High Calorie Foods for Underweight 13 Month Old

My daughter used to underweight as well. She just didn't eat much at mealtimes. My doctor recomended putting cheese on just about everything she ate. I used low sodium cheeses and just put a little shredded on her vegetables or cubed with her snacks. Peanut butter is also very good. Besides pb&j, crackers and celery with peanut butter are kids' favorites. Pasta also has many calories and kids love them. My daughter is now at the 35% mark and very healthy. Good luck and I hope I helped.

If she is eating healthy, nutritious food, I would not worry about the charts and percentiles! She might be a late weight gainer!

Hi K. I am a Registered Dietitian and what we usually recommend is adding dry milk when cooking her foods such as yogurt, casseroles, milk shakes, muffins, cookies, sauces, gravies and cream soups. If she will drink fruit juice don't dilute it but don't offer more than 1 serving per day. Add butter or margarine to breads, hot cereals, pancakes, casseroles and vegetables. Add Cheese to meat, potatoes, vegetables, pasta, rice and cream sauces. Also, use peanut butter on breads, crackers, fruits an vegetables and you can also blend into ice cream or yogurt. Make Jell-O with juice instead of water and add mashed fruit to milk, yogurt, shakes, ice cream and pudding. You can also add honey to fruit.

Also, you should establish a regular schedule of meals and snacks every 2.5 to 3 hours and be consistent. Reinforce good eating behavior with praise and positive reinforcement but do not concentrate on eating too much. Also, I would limit any distractions so she can focus on eating. Finally, include foods she likes and introduce new foods slowly. Hope this helps. If you have any other questions please ask!

You can give her either Pediasure, or the cheaper alternative, Carnation Instant Breakfast mixed with whole milk. It's tastey, has vitamins and nutrients for her, and will beef up her daily calorie count. Good luck!

Hi, I know it's been awhile since you posted this, but I wanted to add some suggestions. My daughter and I are vegan, so I have to make sure that she gets enough calories and fat, since she doesn't eat any meat, dairy or eggs (all the traditional high calorie fare). A couple people mentioned olive oil, and I think this is much better than butter. Just like the butter idea, however, you can put it on everything- vegetables, bread (my daughter's favorite), pasta or in smoothies. Sunflower seed butter is good too if you want to avoid nuts. Also try calorie dense foods like chopped dried fruit in muffins, ground flaxseed in pancakes or on soy yogurt, with cereal, etc.

With these suggestions I also wanted to agree with the other posts that maybe there is no need to worry quite yet. Kids fluctuate so much that it is sometimes hard to determine if they are really not growing well or if the doctor's appointment just fell at an off point. I would make a few minor additions to her calorie intake and wait to see what happens in a few months.

Good luck,
K.

My son is underweight for his age (about 5th percentile) and my dr suggested to give him pediasure.

I don't believe that it has really improved his weight, but it makes it so he doesn't lose any.

His weight has always gone up and down since birth. Since I have been giving him pediasure, it has stayed constant.

It is a little pricey, but it is worth it for my family.

good luck

first let me say I am not weight obsessive. I had 4 kids they are now grown and when they were small my 2 youngest who ate just as good as my oldest were considered to be very underweight. I was told by the dr to feed my oldest of the 2 lots of high calorie foods like bananas etc. well I did and she is now an overweight adult now I am not blaming her weight totally on this dr prescribed diet but I would not feed a child high calorie foods just for the sake of gaining weight ever again. I now feel that a child will catch up or will be small if she is supposed to small. as long as she is eating foods that are good for her and the right amts and she is not getting starved by you (and I mean nothing offensive to you) or she is just not eating that I would let nature take its course. at 1 year old that is too early to really tell.
both of my children were diagnosed as failure to thrive. they caught up soon enough.

my youngest I decided to just contuinue to feed him because I knew he would not starve.

I just took a look at what they were eating (healthiness wise)and if they were actually eating it and not leaving it on the plate or tossing it in the garbage.

This is just my opinion and only MY opinion. If you feel you need a second doctor's opinion, please do it.

My opinion is this: feed your daughter as you would feed any other child. Adding margarine, extra cheese, etc. sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen in their adult years. Many skinny people have heart attacks just from the fact that they do not eat healthy.

My son is average size. He is in the 50th percentile for height and the 25th percentile for weight. My daughter is in the 50th percentile for height and the below zero percentile for weight. She was born skinny. She is active, has achieved all of her milestones early and talks up a storm. She is now three and weighs only 25lbs. She is just skinny. She eats like you wouldn't believe.

This is what she ate the other day: Bowl of cheerios with milk, a whole banana, two waffles for snack, 3 slices of turkey, two slices of cheese, 20 whole wheat crackers, grapes, full size cup of yogurt, chicken, broccoli, brown rice and a bowl of frozen yogurt. She eats like this often. She burns off most of that in a day. She doesn't watch tv, she is always playing.

Our doctor has NEVER told us to feed her more calories. She is getting a well rounded diet on a daily basis. We don't eat junk food and I don't attempt to fatten her up with junk food. Healthy lifestyles start early and if you teach her to eat healthy foods now,she will continue this throughout her life. I know that my daughter will probably always be small.
I monitor her snacks and make sure that the snacks she does eat are healthy. I want her to grow up and have a healthy heart, not one that is clogged with all of the awful things I fed her to try and gain weight.

I am sorry, but I don't believe in Pediasure, high calorie snacks, adding oil to everything, adding margarine to foods etc. it's just not healthy.

Fill her diet with fruits,veggies, high protein foods, etc. and she should be fine. Definitely get a second opinion if you need to. How much does she weigh? My daughter was 17lbs at one year.

Has she recently started walking, cruising or crawling more? Children sometime lose weight around this age because they're burning off more calories. If she is healthy & active - keep an eye on it, but I wouldn't worry about trying to force feed.

Try giving her a pediatric nutritional drink - like Ensure. My daughter has the same challenge, and is 19 months. She was a 4 lb preemie, so weight gain is always something we struggle with. Fruit juices are also good because kids love them and they're full of calories.

Also, something we've done is to let her eat whatever she wants. Right now she loves fruit/cereal bars. They make ones for toddlers and they're easy to chew up and swallow. Hailey also likes the Gerber juice treats - they're 100 calories a pack. Some meals consist of an entire avocado these days, but it's better than her not eating at all.

Nut butters - peanut butter, almond butter, etc are also good. I put them on toast.

Good luck!

My second child was a preemie and was small for her age up until she turned 6 years old. She was also in the 5th percentile most of the time. Our pediatrition recommended feeding her supplement shakes (such as ensure) or creating fruit smoothies with regular ice cream or yogurt. My daughter loves these!

The doctor should have offered suggestions of specific foods if she thought this was a problem. She's still so young where whole milk, cheese, and yogurts and ice creams (unless there is an allergy) would be good. Wasn't the doc concerned that she's gone from 50th%ile to 5th%ile? Cream cheese or butter on a bagel...at least they are low sugar, some fat, etc. I'd ask the doc to be more specific because you can also get drinks like PediSure that are high calorie, etc.

Hey! Both me and my 14 month old have had to pump up the calories this year (I was nursing away more calories than I ate). One thing that REALLY helps is drinking the carnation instant breakfast as a snack instead of a meal replacement. For your baby you can just combine half a packet with some whole milk. If he likes avacados or bananas those are super healthy, yet more caloric fruits and vegetables. Everything dairy that's possible should be whole milk-yogurt, etc. His doctor suggested buttering everything I give him. My doctor told me to use real mayo on as many things as possible. I'm still working on him but it seems to have worked well for me.

My daughter has always been a 'skinny mini'. At 2 yrs. old the doctor was concerned, so he had us give her, in addition to well-rounded meals, full fat yogurt (she loved YoBaby by Stonyfield Farms), whole milk, cheese, peanut butter sandwiches on whole grain bread (once she was deemed not allergic to peanuts), scrambled eggs and fresh fruits for snacks. We also limited juices and sugary snacks since those are generally empty calories that make them feel full before they can get their fill of the healthy stuff. 4 months later she was closer in weight to what the doctor thought she should be so he wasn't so worried. She's still a little light for her height, but as long as she's getting a good balanced diet and is growing proportionatley then the dr. says she's fine. We did recently learn that she is allergic to corn, esp. corn syrup, and eggs so now we have even more of a reason for her to stick to healthy, fresh foods rather than sweets and other junk foods.

M.

Hi K., I'm a mom and grandmother, and also infant-toddler
developmental specialist. We see underweight children all the time and our resident pediatrician recommends adding butter and/or cream to anything you can, and also lots of avocados! Hope it helps, J.

K., my son is supposedly underweight (10th percentile), although he looks very healthy to me. Still, he drinks whole milk, and I mix butter, almond butter and cream in his oatmeal in the morning. I give him avocados and don't shy away from butter, in general. He also eats a YoBaby yogurt almost every day. Sometimes I will also make smoothies with yogurt and almond butter and wheat germ.

My ped suggested we add Carnation Instant Breakfast powder to my daughter's whole milk to add some calories. Play around with flavors and the amt that you add to the milk to determine what tastes best to your child. She drank it for awhile and then refused, but it did seem to work. Also we would feed her a small amt of Breyers Vanilla ice cream every night. Between the two she gained a few pounds in a few months. But she's still small for her age....the ped is no longer worried and says that as long as she's growing at her pace and continues to be on track in other developmental areas there's really nothing to worry about...she'll just be small. (her father and I are fairly small people though so it probably is genetic)
Best wishes!

Hi K., My daughter is also in the 5th percentile; she was born small and has always been small. I always get the comment "oh, she's so petite". As long as she's eating on a regular basis,I wouldn't worry about it too much about it. She's probably just as active as my daughter, who will not sit in front of the tv. Her pediatrician did suggest a pediasure daily and she actually loves the taste of those, but we don't give them every single day.

I don't have too much experience with this as my babies have all been chunky. However, a friend of mine used to make pasta for her baby, and instead of draining all of it, she would use a slotted spoon to lift some out for her baby, that way the oil t hat you put in the water would stick to the pasta rather than being poured out when you drain it. She also used to put butter on everything, that was one suggestion from her ped when her son was "underweight"

At 1 year you are introducing her to a ton of new foods....she's just figuring it out, and as she gets more active she will (hopefully) get more hungry. Make sure there are no other issues like allergies, and a lactose issue that makes her tummy upset, no ear infections (you didn't mention). And 5 meals a day. Play the snacks based on the time of day, she can eat eggs now too which are high protien. And ice cream are for very rare treats. They get a taste for that and will reject the other stuff.

Make sure you are putting veggies in front of her every day. Both my boys love the frozen veggies (peas/green beans/mixed), and especially in the summer....I just give it to them frozen.

My youngest was also very underweight. Our Dr reccommended using high fat foods such as cheese and ice cream. He suggested putting butter (or olive oil as a healthier alternative) to foods to increase the fat intake.

My son was small for his age now he 3 1/2yrs old and he gained little bit of weight. I have a friend her son is going to be six soon and hes small for his age as well. So she might catch up or she may just be little for ahwhile. I give my son cookies, pop tarts, but he also gets my genes. I am 5'3 and skinny. His dad is 6'5. Hes tall like his dad.

Both my girls are small. Oldest is usually just under the 5th percentile for weight. Youngest isn't even on the chart. My kids are healthy, tho. So I'd say that if your daughter is healthy and eating - leave it alone! Some people are just small. When I was 5 years old, I was wearing a size 2T. I think your concern should be for her health. If she is small, but healthy then just continue what you're doing.

If you're concerned about her weight, (and if she's around the 5th percentile - I wouldn't be) then you can try to add pediasure. But get the generic stuff!! It's somewhat less expensive and tastes the same - gross!

My ped said that if their weight is always in the same range then they are ok. Armed with that information, I just continue to feed them well and not concern myself with their weight - sorry.

Coconut milk is high in good fat and therefore calories...could mix it with some types of food...or add to a shake.
Coconut oil is in infant formulas...in case you think I am off my rocker.

Hi K.,

I am a SAHM of 3 boys and have another baby on the way. All of my babies were very big at birth (smallest was 9 pounds) and they all grew off the charts. I nursed all kids minimum 13 months, maximum 18 months. I am a bit of a self taught health freak and have always taken great pride in feeding my kids the healthiest things I can find. Might I suggest reading a book called "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron -- it is fantastic. Your baby is only 13 months old and has a lot of weight gaining time ahead of her, so don't stress out too much. However, there are a lot of things you can do to help her out to "pack on the pounds"...per se! When my 3rd child turned a year old, I started feeding him full fat yougurt mixed with a teaspoon of flaxseed oil (you can buy it at Hi Health or other health food stores, get the kind you have to refrigerate). "Yo Baby" is a great brand of yougurt that you can find most anywhere, but Trader Joes has a yougurt that has even more fat that is made with cream -- and it comes in the perfect serving size. It comes in a six pack with banana and strawberry or vanilla and blueberry. Just mix it with the flaxseed oil and down the hatch!! I gave this to #3 every night before bed. I would NOT recommend using margarine on ANY food as it is SOOO bad for you!! Use good old fashioned butter, and put it on EVERYTHING!! Whole wheat bread, pasta, oatmeal -- and make grilled cheese with it too. Oh yeah...scrambled eggs cooked in butter with melted cheese. The list could go on and on! Extra Virgin Olive Oil and avacados are good too -- don't just feed her "fat" for the sake of feeding her fat -- make sure it's good fat. And make sure she's not drinking too much whole milk -- it's tempting I know, but she will not want to eat food if she drinks too much. The biggest thing you can be careful of is to make sure that she is not snacking all day long. My sis-in-law has a daughter going on three years old that weighs barely 20 pounds -- and she lets her snack all day long and doesn't understand why she won't eat a good meal at breakfast, lunch or dinner. I'm sure your daughter is going to do great this year and I wouldn't freak yourself out over the fact that she's small -- but read the book I recommended and you will get so many great ideas!! Good luck and happy feeding!!

A.

Hi! Has your doctor suggested pedia-sure? It is a high in calorie drink for low weight children. You can always ask for a referal to a nutritionist, which I would recommend. Sometimes high calorie is not what you need, but high in nutritive value might be what you do need. A nutritionist could help you there. Children usually need more fat in their diet until they are around 2 - 3 years of age. It helps in brain development. But, too much fatty foods or high calorie foods may lead her onto the path of a not eating correctly later in life. Good luck!!

K. -

My nephew is VERY small for his age (not even on the chart) and has been sine birth. His doctor told his parents to put some vegetable oil in with his bottles; not a lot but some. I I don't know if it worked or not as he is still very small for his age.

Also, a friend of mine, as he got older, and was small for his age, ate a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk every night before bed. Both of course high in calories and fat content but also healthy. It worked for him but, again, we were in highschool and college by that time.

Otherwise I would say that if she is eating well and still not growing as the doctor thinks she should be you might have her checked for Failure To Thrive. Sometimes (about 20%) of the time a child can be FTT and it have nothing to do what what foods they are eating, i.e. Organic FTT, and high calorie foods will have no effect. You would need to have her seen by a specialist to see what tests need to be run; Phoenix Children's Hospital has a great staff for this sort of thing.

Good Luck!

Hello K..
You have a great deal of information here to help you out. While you don't need mine, some things I would like to offer may come as comfort.

My son is 5th percentile by the CDC 2000 growth charts that all pediatricians should be using, including yours. He has been since about 4 months. His pediatrician sent me to a feeding clinic over it, stating that my continued breast feeding was the source of the problem. She also provided some of the suggestions you have here: carnation instant breakfast added to foods and liquids, pediasure, increased whole milk intake, butter prepared foods, even fried foods.

I was distraught. My son has always been a good eater, including preferring fresh fruits and veggies, and healthy foods. So I did research.

I found that for this age, about 1000 calories daily is what is required, and that like puppies, at this age, children will often swing from thin and leggy to pudgy with each growth spurt, and in between.

More significantly, I also found that the WHO and UNICEF are redo-ing the growth charts for children from ages 0 to 5 years, setting children who are breastfed until 1 year of age as the standard. When I plotted my son on the preliminary chart they had released, he went from 5th percentile, to nearly 50th.

The current growth charts were produced by milk companies. Up until 2000, those charts didn't even include breastfed babies. The update required by CDC and released on those charts in 2000 only includes some breastfed children. I don't know whether you breastfed your daughters or not, but the implication of the WHO and UNICEF changing the growth standard this way is significant.

We live in a country in an overweight crisis. The percentages of weight related diseases are skyrocketing in every age group, as is the mortality of weight related diseases. I would pray for you to consider that first and foremost before beginning a diet with your daughter designed to increase her size. The growth charts are just a number. With that in mind, the best advise I have for you, and have seen here offered to you, is to look at your daughter for what she is: if she is eating well, seems healthy and happy and to be growing, even if it is not at the chart standard, then thank heaven for a healthy, happy growing baby. Worry about a number when it actually means something.

After more than $2000 spent for an evaluation at a feeding clinic, I was told by a pediatric feeding specialist, dietician, pediatrician, and occupational therapist, the entire evualuating team, to completely disregard the suggestions above from the pediatrician, that my son's eating habits and consumption were just fine, and that he has a very concerned mother.

I believe the same is true for your daughter.