High Calorie foods suitable for 7 month old.

[MrCalavera]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone knows of any safe, high calorie foods we can feed our 7 month old daughter to help her gain weight.
To give you a bit of background on my daughter...
Freya was born 2 months premature weighing only 1.9lbs. To top that off we were told early on that she has cystic fibrosis.
We've recently been told by Freya's nutritionalist that she is underweight for her age and as a result she has had to have a tube put through her nose into her stomach to force feed her.
We've been told that the quicker she puts on weight, the shorter she'll need the tube in for.
She's never been too fond of milk and she's even less fond of the similac she was prescribed but shes quite happy to eat baby foods, especially things like chocolate pudding and strawberry cheesecake.

We've been told that rolo and milkybar yoghurts are good. As are avocado mixed with double cream. Does anyone have any other foods we can try?

Any advice will be very well received. I hate seeing Freya in pain and every time she needs to have the tube refitted her shrieks break my heart.

Thank you in advance.

I don't have experience of this but I think the general advice is to load the food up with butter and cream, so if you're pureeing carrots etc add butter and thin out with double cream, same with mash. You could also try smoothies made with ice cream and full fat milk, scrambled eggs again with butter and cream. Basically anything you'd steer clear of yourself!

It sounds really stressful, hopefully she'll put a bit of weight on soon. Good luck!

Nut butters are a good concentrated source of calories, make sure you get ones with no added salt.

The best high-cal foods are the ones rich in natural fat. So oils, butter, avocado, full-fat dairy, oily fish (salmon, mackerel etc). Nuts are good but not for a baby obviously. Add knobs of butter or extra olive oil to everything. Next up you've got intensely sweet foods... banana, raisins, good quality chocolate (or chocolate pudding), honey. Stewed apple fortified with honey and butter is a good one for example. Then there are the carbohydrates... grains, starchy veg, pulses... avoid anything that is too high in fibre as she won't be able to eat enough if the food is too filling. So ease off on vegetables, for example. High-cal drinks are another way of getting extra energy into someone. Have you been recommended any?

The other tip is 'little and often'. A small amount of a high-cal food every hour is more effective for weight-gain than a large amount three times a day. Best of luck

No honey before one though :)

She can have smooth nut butters, not the crunchy ones obviously. Lots of good suggestions on here already. I've also heard of people using mascarpone in things like pasta sauce and mashed potato. Is she too young for fudge?

Has the dietician been able to offer ant suggestions? Hope this gets resolved for you soon, it sounds so distressing.

Thanks for all of your advice so far. We'll add a lot of this to the shopping list for tonight.

It was the nutitionalist who recommended the rolo and milkybar yoghurts, the double cream and the avocado. Unfortunately she said the only surefire way to do it is the tube. But anything we can do to help will minimise the time she needs the tube for.
Salt shouldn't be an issue, she expels salt much faster than a normal person because of the CF and as a result we have to give her salt solution. Salty foods shouldn't be too much of a problem for her.

If she's not keen on milk will she drink it with a banana, some ice cream and maybe a little golden syrup mixed it. DH ordered this in a cafe when dd was about 9 months, dd had a taste then downed the lot!

That sounds delicious. I think she'd like that. Thanks!

olives can be a good fatty snack as well, if they like the taste. plus the salt in them wouldn't be an issue.
we were recommended bagels smothered in cream cheese as a finger food, as they are quite high in calories.
we did all that was suggested above, and made scrambled eggs with double cream, butter and cheese mixed in for breakfast alot.
another thing we did on occasion was melting dark chocolate and mixing it with warm milk for a drink.

Ooh, cheese is also very calorie dense - and you are bound to find at least one type she likes...

Sorry she's struggling with her weight. Is she pancreatic sufficient or insufficient? Do you have access to a CF specialist dietitian? They will be best placed to give you expert advice specifically tailored to Freya's needs. Good luck

DS2 was v underweight too.
He had avocado mashed with banana and full fat greek yoghurt, humous with full fat greek yoghurt stirred in, baby puddings with a tiny splash of cream added.
Could also try mashed potato with butter and full fat milk and finely grated cheese stirred in so it melts.
For finger food he had wholemeal bread spread with philadelphia on both slices, and jam in the middle. Once he was older, we added nut butter to the mix.
Also, very rich cake is good. Make cake with 150g each of flour, sugar and real butter, add three large eggs and some vanilla essence. Give this instead of bread, as a finger food.

We've come across the little Ambrosia snack pots of flavoured rice puddings/custards. Nice and high calorie and extremely sweet too.