. He did suggest those milky bar dessert yoghurt things as they are almost 200 calories per pot.

He is starting to eat again now which is a relief but will only eat yoghurts and finger food which means we don't get as many calories into him as I would like to.

My DS was (still is) very skinny, perfectly healthy otherwise but he was underweight as a baby/toddler, and I was told by the doctor to give him full-fat milk and lots of cheese (especially soft cheese, like laughing cow triangles or things like that) and add olive oil to his diet when he was younger. And add cream to rice pudding/porridge. That sort of thing.

I suspect Seeker is right - as long as he seems healthy I wouldn't worry too much - I don't know if it made any difference with my DS - he always ate loads and still does, and he is still as thin as a rake and underweight.

Make sure what you offer is quite calorie dense so he gets lots of calories from small portions - meat balls in tom sauce, omelette or scrambled eggs for breakfast, full fat yogurt for snacks, cheese sauce with broccoli and cauliflower on pasta, roast veggies rather than boiled sometimes. My DS is a skinny one though now he's 9 he has started to eat vast quantities.

Full fat milk?

DD is on a high calorie diet permenantly.

Easy fat to get in peanut butter, avocados (54g fat per pear), pasta and sauce with extra cheese and ciabatta with oil on it. Beans sausages and cheese for breakfast. Brioche. chocolate (I know you don't really want to go unhealthy but in the short term it wouldn't hurt).

Hopefully his appetite will increase naturally as he recovers. Small regular meals will probably be better than big ones to encourage him to eat. However if you're worried when I was upping DDs calories from fat diet I gave her avacados, lots of dairy and meat snacks, extra oil in cooking etc.

I couldn't use them, but Nuts are good too - you can get smooth nut butter's in lots of different types if you aren't allowing whole nuts yet.

Hope your DS is back to his old self soon.

Years ago I was advised to use minidex (think that's what it's called) think its multi vitamins and helps them to find their appetite might be worth asking a pharmacist

Minadex is wonderful stuff - we often use it after ds has been poorly or is run down.
Try not to worry, he'll soon put it back on again.

my dd was like this,down to 2nd centile in weight. HV suggested adding fat to everything,grated cheese,butter on top food,cream added etc.last year she put on 4lb,in 3 months of doing the above she had put on 3lb.