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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
Anyone have an LO who was put on Ovaltine or Carnation?
LO was always 25th-50th percentile in weight and 90th percentile in height. Well yesterday at her 15 month check up, she dropped to the 10th-25th percentile in weight (still only weighs 20 lbs 15 oz) and is still in 90th percentile in height.
The Pedi said since she dropped down from her normal curve in weight, that she needs to drink Carnation Instant Breakfast or Ovaltine everyday. I did tell her that LO eats a ton already and she said LO probably just has a fast metabolism. It's not really a big deal to me. I just have a couple questions.
Was your LO ever put on a type of drink like that (carnation instant breakfast or ovaltine)?
How much weight did LO gain in a month? (we have a follow up in a month).
When did you give the drink to your LO, how much and how many times a day? (pedi said once or twice a day. I'm thinking of giving it to her after breakfast and maybe after dinner..)
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Re: Anyone have an LO who was put on Ovaltine or Carnation?
I was a carnation fed baby for 3 months. I was low birth weight (5 pounds) and had an issue with projectile vomiting. My mom says I gained 7 pounds in a month on it and I received it first thing in the morning and after dinner. We just had this discussion two weeks. ago.
DD's Food Allergies: Peanuts and Rice, Outgrown Dairy!
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Never in my arms, but always in my heart.
Liam dropped from the 25-50th% to 10-25% for weight at his 2 year check up and when the calculated his body fat percentage it was less than 5%. He is 35 inches tall and weighs 25 lbs soaking wet. Our doctor said that she was fine with his weight, even though it dropped, as long as he was eating and didn't go off the charts. She never mentioned supplements of any kind.
Honestly, I see that stuff as kind of a slippery slope since it's so sweet and would be training their taste buds towards sugary drinks. I would only use it if it was absolutely necessary.
ETA: Also, it's not uncommon for kids to drop percentiles when they start walking more. At 15 months, it could just be because your LO is more active. I, personally, wouldn't worry about weight gain unless she starts actually losing weight or falls off the growth chart completely.
Right?
What about Whey Protein powder? It at least has protein. . . put that in with a splash of coconut milk.
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Yeah, that's the one thing I worried about... the sugar thing and LO not wanting to go back to regular milk. I'm going to have to look over the Carnation Instant Breakfast label and see how much sugar we're dealing with.
The Pedi also gave me a hand out that talked about high calorie foods such as eggs, butter, sour cream, gravy etc. to add to LO's diet.
18-19 g sugars depending on the flavor. The third ingredient is sugar.
https://www.carnationbreakfastessentials.com/Products/Powder/Rich-Milk-Chocolate/Nutrition.aspx
And only the fat of the added milk. But 5g of protein. . . If you didn't want to try whey protein powder, you could always cut the Carnation in half.
You can also make smoothies w/avocado. I'd probably rather that - a little cocoa, a little coconut milk, a little avocado, and some maple syrup. . . but a lot of that depends on how much time you want to put into it, kwim?
ETA: There's also Ensure - that's high protein and low sugar (only 5g of sugar). Or the toddler nutritional supplements. . .
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FYI, Carnation has a product with no sugar added. Just look for the blue box, not the yellow.
Betsy has been on CIB since her 15 month weight check. She was 16.8 lbs at the time. We had her two year appointment yesterday and she weighed 18.8 lbs. So, two whole pounds in the better part of a year. She is less than 3rd percentile for weight and 5th-10th for height.
I do think it helps nutrition-wise--for example, it made her hair grow. She went from practically bald to having a decent head of hair in about a month 1/2 after we started using it. And I guess there's a chance she would have gained even less without it.
We add it to every cup of milk she's given, so four servings a day. There have been times when we've run out or been away from home and forgotten to take it with us, and she's accepted regular milk just fine on those occasions.
My DS was put on pediasure when he was 12 months old. I don't think we have Carnation in Canada? He went from 97% weight at 3mons to 17% at 12 mos.
Anyway, at that time he was losing weight (he also refused to eat when teething and when sick). Pediasure helped. He doesn't take it anymore. I would give it at snack time. So between breakfast and lunch and between lunch and dinner. I always offered real food first. If he completely refused a meal I would take him out of the high chair, wait a little bit, then give the pediasure. I didn't want him to associate refusing real food with getting pediasure.
To increase his weight, I also would add olive oil or butter to foods that made sense like mashed veggies, pancakes, when cooking eggs. I would mix 10% MF ricotta with 4% yogurt. Gave him dark meat chicken and turkey. Eggs and avacado are good if you LO will eat them.
At his 15 mos appt his was doing pretty well. He's keeping on the curve for weight (after his dramatic drop). My DH and I are smaller/leaner so our ped is taking that into account as well.
I agree with this. My kid is very low weight, pedi is not worried, she's meeting all milestones and her head is growing. His exact words "some kids are skinny, babies are supposed to be fat, at some point they transition" Both DH and I were skinny kids. The important thing to him was that her head was growing. He said to just focus on nutritionally dense foods and not worry about it unless she loosed weight or has some behavioral change, like becoming lethargic.
Did you breastfeed? if you did BF, there is a chart that WHO uses with a more accurate weight curve for breastfed babies.
My LO weighed 7lbs 10 oz at birth, but only 21 lbs at 1 year and 22 lbs at 18 months. I haven't taken her in yet, but I think she is about 25 lbs now. but she is growing in height for sure because her pants are getting too short!