Need ideas for high-calorie food for our skinny girl

One of our girls is just not a good eater. Never has been. Was born at 5lbs5oz and 20" long - always has been very thin. She had reflux as a newborn/infant and she continues to just pick at her food. Now that she's crawling around and transitioned to milk from formula, I'm really worried about her weight because I feel like she's really just not ingesting enough to make up for what she's burning off. (At the dr last week, she was 19lbs9oz & 31", below the 5% for weight-to-length.) On top of it all, she gets horribly, horribly constipated so we can't just stuff her with cheese and soy butter and other easy high fat/high protein foods. And did I mention she's a picky eater?

Desparately needing some ideas for some non-constipating, high fat/high-protein baby-friendly foods! opcorn:

TIA!

 

Avocado!

http://baby.about.com/od/homemadebabyfood/qt/avocado_nutrition.htm

 

Whole milk greek yogurt. Trader Joes carries one that has 16g of fat per serving! We also use a lot of peanut butter. My kids are both built tall and skinny and DS is very picky too. Sometimes I do the cheese for lack of better options and just balance it out with fruit.

 

avocado, coconut oil (babies and toddlers - 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons or cook with it- I put it in my son's sandwiches), PROBIOTICS!- they're very good for constipation.
Did you see a nutritionist?
Good Luck!

 

I'm just curious if your pedi is concerned or not? Is she growing steadily on HER curve? My niece is and always has been in the lowest 5%, but her pedi says she is perfectly fine. She is growing, bright, and energetic. She's just tiny. My SIL constantly worries about food (she's ALWAYS trying to feed her) and it stresses her out, despite the pedi's reassurances. I'm not saying you should or shouldn't worry about her intake...just wondering what her dr's thoughts are.

 

She hasn't said much yet really. I know, I'm trying not to worry. She's been on the same growth curve, but with all of the changes in diet (formula to milk) and activity (she only started crawling about three weeks ago), I can't help myself!

Thanks for the good ideas. I'll try some of your suggestions!! Keep 'em coming! I'll also ask about a nutritionist if she seems to have slipped when she goes back for her 15 month appointment.

 

Whether it's good advice or not, my nutritionist reccommended putting butter or vegetable oil on all casseroles, vegetables, etc.

Dipping - your kids may not be that into it yet but soon they will. The nutritionist reccommended always providing something to dip their foods into - this can add high calories. Hummus, peanut butter, alvocado, ranch dressing, weirdly enough my kids love to dip bread etc in to this balsamic vinegar salad dressing, almond butter.

I'm not sure that I'm 100% on board with this, but the nutritionist recommended all drinks have calories - she was suggesting to go as far as giving juice instead of water. So I've started giving juice at morning snack time, it helps with constipation.... Not sure if you want to go there or not..

My kids are digging cottage cheese. I'm not sure if that causes constipation or not...

I had one of my twins who had constipation issues prior to 1 year, but he got better after a year, so here's hoping that the issues will resolve as she gets older...

 

I can speak from experience as both of my girls are really skinny and petite. They are both following their own curve and that is all our pedi is concerned about. They aren't sick and eat like pigs. I try not to worry, but we're moms and that's what we do. I feed them what they want to eat and try not to worry so much about calories and fat. They really feed off of your energy and that could effect the way they eat.

We do lots of cheeses, yogurts, ice cream, avocados, fruits/veggies, cooking with butter and olive oil, breaded chicken fried in olive oil, peanut butter, breads, pudding, of course milk (even though mine aren't big milk drinkers), french fries (I make them from real potatoes)...I'm sure there is a lot more. Good luck and try not to worry. If your pedi isn't worried and she's following her own curve, then she's fine. She'll eat when she's hungry and she won't starve herself.

 

It may cause constipation, I don't know, but my friend swears by cheesecake.

 

When Gabe was little, we were asked to add things to his diet as well to help with calories. One thing that seemed to help was Carnation Instant Breakfast. I'd add that to his milk. I wonder if this one has bitten me in butt though b/c the kid won't drink plain milk now and needs it flavored. He also loved muffins, so I could add things that those easily.

 

I don't know if cheesecake will cause constipation or not, but I bake my own cheesecake with full fat sour cream and philadelphia cream cheese...adding various kind of fruits each time (chocolate sometimes) to let DS and DD take as they are slightly on the low growth percentile. DS is even an inch shorter and 1kg lesser than DD. Many people thinks they're not twins, just sibling born of 1 yr difference.

I also give a lot of dips, bake chips and pop corns with butter (no salt) as snacks. I give alot of fish and chicken to them too, but chooses the lean cuts cos I don't feel good loading them with cholesterol and saturated fats.. :ibiggrin:

 

Hey, it adds weight to me, so why not? THERE'S a food I can get behind! :laughing:

Muscaria10 - do you have an easy cheesecake recipe you could share? I've made it in the past (like, pre-kids when I had oodles of time), but the recipes I have all are complicated.

 

Sure! Its real easy

750g Philadelphia cheese (3 blocks)
3/4 cup sugar
Rind of 1 lemon and juice of 1 lemon
3 eggs
digestive biscuits (~10pieces) for base
250g butter (for holding base together)
1 tablespoon flour

1) Crush digestive biscuit till fine crumbs, and add melted butter to form base of cheesecake. Chill.
2) Beat cream cheese, rind and lemon juice, sugar together till smooth, then add egg and flour.
3) Add cut fruits/crushed oreo cookies or whatever flavor u wish to make
4) pour mixture into baking tin with the base and bake.

Happy baking!

 

my daughter at a year old was 18 lbs and I think 29 in long...as long as she's gaining on her curve the growth charts are a guideline...

but there's always avocado, adding butter to any veggies or pastas she may enjoy or adding Carnation instant breakfast to her milk...