How do you fatten up a toddler?

AlyRally

My doc is getting concerned because the dude keeps dropping in height/weight percentages. But, at the same time, she knows he's a crazy active toddler that never sits down for 2 seconds.

SO, she's giving us a month & a half to fatten him up. Basically if he doesn't gain weight in the next month, the dude is going to have to get some lab tests done to make sure there aren't any absorption issues or anything weird going on.

SO, what is the best way to FATTEN up this kid quick without just shoving his mouth full of Oreos and ice cream and stapling his shoes to the floor??  

CinemaGoddess

Avocados or other healthy, high fat foods. 

MrsWindyCity

avocado, nut butters, cook his food in olive or canola oil

AlyRally

Ok. Got the avocados. Can you be more specific on what other healthy, hi-fat foods?? Eggs & peanut butter are the only others that come to mind...

sillypit

Cheese sticks, whole milk yogurt

Kara5109

We are going through the same thing right now except I am waiting on the lab results and I asked the doctor if I should be feeding her anything differently and he said no. So, I am no help. I just wanted to say that I sympathize with you.

lpickels

DS fell off the chart at his 12 months appt and our pedi got concerned.  She told us to cut out all the juice and fluff foods.  So now we make sure that every.single.thing he eats has caloric and fat value.  It is tough...but once we got in the habit it became pretty easy.  We only offer him whole milk (no water or anything else really.)  And now he craves it, he drinks at least 24oz a day.  Also full fat yogurt (we use stoney field).  We also use real butter on a lot of his food to get added fat, not margarine.  He went from 19.7 lbs at 12 months to 23.7 lbs at 15 months....so it must be working.  We got rid of all the gerber "puff" crap and now he snacks on whole fat string cheese, fruit, and lot soy peanut butter and hummus.  A good trick I learned was to hold onto the Mum Mum sticks, because DS will literally eat them with ANYTHING on them!  I found that Almond butter and Sun butter is higher fat that peanut butter, so I spread it on the mum mums and he gobbles it up.  Same with the hummus, if he needs veggies you can even try spinach/artichoke dip on there too, it was a big hit in our house!

AlyRally

nonasimonsen:

Have you introduced peanut butter yet? I give DS about 2 spoonfuls a day to get him the good omegas and fats.

 

How does he eat the spoonfuls?? On crackers?? Because Ro just gets it all over him and I'm not sure much goes down the hatch...

scoutkate

Whole fat everything, lots of butter, and add Ovaltine or Carnation Instant Breakfast to his milk. 

Lil Kate

Cook with olive oil....can sautee veggies in olive oil...put butter on toast and other things...let little one enjoy ice cream sometimes....

AlyRally

lpickels:

DS fell off the chart at his 12 months appt and our pedi got concerned.  She told us to cut out all the juice and fluff foods.  So now we make sure that every.single.thing he eats has caloric and fat value.  It is tough...but once we got in the habit it became pretty easy.  We only offer him whole milk (no water or anything else really.)  And now he craves it, he drinks at least 24oz a day.  Also full fat yogurt (we use stoney field).  We also use real butter on a lot of his food to get added fat, not margarine.  He went from 19.7 lbs at 12 months to 23.7 lbs at 15 months....so it must be working.  We got rid of all the gerber "puff" crap and now he snacks on whole fat string cheese, fruit, and lot soy peanut butter and hummus.  A good trick I learned was to hold onto the Mum Mum sticks, because DS will literally eat them with ANYTHING on them!  I found that Almond butter and Sun butter is higher fat that peanut butter, so I spread it on the mum mums and he gobbles it up.  Same with the hummus, if he needs veggies you can even try spinach/artichoke dip on there too, it was a big hit in our house!

 THANK YOU! that's awesome.  

abbieandbrandon

We had this same issue, it was such a pain.  I added pediasure once a day and add butter to everything along with creamy sauces (like alfredo).  If you google high calorie foods, you should get some good ideas too.

 

Good Luck

bluejayway

My DD won't sit still for 2 seconds either, and she's very lean, and not too into most foods.

I use unsalted butter on her vegetables, toast, pancakes, waffles (I toast her the Kashi 7-grain ones almost every morning), a bit in her oatmeal, and only whole-milk dairy products (yogurt, cheese, etc). Spread cream cheese or nut butters on things (like instead of plain crackers or toast). She will also eat any mac and cheese I give her, so I do the Annie's organic stuff a lot for lunch. My DD won't eat straight avocado, but she will eat Chipotle's guacamole--worth a shot, and you can load up on black beans and rice topped with cheese there, too. Dried fruit is higher in calories than fresh, so try dried apricots, raisins, blueberries, etc. Also try to incorporate eggs into meals. DD will eat a whole hard-boiled one if I set it out with breakfast. I also make a loaf of banana or zucchini bread like once a week and DD will eat slices of it, especially warm. I can make it will not too much sugar, etc, and it is better than cramming oreos in, in my opinion.

My DD doesn't like whole milk much, but if I just keep offering it throughout the day, she will gradually drink quite a bit, which is much more fattening than the 50/50 water/juice she prefers. 

Set out lots of snacks during the day, so he can graze, as this seems to make DD eat more than she does at established meal times (though I still do those). I will do dry cereal a lot, sticks of cheese, fruit snacks, goldfish crackers, graham crackers. Toddlers do better with 4-5 small meals a day than three big ones, as they get full faster and uber distracted.

JCGreene85

I am a chef and I have tons of Moms ask me this. I always tell them to cook with olive oil and dont be affraid of butter. Veggies tossed in butter, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, avocado, fruit smoothies made with whole milk or coconut milk, nut butters on crackers, you can add flax seeds to cereal and oatmeal, kefir, lots of grains and breads, put cheese on everything, whole wheat pastas.

I have more and tons of recipes if you want to PM me H2H

eSynergy

bananas are also high and fat and good for you. DS eats one a day.

jenkm

Great thread, I'm taking notes!  We were in the same boat, one of my LOs lost about a pound between 12 and 15 months and he was very low percentile to begin with.

Just adding to the above...  We make banana pancakes.  Just puree bananas and mix into the eggs and milk, you can pull back a little on the milk so the batter isn't too wet.

Gnocchi is a good thing to try, toss in butter and parm.

I make beef short ribs for dinner sometimes - take some of the meat and puree with potatoes and vegs.  (My guys are not good with meat as finger food aside from hot dogs!)  You can do the same with beef stew.

GL

bobbs420

Avocados, whole milk yogurt, cheese, peanut butter, food cooked in olive oil.