DD is 2.5 y/o. She's underweight at 22 lbs. She's average height. The ped said we should give her carnation instant breakfast once or twice a week. To me, that's full of sugar... has anybody tried something else? Should I try to make a smoothie? What should I put in it, if I do?
Thanks!!!
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Pediasure has slightly less sugar and I know it’s often recommended by peds for weight gain (I know many who have used it).
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I'd probably do a nutrient-dense smoothie with foods that have healthy fats - nut butters, avocado, whole milk yogurt, etc. See if you can get her to eat trail mix-ish foods with nuts, seeds, raisins, etc. I'd probably also try to cook things with olive oil to get the calories up, and see if I could incorporate hummus/bean dip or guacamole. Also, there are various breakfast bars (larabars come to mind) that are a great healthy snack - you might be able to find some higher calorie ones that aren't loaded down with sugar.
Good luck! If it's any consolation, my 2.5 year old is 26lbs and it's a daily struggle to get him to eat enough - playing/running around/dancing is just way more interesting than food, ha.
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Our ped just told us to focus on protein and add fat where we could.
We let our son have high quality ice cream for dessert a few times a week. On weekends he gets Oikos Triple Zero yogurt for the protein along with turkey breakfast sausage (his favorite). I add lots of olive oil and cheese to his foods or stir in some mascarpone cheese into his pasta sauce. If we have curries, I make a fatty tikka masala with lots of cream and yogurt or I make Thai curry with a can of coconut cream over coconut milk.
For a while we also did smoothies - fruit, spinach, banana, full fat yogurt, and a big scoop of coconut oil. You can also use peanut butter.
I’ve also given him Orgain chocolate vegan protein powder blended into a smoothie/shake with milk and banana and ice.
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I think they just like to recommend something that is easily attainable for most people. Not so much that the product is the only thing you could possibly use to achieve the goal. Agree to focus on what she will eat already and then add fat and calories to that.
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thanks for the great suggestions... I want to add more fat to her food but not mine.
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What I do is make homemade smoothie pouches and freeze them: 3 cups yogurt, 1 cup almond butter, 1 cup blueberries, 2 bananas. It makes 8-10 pouches. He slurps them up.
I also use Happy Baby whole milk yogurt pouches (no added sugar), lots of butter on a bagel, and tons of cheese.
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Pizzas, pizza quesadillas, regular quesadillas with chicken, and salad/carrots dipped in ranch are also ways we get more fat and protein in our kiddo. The quesadillas are nice since we can fry them in some more olive oil.
We try to get him to eat fattier versions of his favorite things like regular pepperoni over turkey, pork breakfast sausage over turkey, full fat cheese, etc. I used to do full fat yogurt, but our ped told me to focus on protein right now because he's growing so tall in comparison to his weight, (a lot of the reason he's so low on the curve is he is incredibly tall for his weight). And full fat milk of course.
Coconut oil in smoothies is really simple and pretty much tasteless. There have been times I've added sour cream to his smoothies (mostly cuz I was out of yogurt, but it was also like WOO HOO FAT!)
If your kid likes sweet potatoes, tossing sweet potato chunks in coconut oil before roasting makes them taste SOOO GOOD. We like them tossed in coconut oil and cinnamon for oven fries.
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@bakingdoodle: What kinds of foods is she already eating?
One of the things I do with my problem eater is to make pasta and then add two slices of cheese. I melt it well and then I stir in an entire egg off the heat but while the pasta is still hot. My son thinks it's just a different kind of cheese.
If your child eats oatmeal, you can add in egg whites, I got the idea from @gingerbebe.
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@gingerbebe: sweet potato and coconut oil is so good! My kids love that.
You can also drizzle olive oil on everything to up the fat. If you use cooking spray when making scrambled eggs, use butter or real oil instead to add fat. If your kiddo likes peanut butter, you could spread that on apples as a snack or avocado on toast. Also, 2 yr old randomly loves plain, full fat Greek yogurt. More protein and fat than typical kid yogurt I believe.
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Oh, also, you can spread some unsalted butter on both sides of your kid's bread before adding the jelly and PB on their PBJs. I also started adding mayo to his ham and cheese sandwiches.
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High fat greek yogurt - we like either Greek Gods or Krema, both 10% fat.
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@Pollywog: Sorry to threadjack over here but I have been wanting to start healthy breakfast smoothies with my LO. Love the idea of prepping pouches and freezing. What do you suggest for the actual pouch? Do you empty the frozen pouch in the blender and just blend? Seems like I might need to add milk/liquid. Sorry for being dense!
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@Amorini: I am super lazy (And use these for daycare), so what I do is make a big batch in the blender and then fill these pouches with a funnel (I can get exactly half a cup in each 5 oz pouch): https://www.amazon.com/WeeSprout-Double-Zipper-Reusable-Pouch/dp/B00TXBSHBQ/ref=sr_1_11_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1520301635&sr=8-11&keywords=pouches%2Btoddler&th=1
I freeze them flat and then throw one in the refrigerator before I go to bed. It is thawed by the 9:30 snack time and he sucks them down. If I forget, I throw the pouch in a bowl of warm water to defrost it in a few minutes.
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@Pollywog: This is great!! Thank you for the tip. And for the record, I think that I’m super lazy, too, but when I shared my toddler meal ideas to the other moms at daycare recently, they called me a gourmet cook!
>>end of threadjack<<
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