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Anyone struggle to get their baby/toddler to gain weight?
We're on pedi's orders to put some weight on C. She's always struggled to eat and gain weight. Every night I put a balanced meal on the table only to watch her pick at it and then push the plate away. Some nights I'm not convinced she eats anything.
Do I just forget the balanced meals and feed her stuff (hot dogs and mac & cheese) I know she'll eat every night, assuming she eats at all? The pedi recommended adding butter to everything we can and giving her a milkshake every other night but the mom guilt in me cringes at the thought.
Anyone deal with this?
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Re: Anyone struggle to get their baby/toddler to gain weight?
Yes! Amelia will be 3 in December and she just hit 25lbs. She's tall (36"), but very thin. She was REALLY skinny for a long time and now she's starting to fill out. Honestly I tried the balanced meal thing and it didn't work with her taste buds. She pushed everything away saying it was yucky, that she didn't like it and didn't want it.
I asked my pedi and he like many pediatricians subscribe to the "have them eat what you're eating and they'll eat or they won't" mentality. Well, that might work for most kids, but it wouldn't with my super picky skinny kid. If I didn't serve her things she liked then she'd be even thinner than she is now.
What's amazing is that the more I offered her foods she loved to start a meal and then offered her some of ours the more she'd eat of ours. She grew more and more curious of our food as time went on. Now she pretty much eats whatever we're eating unless it's super spicy. She needed time for her taste buds to develop a bit more. Perhaps C does too.
I forgot to share...A was so skinny at one point that people would ask me if she was ok health-wise and they'd assume she was much younger than she was...until she opened her big mouth and started talking...and never stopped.
Thank you KellyA! It's sounds like C is very similar. She has always been very picky, wouldn't take the bottle when I went back to work, wouldn't take formula when my bf supply decreased, refused almost all purees, won't eat anything green, etc. She loves hot dogs and mac & cheese so I guess I'll focus on that for a while.
This was never an issue with O who has always eaten lots so I'm having trouble letting go of how I think it should be.
We have the same child!!! A never took a bottle, wouldn't take formula to transition to milk, heck, it took her until 15 months to take milk and I had to give her carnation to make her take it. She NEVER ate green veggies as a baby and still won't. She just ate mac & cheese and a hot dog for dinner.
As for the mom guilt, maybe think about it this way. If she was on the other end of the spectrum, would you feel bad changing her diet to help her get to a healthy weight?
Our older floats around and below the 10th percentile on weight. Doc watches it, but has not asked us to do weight gain efforts so far. It is a concern when he doesn't eat, though. He could stand to gain a little bit.
Good luck. I'd feed her what she likes, but always offer the veggies, too.
Both my sons are very thin and Tru is a very picky eater. I won't go in to the battles we have been having lately (the Bump moms who are also in my moms group have already heard enough about it...) but it's been bad.
First of all, I recommend a book that was dropped on my porch in the height of the food drama. "Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense." It puts a lot of food battles in perspective and while it doesn't 100% apply to you, I think the toddler chapters will be very helpful, esp with the guilt.
I do a hybrid. I don't let my kids have mac'n'cheese every night but I do make things I know they will eat a couple nights a week. Friday nights are usually pizza night, whether we make our own or order delivery. Then Sat for lunch, leftover pizza. When I do make mac'n'cheese, it's as a side dish most times. Even if it's all T eats, he still sees a lean protein and a veg on his plate. The book also has advice about letting them serve themselves, which has encouraged T to eat other things. The other day he ate avocado for the 1st time since he was a baby b/c he got to put it on his taco himself.
I wouldn't give a milk shake but I would make a smoothie. Make a smoothie with full fat yogurt (both my kids eat full fat vanilla yogurt every morning for breakfast. Is this something C would eat? I usually sprinkle Cheerios on top and it's a really nutritional and high fat/protein meal to start their day) and fruit. Instead of ice, which waters it down, use a frozen banana. Add protein powder.
Also, I will try and find a popsicle recipe that a mom posted to my forum. It's full of all kinds of weird stuff but apparently her kids love them. That isn't as much a weight gain item as an over all nutrition item but everything helps.
I do cook his food with butter. I make him scrambled eggs with whole milk and wheat toast with butter on the weekends. Will C eat ravioli? That is another of T's faves and he'll eat almost any kind, not caring what's in the middle. I'll toss his in butter before the red sauce. He loves it.
If C is something like Tru, when she goes a couple days with out eating she probably gets almost so hungry that she can't eat. Does that make sense? That is why I do alternate and every other day make sure there is something he will eat. But not every night because 3 other people still eat in this house. And I am no short order cook. If he doesn't eat what I make, he can go without.
Here is the popsicle post:
My 4.5 year old has never taken to veggies and would only eat gummy vitamins. We needed to stop the gummies/chewies because of cavities, but I couldn't really get him to take a liquid or powder-in-liquid. And this is how Vanessa's Popsicles were born.Using a blender, magic bullet (this is what i use, it makes the perfect amount) etc. just go about making a smoothie like you normally would. What I put in it:Any fruit lying around that needs to be eaten plus a frozen banana A vegetable or two (I have these pre cooked/mashed and frozen into little individual size portions (like the ones used to store baby food). I say put as much as you can hide! Some yogurt, preferably plainArbonne (or other health food store brand) kids vitamin* (i like this one which is powder form and mixes in nicely-- it's sweetened with stevia so masks the taste of anything you are trying to hide) Udo's Oil* (this is a really good omega-3 blend of flax, sesame and sunflower oils) Probiotic* (mine is "garden of life" as is powdered)I have also tried adding Spirulina for "Incredible Hulk Pops" but boy do they stain when they drip onto little outfits! I've tried spinach, broccoli, sweet potato, pumpkin, squash......*I will say that I don't know how stable the supplements are when frozen-- do they lose potency? I dunno.
Adjust the ingredients to what you want your kid to get in his diet and what s/he will tolerate. Pour into some fun popsicle molds like the ones I use and VOILA! (https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?sku=14527150&
yes, yes, yes!! i can absolutely empathize... maddy was only 25 lbs at her 3yr check up a couple of weeks ago... every meal finished is a huge weight off my shoulders.
i don't have much to add to what pp's have said, but just wanted to say that i have noticed lately that she has gotten better about trying new things, which she never would before... esp. if i don't ask her if she wants to eat, and just go about eating my food, she will ask to try my food... and she discovers that she likes it. i guess it's kind of like letting her make the decision that she wanted to try it... it was her idea!