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What's the best way to get more calories into a toddler?

28 replies

Nuttyaboutnutella · 26/04/2019 15:12

Over the last few weeks, my little boy hasn't been fussed about his bedtime milk and has recently stopped having it all together.

He's a very active little boy so the drop in calories has meant he's lost a little weight. Nothing drastic but some of his trousers are now falling down.

Sounds daft but what's the best way to get more calories into him?

He has milk on cereal but won't touch milk as a drink now (even with Nesquik or as a smoothie), he already eats a lot of cheese and yoghurt. We eat dinner at 6pm as a family so it's too late for him to then have porridge or something for supper.

Basically an example of his day is:
B - 1 Oatibix with milk and fruit, plus a slice toast with peanut butter.
L - cheese sandwich (one piece of bread) with fruit, and either a handful of crisps or a small piece of chocolate (he's also offered cucumber/tomato but never eats it)
D: whatever we are having followed by fruit and a big bowl of yoghurt (plain with fruit puree or a drizzle of honey)

He sometimes has snacks which are toddler fruit/oat bars (Organix etc), homemade flapjack, etc. Everything is full fat.

Should I increase his portions? So 2 Oatibix, bigger sandwich? Should add, we're very slowly coming out of a fussy stage but still not great (wouldn't touch his enchiladas last night) so he's not necessarily eating 3 full meals a day either. I'd rather not fill him up on chocolate/cake just to get the extra calories in him.

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DeadDoorpost · 26/04/2019 15:19

I'm really lucky that my DS seems to eat everything but mashed potatoes. He'll have 3 fromage frais for breakfast, plus cereal if hes hanging around his uncle's or dad, and then the same for lunch unless he decided he wants my sandwich. Then he'll eat whatever we're having for dinner. Snacks vary from crisps to fruit (a lot of it) to A little bit of chocolate if hes been good all day. But cheese, fruit crisps, plain biscuits or Apple biscuits are the main ones.

Could you cook some pasta? DS loves it and will eat loads but he also lost weight once he started moving around. He's currently trying to run (17mo) and went from being a pretty chunky boy to slim. Or have some chicken pieces available. Anything easy to cook/nibble seems to work well.

DeadDoorpost · 26/04/2019 15:20

Upping portion sizes could work. We had 2 fromage frais to begin with. He'll easily eat the 3 maybe more now.

bonzo77 · 26/04/2019 15:27

A friend of mine had a very underweight child. She found that adding grated cheese, cream or cream cheese to most meals made a difference. She stirred cream cheese or cream into pasta sauce, spread cream cheese onto sandwiches as well as other fillings and put grated cheese onto a lot of other things. You could use single cream instead of milk on cereal.

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Nuttyaboutnutella · 26/04/2019 15:28

Thanks for the reply. I know it sounds weird but my only reluctance to increasing portion sizes is it would mean 2 Oatibix plus toast for breakfast, an adult size sandwich for lunch plus the rest, etc. He'd be eating more than me and I'm pregnant :)

He won't touch meat or vegetables unless they're hidden in a sauce. He'll occasionally have fish fingers.

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dancemom · 26/04/2019 15:30

Is he actually underweight or just skinnier than he was?

His portion sizes sound more than adequate for a toddler

Maybe you just need elastic waistbands rather than increase his weight?

ourkidmolly · 26/04/2019 15:31

You need to add a good fat source to every meal. So coconut oil, avocado oil or olive oil. Butter too. You've got to up the calories of existing portions. Is he eating enough? Does he have control over portion size.

ourkidmolly · 26/04/2019 15:32

But yes, is he actually underweight? Check his growth chart.

BrieAndChilli · 26/04/2019 15:34

Put butter on all veg etc. Real butter not plastic spread
Do you put butter in the sandwhich?

WeepingWillowWeepingWino · 26/04/2019 15:36

full fat greek yoghurt

proper meal for lunch, not just a sandwich.

But I agree that if he's not underweight I wouldn't worry about it.

TeethingBabyHelp · 26/04/2019 15:41

I think Lunch seems small but rest seems fine. By DS is nearly one and he has a full sandwich at lunch (with crusts cut off) and he's a slim thing but very active.

Add cheese to everything, calcium. Does he enjoy yoghurt? My DS has big portion of natural yogurt after dinner with some raspberries stirred in and he really loves that if any good

heffalelephant · 26/04/2019 15:49

I'd increase all of the 3 meal portions (I know what you mean but my toddler, now 2.5, has eaten more than me most days for a long long time!) and add things like ground Linseed mix to cereal or yoghurt, also chia seeds (I used one with ground dried blueberries in it which was mixed in with breakfast or yoghurt and so on). Avocados are good too - maybe on Ryevita or toast, or with eggs...whatever he likes really, but it's good to add in somewhere, I think.

NorthEndGal · 26/04/2019 15:50

Add a boiled egg?

MidnightCereal · 26/04/2019 15:54

DeadDoorpost 3 fromage frais for breakfast? Why? And you’ve upped this from 2? Why not just give him a real breakfast instead of more and more yoghurts?

IToldYouIWasFreaky · 26/04/2019 15:56

What age is he? Surely a little slimming down once they are moving around and having less milk is a normal part of growth? I know my DS drastically changed shape around a year old once he started walking and dropping milk feeds.

Have you spoken to your health visitor about where he is on his growth chart and if he needs to gain weight?

Nuttyaboutnutella · 26/04/2019 16:19

Just to cover a few points:
He's not underweight, but he's always been 'solid' even from the day he was born. He's quite tall for his age and has a similar build to his dad. He does lean out during growth spurts but a few family members have commented on his weight loss in the last couple of weeks. He was last weighed measured about a month or so ago. He's always wavered around 75th/90th for height and 50th/75th depending on growth spurts etc. But this little weight loss has been more noticeable (trousers falling down, having to do his cloth nappies up a bit tighter, etc). I'm not massively worried as he's generally okay in himself, except for being a bit sniffly recently.

He recently turned 2. Always been active since being mobile.

If I increase his sandwich size, he'll be eating 3 slices of bread a day, seems a lot? We make our own 50/50 but just seems loads.

He already eats full fat Greek or natural yoghurt for dessert every evening (and quite a big portion!

He won't touch eggs or avocado.

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Nuttyaboutnutella · 26/04/2019 16:22

Oh and he has a huge appetite but would fill up on crisps, biscuits, cake, chocolate given half a chance. Don't mind in moderation, but prefer other ways to increase his intake without junk :)

Forgot to add, we already use real butter, proper olive oil, full fat milk/cheese/yoghurt, etc. Only processed stuff he really has is toddler snacks, fish fingers, etc.

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Sleephead1 · 26/04/2019 16:58

Will he eat mash? mix with butter / cream cheese. Shepard pie with cheese on top, cheese sauces for fish pie , pasta ECT. How is he with eggs ? scrambled eggs and omelette can have cheese In. Nut butters are good my son won't eat them on toast ECT but will mixed in flapjack and he will eat peanut butter in stir fry. He also claims not to like nuts but I sometimes get these nut bars with a little dark chocolate and he loves those. I think if he won't drink milk you can up calcium in form of full fat Greek yoghurt ECT so maybe give larger portions of these.

Sleephead1 · 26/04/2019 17:03

forgot homeade pancakes with oats , banana , ground almond , fruit ECT you can get a lot into them and they are easy to make and freeze

Nuttyaboutnutella · 26/04/2019 18:02

He does actually like pancakes and we're making oat ones this weekend. Didn't think of adding ground nuts, will definitely some up tomorrow 👍

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WeepingWillowWeepingWino · 26/04/2019 18:13

I still think a proper meal for lunch as well as for dinner would help. I don’t think DD had sandwiches for lunch regularly until she was at least 5. 2 proper meals a day.

EleanorReally · 26/04/2019 18:18

How about dungarees? or elasticated waists, as he is not underweight

hazeyjane · 26/04/2019 18:26

It sounds as though he enjoys food, has a good diet and isn't underweight. If you are concerned I would weigh and measure him and plot his growth on a chart (or get HV/gp to do this), to ascertain if he is dropping down the centiles before upping calories.

beenhereages1 · 26/04/2019 18:28

Gold top milk
Creamy sauces
Pasta/ sauce and a good handful of cheese?

Caterina99 · 27/04/2019 03:35

Sounds like he is eating well and his meals are pretty normal for his age. Increasing his portions of normal healthy food is no problem if he is still hungry.

Hasn’t he actually lost weight? Or just grown taller and so is slimmer? They do go through growth spurts and some grow taller first and then chub out and some are the opposite. My DS is extremely tall and at one doc appointment he was measured as being underweight BMI (we’re in the US btw so they seem to have a lot more check ups here) and then 6 months later it had gone up quite a bit to 20th percentile as he’d put on a few pounds but not grown much taller.

DeadDoorpost · 27/04/2019 09:51

MidnightCereal because he loves the yoghurt and doesn't always eat cereal. I could do him a bowl and he might only eat a small amount of it. With the fromage frais at least I know he'll eat all three of them.
If I'm having toast he'll have some as well, and not as many fromage frais. Or a banana instead.