Fattening food ideas please - dd1 is skeletal

[Enid]

she eats rather too healthily - doesn't like dairy (esp butter), would live on nuts seeds and fruit if she could. Oh and sweets as she has a sweet tooth. She eats miniscule portions and hates mashed potato. She is 6, has just been ill, but seems OK now (tired and weepy though). Yesterday she ate: 3 spoonfuls of branflakes with no milk, 1 spoonful of porridge
1 quarter of a sandwich (peanut butter)
1 carrot stick
4 spoonfuls of couscous and chickpeas and one 1cm square piece of lamb

thats IT.

Her spine and ribs stick out and her legs are like sticks.

Any suggestions of good nourishing fattening food?

Peanut butter is pretty fattening.

Oh, I have a recipe for peanut butter cookies. Ok, it's got sugar + butter in it, but also egg, and peanut butter.

Bananas are reasonably fattening, for fruit. Avocadoes, too.

Their appetites go down after a tummy bug, she will presumably be back to normal soon ...

does she like potatoes that aren't mashed? my girls like roasted mini new pots, i do them in olive oil & herbs (but she may not like bits). fruit smoothies? with plenty added ice cream or is that too dairy? dd2 still likes avocado though dd1 went off them years ago (after being the Avocado Baby)

is all dairy yuk to her?

Just wondering whether milkshakes made with yummy icecream might appeal

roast pots very good idea she loves those
she doesnt like bananas or avocados
peaches, nectarines, plums, apples, berries - she would live on those. bloody fruit, I am starting not to want her to eat any of the bloody stuff

pizza? i find that dd1 much more enthused if i get to her to help in the preparation so put a base on table with assorted toppings and get the girls to creat their own mini pizzas (use muffins or crumpets if you have no bases kicking around)

How about smoothies?

Banana, full-fat milk, full-fat yogurt (Rachel's Greek is 10% fat), and peaches/nectarines/plums/berries. Any/all of those. Makes a great smoothie, with lots of nice stealthy calories in it.

avocado
anything (was going to suggest yogurt but see she is not keen) with those EFA oils mixed in - you can get a veggie one called Udo's oil which is pleasant tasting, mix it into rice and things as well.
In fact I would be adding spoonfulls of olive oil into all family meals, her couscous etc.
Nuts and seeds good, quite a lot of calories. Make smoothies, will she eat soya milk if she doesn't like dairy? Cows milk does taste gross IMO, soya can be very nice if you find a brand she likes. Add peanut butter, etc to smoothies made with milk / fruit juice.
Coconut has a lot of saturated fat and is good in curries, stews, breakfast cereals, baking.
Fatty bready foods like croissants, naan, etc?

Sorry I see I have duplicated lots of ideas - slow typing today!

have you tried little and often?

instead of 3 meals a day try 5 or 6 snacks you might get more calories in that way.

choccy raisins
smoothies

or leaving a plate of nibbly foods out as she can just grazed when she wants

If you juiced those fruits, could she tell if you slipped a banana/avocado in it ?

Dumplings?

A mountain of homemade muffins?

Sweet potato made into chips? Or mashed sweet potato? Much yummier than ordinary mash.

It's scary when they've been ill isn't it? My ds is skinny and if he misses eating properly for a couple of days his bones stick out.

Really hard too if she doesn't like dairy - I usually go for the full-on cheese sauces and puddings with custard or rice pudding to fatten up ds after he's been ill, plus snacks of toast and honey and hot chocolate.

What about a supplement of some kind? Floradix?

Could you do her a fruit crumble using the fruits she likes? Make the crumble with butter, not a less fattening spread.

Put butter on veggies?

Ah Enid I sympathise. My DS1 (9) is the same. He only weighs 2 1/2 stone and looks like he has just walked out of a concentration camp! He looks awful. Always been the same. Has had a dairy intolerance which hasnt helped but he is the same as your DD. Has not got a big appetite and will eat fruit til it comes out of his ears! So am watching this thread with interest. I do feel for you.

Oh, I made latkes with a range of root veg the other day. Very tasty, very high cal.

I would try homemade chunky chips with every meal if she likes them? They're basically roast potatoes I guess.

From personal experience (!) I know that ice cream is fattening or is it too milky for her? The luxury ones like ben and jerry's are particularly fattening (so i'm told....)

Does she like soup and bread? good lots of chunky bread may be good. Also does she eat burgers? You can do a good quality burger in a bun and maybe hide a bit of cheese and mayo in some tomato sauce? How about spaghetti bolgnese with lots of cheese in the sauce, cunningly hidden!

I like good old stodgy puds for my son when he's a bit skinny - treacle pud, rice pudding, spotted dick.

I think often it's a case of texture being the deciding factor over whether children like things

ooh, someone suggested curry - very good idea if she will eat them, a nice mild korma made with cream - if she would go near it...and naan breads and pappadums all quite calorific....

Had exactly the same shock realisation about my own dd a couple of Christmases ago Enid, and was horrified at how thin she had become her shoulder-blades stuck out like wings and her bottom was hardly there at all. Same problem she really is a naturally healthy eater (unlike her 2 sisters). Hot chocolate at breakfast and bedtime went down quite well, and that thick chocolate ganache-type thing that you make by melting plain chocolate into double cream (equal quantities of each), and then dipping fruit or biscuits into it. FWIW the problem did seem to resolve itself relatively quickly, and as she was about the same age I wonder if it is just a case of having a sudden growth spurt and needing more calories to compensate, especially if she has been ill.

I was exactly like this as a child... loved salads and fruit, not bothered about sweets either. Looked like a starving waif, huge knobbly knees on my stick legs etc. Still, I have always been the healthiest member of my family, and am now very glad to have a slim build as an adult (although I did develop a sweet tooth during puberty!)...

My mum's solution was to force feed me (just before bedtime) a mug of that meal-in-a-mug stuff that they give to the elderley... can't remember the name... Complan! That's it. It's got lots of calories, but not so much of the 'bad' fat that's in cream/ice cream etc.

Oh, Enid, not again I was hoping this wasn't your dd1 still dodging the calories.
Will she eat ice-cream?
Does she eat Vogels'-style nutty bread if she likes seeds etc? That is quite calorific (alas )
Good sausages? Goose fat roasties?
Pasta with plenty of pesto on?
Lamb korma with coconut and cream?
Pizza margherita
Ds who was in the same boat if you recall, seems to have hit the food intake surge that someone told me arrives around seven-ish - when they suddenly want to eat more and clear their plate with more enthusiasm. Hopefully your dd1 will get to this stage soon. I watched my little sparrow scoff a whole American at Pizza Express the other day, something he just would not have done last year.

Thanks everyone lots of brill suggestions here.

smoothies not good as she would never countenance a milk shake.

Ice cream! I keep forgetting that. I wish someone would advertise how fattening their particular brand is

Marina, she did get a LOT better after my last postings but she has slipped back (mainly cos of illness but dh and i had noticed before that she was getting picky and thin again).

I hate it the most frustrating thing is when she specifically asks for something and then just doesnt eat it or eats four mouthfuls then tucks into the fruit and nuts.

(oh no Marina, Vogel's isn't fattening is it? Fat bread? Appalling news)

i do the leaving a plate out of nibbles as katzg suggests, find in our house it does work with dd, if she's had sandwiches etc for lunch but not finished them, i leave the plate in the sitting room with a few other things on it and pretty soon its all gone