Fattening her up

[Berry]

Hello All
My daughter is 10 and has always been tall for her age. She's got a good appetite and eats most things without too much complaint. We knew that she was thin but when we saw her next to her friends at a dance performance last week we were quite alarmed. We have taken pains not to make this into an 'issue' but i'd like to be able to help her put weight on, in a way that is healthy. i keep buying her doughnuts but my husband gets to them first!
Any suggestions? Thanks very much for your ideas.

I have a child too who is v thin, and dietician suggested adding fat, more than carbs to his diet, as fat has the most calories per gram of any food, so even if they don't eat much of it, they are getting more for the mouthful, if you see what I mean. So, in came pastry, double cream in porridge, butter in all cooking, oil in pasta, etc etc. Don't know how this works for those worried about dairy intake or allergies, but it is working for us. Could you get referred yourself?

Another couple of things high in calories to use are marscapone cheese (can be used for sweet or savory dishes) and greek yoghurt (the full fat variety). Also avocados are good too. My ds (only 2, so much younger) is also on a high calorie milk (more than double the calories of full fat milk) which is prescribed through the dietician. He's regaining weight really well that he lost when seriously ill last year.

If you're worried, see if you can get referred to a dietician for assessment & advice, or there may be investigations to see if there is an underlying cause such as overactive thyroid.

if she eats and seems healthy then I wouldn't worry about it - some people are just naturally thin, she sounds like one of them!

Look at labels to avoid artificial sweeteners too eg hijuice squash rather than normal which has both sweeteners and sugar.