Fatten up my kids please!

[adognamedrover]

I have 2 children age 8 and 6. Girl and a boy. Both are ridiculously skinny. Around 10th centile for weight. They never really ask for food/snacks and eat 3 meals a day and 2 snacks of fruit (including cooked school dinner daily)
They are both really active. I'd say my daughter does 6 hours of exercise a week and my son 4.
What foods can I give them that will bulk them up a bit. My daughter especially looks emaciated compared to her friends. Her legs are the same size from her calves upwards, so tiny thighs and tiny arms. Just want them both to look a bit healthier!

My DC are similar OP, I have one heading to high school this year who weighs 3 stone 10lb at the moment. Looked ridiculous next to the other kids at the open day. Although as a family we are all taller than average the DC tend to take a while to get their growth spurts.

Id just add a multivitamin and lots of time outside hiking cycling etc.

op I'm sorry you're worried about your kids who keep getting ill and are borderline underweight. Other posters may be right about other children being overweight but I don't know how many actual experts there are on the thread, especially if this is not in line with the trend in your/their dad's family.

I think the most important thing to watch is their growth and that they are gaining height or weight, however slowly. But I would ask your GP or health visitor if they still exist in your area what they think if you are worried. It probably isn't the case here but it is nice to be reassured by other people but MN isn't always the best place for actual information.

Protein is in eggs, beans, cheese and lentils if they aren't big on meat.

You can’t make vitamin d from the sun in the U.K. until between late March/ early April and September. So supplements will be required before then. Everyone should be taking a vitamin d supplement in the winter.

I never knew that, I thought even winter sun helped!

I dont know if your kids need fattening up' or not as I'm no expert. But my son was.adbjsed he needed to eat more calories based on his lack of appetite coupled with 10 plus hours of intensive swim training a week.

Things we have tried which may work for you...
Eggs everyday for breakfast, boiled scrambled, fried etc.
Peanut butter if they dont really like it like my DS put it on toast with some chocolate spread on top.
Butter in things like mash potato.
Snacks of cheese, chicken pieces etc rather than fruit.
Whole milk for drinking and cereal and cooking with.
Cheese on top of as many foods as possible eg, spag bol, chilli, shepeherds pie, chips etc.
If having chicken nuggets and chips as an easy tea put the nuggets in a wrap or sandwich (with cheese) for extra carbs.

When I look back at my childhood photos I was really chubby until around 5, then shot up and looked like I had matchbox arms and legs for the next few years, then started to get quite chubby going into my teenage years. I don't think my eating particularly changed, just growth spurts.

Might be useful to get some more good fats into their diet with nuts (my kids love pistachos as a treat and peanuts etc in curries) but otherwise I'd just let them be, they sound healthy as they are.

They sound a perfectly normal weight and are fairly active, don't worry. You could try increasing their exercise a little to build muscle mass, children should be active for at least an hour every day, but they're probably more active than you realise at school with PE, break and lunch times...

It's so interesting, when children are naturally slim parents are told to leave them be, regardless of their BMI. When someone posts on here saying their child is naturally chubby/greedy, they're given merry hell. News flash...both are normal. Except there's only one version that has to spend their whole life fighting against their natural shape and inclination. Sad really.

It’s not a ‘natural’ shape. Being chubby or fat is not an immutable and congenital body shape, it’s the result of over eating. Not to mention the health risks and cost to the state. Being slim is healthy and optimum. This is probably the most ridiculous post I’ve ever read on here!

These kids are a healthy bmi

I have a child that I truly need to fatten up 😬
With our fattening her up programme we can just about maintain the 1st centile. She's also got a serious health condition which may be the reason she's so tiny (she was also tube feed for a while as couldn't maintain her weight).

It doesn't sound too me like you need to fatten up yours, but that they are both quite petite.

But in terms of how we try to make her gain weight, we do:

Fortified drinks (on prescription) that provide an extra 300 calories a day. They have about 4 types of sugar in them 😳😂

All milk is gold top, so even more calories than full fat.

We try to add cheese to everything we can.

More biscuits than is sensible, and a lot of cake.

Hummus!

Obviously use butter not spreads, thick bread (or brioche), porridge made with gold top etc.

Hopefully we'll reintroduce some semblance of balance eventually, but for now, her dietician is keen that we get as many calories into her as possible.

Ps: she is in proportion, but there comes a point where even if it's proportional, some growth does need to happen.

By definition, is 10th centile "normal" ? Not saying they need to be fattened up.

'cost to the state' is it. How lovely.

Any centile from the 0.4th to the 99th is 'normal'

@Cuppsoupmonster utterly not true. People are different and have different appetites. In a world of plenty, it's much more difficult for some people to say slim. I never get why people find that so hard to understand. Just like some people find maps harder to read, or are more likely to become addicted to alcohol or find it much easier to walk into a room of people and start a conversation. We're all wired differently, a complex mixture of nurture and nature. Being ''naturally skinny' is a thing. So is being naturally chubby. People all have their struggles....weight is just a highly visible one.