Ideas to help my DS gain weight.

[mollyfolk]

My DS who was on the cusp of being underweight anyway has lost a load of weight after getting three different illnesses in a row this winter.

We have been referred to a dietitian but while we wait could anyone come up with some good ideas for adding calories to his food in the healthiest possible way so I'm not feeding the other kids chocolate all the time.

He has porridge for breakfast, fruit or chopped raw veg for snacks with hummus or nut butter on crackers or a boiled egg. Then we have fairly typical family dinners; meat potatoe and veg, fajitas, curry, cottage pie, spag bol.

What can I add to just his portion of food. So far I've thought about adding cream to the porridge.

Things like full fat greek yoghurt, butter or olive oil on his veg, full cream milk, cream added to porridge, desserts like rice pudding or custard with cream added, add a bit of grated cheese to his spag bol and fajitas.

How old is he? Two of my kids were underweight and we did an extra meal at bedtime, usually just some toast and a drink for "supper."

Our doctor had us add cream, butter, cream cheese, and sour cream wherever we could. Only buy full fat items, including yogurt.

we were also told to offer peanut butter and Nutella generously.

depending on how dire the situation, you may not be able to do this without the other children noticing.

@mollyfolk

"fruit or chopped raw veg for snacks with hummus or nut butter on crackers" will not have the desired result.

There are a lot of resources available.

This is just one. You can tailor his diet to foods that he enjoys and which will enable healthy weight gain.

Extra butter on every dinner you serve up. Keep some boiled eggs in the fridge as an easy snack. If it's still in the shops, egg nog is a great milk alternative. Make things like custard and flapjack where you can pack the calories but limit the sugar compared to bought versions.

Don't skimp on exercise to avoid burning calories- you want him fit and healthy to keep his appetite up.

Don't forget vit d as we're in winter and lacking sunlight. If he's deficient that won't help him fight infections.

Similar boat here. Peanut butter and avocados for high fat additions to meals. Granola too.

If you search the internet for 'making every mouthful count' there are different resources available. I did find a pdf for ds2 for when he was barely eating and losing weight but I can't find it now. It had a recipe for fortifying milk which I did do for a while to add extra calories for him - you can find recipes for fortifying milk online as well.

Cream into the porridge.
peanut butter goes well in porridge too.

Avocado on toast as a snack.

lean to fruit towards things like banana that have calories.

full fat milk for everything.

Well buttered toast.

cheese and butter into the mash.

Think of fortifying all foods. So extra cheese on top of pasta or extra butter on toast. Plus snacks and pudding. If your child doesn’t feel like pudding immediately, don’t forget to revisit it after a break.

Chewing food takes physical strength so easy to swallow foods like shepherds pie (with extra cream and cheese in mash) is a good option.

Just add a smoothie. Add nut butter or cram or coconut cream to ds’s and more fruit based for the others.

How old is he?

Cheese is an obvious one, but if he is noticeably underweight in comparison to the rest of the family on the same diet have you considered having him tested for things like Coeliac disease which causes absorption issues and malnutrition?

He's 9 and we had a set of bloods done that came back normal just before Christmas and then we were referred to a dietitian for advice to put on weight. I thought eating copious amounts of chocolate and rich desserts at Christmas would help but he hasn't put on a pinch.

He had a terrible tummy bug and then some virus caught him when he was low.

Would he have a peadiasure milkshake? My son is almost 6 and has never stopped having 'milk' overnight due to weight/food issues...

When dd was refered before we went the gp advised a two week food diary with photos it really helped the dietian. Make sure you add as much information as possible.

We were advised to give 5 meals a day. So breakfast, mid morning snack, lunch, evening meal and supper. I do some in secret from other dc as they really don't need them.
Sometimes a snack is a milky drink or crackers and fruit juice.
Also add extra wherever you can eg extra butter on toast, full fat options, a pudding, top things with cheese or croutons, add side dish of garlic bread, high calorie snacks like flapjack etc. Also if you want to increase portion size add small amounts and over a month or so increase the portion size.

It's hard going dd sits around 3rd percentile (was 1st) but is stable. Dd finds having control important (autism and a teenager) so I often make her think she's got a choice by saying 'do you want x or y?' Her favourite meals are on the menu every week and doubling up on carbs is ok (eg pasta salad and a sandwich).

the raw chopped vege snack needs ro be axed immediately I’m afraid - do you realise how low calorie raw vege are (and filling too?)? Unless it’s avocado.

my dc were underweight and we ditched porridge - too low cal unless made with single cream.

granola and full fat milk
toast with thick butter and peanut butter
Brazil and macadamia nuts for snacks
higher cal fruit like banana and mango
vege dripping in butter and olive oil
half an avocado a day
grated cheese on everything

Look up kids eat in color -she gives tips on this.

She suggests a milkshake of banana, peanut butter and full fat milk I think from memory.

Did they specifically test for coeliac though?

IgG anti-tTg and IgG anti-endomysial antibody tests?

Chopped raw veg and boiled eggs (I know it's with hummous but still) for snacks and you're wondering how to help him to gain weight? 🙄

Did they specifically test for coeliac though?

IgG anti-tTg and IgG anti-endomysial antibody tests?

They tested antibodies anyway. I'm afraid I'm not clear on what exactly. One antibody was a little low but "nothing alarming". I'll ask the GP to explain more. He has no nutritional deficiencies and has been a little skinny but fit and healthy until this had this run of bad illnesses.

Similar situation with my DD, she's 7 but has cmpa so none of the dairy fat advice helps us.
We are adding olive oil, trying to encourage her to eat nut butters. It's hard going as she has a small appetite

hummus and this cashew-nut butter that he loves are high in calories and fat. Eggs are very nutritious. I've been trying to load up these fatty extras.

He does need to eat some fruit and veg so I didn't want to remove that bit.

If he’s keen on the raw veg, and is potentially filling up on it then maybe cut it into thinner sticks so the ratio of nut butter to veg improves. I.e. one skinny stick of carrot has less carrot and more nut butter than a thick stick.

Avocado, hummus (with extra olive oil), topping up the non dairy milk with non dairy cream.

(most non diary milks are equivalent of semi skimmed at best, whereas Oatly whole with a good slug of Oatly cream starts to get closer to gold top).

I have a very slim picky eater who drops off the centile charts every time he gets ill 🤪. We saw a dietician who advised fortifying foods, things such as adding milk powder to increase protein and calories, cooking pasta in whole milk to increase calories, adding double cream to scrambled egg, mashed potato etc. Also little and often meals and making sure not filling up on liquids in place of food during mealtimes. I also make him a paediasure shake just before bed but with whole milk and double cream (the tin just recommends making it with water)
Some of the NHS advice like this is useful - https://www.wwl.nhs.uk/media/.leaflets/5ff33ba1541a06.05494083.pdf

Thanks to everyone for the very useful advice and links. Stuff like the fortified milk is a very easy add on for me without fattening up the whole family.