Should you "feed up" a skinny child?

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My dd1 is 4 - she is skinny and off the growth and height charts (off the bottom end )

She doesn't really EAT much. We all sit down for three meals a day and she is offered what we are all having but she doesn't like most foods and basically lives on bread and water.

Should I try to "feed her up" a bit? Or should I just leave her to decide what she wants to eat?

My 4yo ds is as thin as a rake too. I have been trying to feed him up a bit for some months now, but there's more meat on Lester Piggot's whip, as my uncle used to say.
I think it's because he's highly strung and always fidgeting.

If she doesn't like most food, how are you planning on feeding her up?

If she's healthy and happy and doesn't wail in the middle of the night about feeling hollow in her tummy, I'd say she's fine.

Don't make food an issue - just offer her what you're having and don't make a fuss if she doesn't want it.

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I feed my dd1 'up'

she is very slender and if she has had a few off days she is skeletal (tall and skinny) and does not like butter or milk. She eats tiny portions.

I give her peanut butter (the nice wholefoody sort) on toast a lot

and ice cream

and insist on her eating treacle sponge pudding after meals

well the main thing I was thinking was that she will drink hot chocolate so I could buy some whole milk (we just have skimmed long life shite)

She will also eat ice-cream so I have a tub of Haagen Daaz which I am giving her occasionally (although I seem to be fattening MYSELF up with that)

Other than that, she doesn't drink milk or take vitamins - she maybe eats one portion of fruit or veg a day (if you count baked beans )

My daughter (6) is skinny but I've grown to realise that thats just her build (in fact I was the same until late teens).

As a baby she was always way down on the centile charts and shes followed that same line since. The problem was HVs started me panicking about the fact she wasn't putting on enough weight as a baby and I carried on those worries until it dawned on me that she was going to a skinny minnie regardless.

She eats healthily (if a little slowly!) and is energetic and happy which is what matters

She is generally healthy but when she DOES get ill, she is ill for quite a while (and always seems to need antibiotics to shake anything off)

and I probably wouldn't mind so much if she was tall and skinny

but she is so short and skinny

her head looks too big

(although I do have a huge big fat roly-poly one-year-old which might be skewing my judgement)

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MP -your 2 sound like mine (skinny DD and chubby little brother). I always think that at least its that way round !

My 4y.o ds is a real skinny bag. His problem is he tells me he is starving so i cook him dinner then he won't eat it. So i try and feed him up. Luckily for the junk he eats he also has bucket loads of fruit per day and has twistie fish multivits.....

Goes days w/o proper food in his tummy.

ime you can't . They eat as little or as much as they will and there is little you can do to change it, dd is the same. She looks at least a year younger (less than 14kg and 104cm-ish at 5) and is among the youngest in her year anyway. If you are worried try adding butter or dairy to food to up the calorific value of what she does eat. dd has just started to ask for hot chocolate which we are encourging before bed as she doesn't otherwise drink milk.

Yes tis a bit worrying - specially when they are ill and LOSE weight and then look TERRIBLE

She won't drink cow's milk unless it is made into hot chocolate, which I am too lazy to do as a rule, but I will start doing this.

I might start giving ice-cream after meals a bit more often, although I hate doing that when she hasn't eaten any dinner. Grr.

FioFio - you mean choclate milkshake

She won't dirnk cold hot choc no - although when we were in Spain she DID drink some sort of "cold" hot chocolate that they have out there - it's really gloopy, I don't know what the feck is in it.

MP you can buy milkshake syrup or powder - I won't mention the brand that I buy or I will be vilified on MN, but it has addedd vitamins in it

hmm really?

I just use a spoonful of cadbury's cocoa and a pound of sugar

what is this product of which you speak?

OK just for you Nesquik.

( I have a super-skinny ds1 BTW )

i.ve been wondering about thus as well. my dd1 is 2.6 v tall and v skinny. she eats quite well but prefers the fruit veg stuff rather than the hi carbs.

been worrying since last weekend she needs age 2-3 for length Next clothes for example but they are way too big round the waist.

And she has just stretched and got thinner. put her in age 1.5 to 2 trews this morning as we rushed for the bus. A small voice announced in panicy tones "Mummy my bum is coming out." Poor wee thing was half out the back of her breeks.

Will be watching this thread with interest!

What about flapjacks? Scotch pancakes? Crumpets? I'm going to have this problem with my youngest...