Butter in Baby Food?

Most importantly, do you trust your doctor? Where is she on the growth chart? Is she starting to fall off, for her weight/height? Remember, baby diets are high in fat, until a child is two years old you want them to have a high fat diet in order to help brain growth. Just because your baby isn't chubby isnt' a problem, but seems to me this couldn't hurt your baby. Congrats on your baby, and your petite little one. I live near Brownsburg, in your neck of the woods.
R.

Good Lord! If she is gaining weight consistently, I don't see what the problem is. She was small to begin with so it's not surprising she's still small. Doctors can be dumb:( The whole cereal in the bottle thing is an unproven trick people say works. Babies get all the nurishment they need from breastmilk or formula for the first year. It really doesn't matter how much solids you give them, they don't eat enough to get much from them. Up the amount of formula you give her and ignore the doc.

Yes, we did do this. Our little guy also needed the extra calories. Most of the time we just mixed butter in with his rice or oatmeal cereal. We also gave him ice cream nearly every night (we'd wait until it was pretty melty) once he could have cows milk. When he turned one we added pudding made with whole milk to his diet. Those extra calories do help with weight gain and development. We'll taper off when he turns two but in the meantime we let him splurge on those types of high calorie foods. If you still have questions, talk to your doctor again, that is what they are there for! Good luck to you!

Honestly I wouldn't worry about it. I have twins (7 1/2 now) that were born at 27 weeks and weighed 1 and 2 lbs. My girl is very petite!!!!!!!!! She was almost a year before she weighed what yours is now and even now she is only 45 lbs and in first grade, making her in the 10th percentile. We did all the stuff your doing now, but our doc never said anything about the oil/ butter thing and honestly if she's just going to be petite I wouldn't want the extra weight on her. I always worried about my girl being in such a low percentile, but our doc (even this winter) said, "she's just going to be small and as long as she doesn't fall off the growth chart, don't worry." So I don't. Her twin brother is about 15 lbs heavier and 5 inches taller. And I think they'll always be that far apart. Hope this eases some of your worry.

Yes, I have heard of this. Guess it is because I am so old, 56, and we did things a lot differently when my brother, 9 years younger, and my children 28 and 26 were little than we did when the 10 year old I am raising now was young.
We started my brother on cereal added to his milk at 4 weeks old. I started my daughter on cereal at 3 months, against the peditrians instructions because frankly feeding her every 2 hours was a drag. My son only weighed 4lbs 5ozs when he was born (the cord weighed in at 2 1/2 lbs and went to Mayo Clinic for study as it was 2 times longer than normal as well), he had jaundice to the point of complete transfusions being considered within 6 hours of birth and caught ruebella in the nursery at the hospital. He started on cereal at 1 month, and we were instructed to add butter (turns out he could only handle 2% milk so butter was not a good thing for his little tummy, but oil did help.
What you have to watch out for is gaining to much weight for her frame. You don't want her to develope a fat weight problem as an infant that will carry through. You might try half the recommended amount and add it to the food immediately rather than at the very end of the feeding as the taste and texture will be different for her and she is almost done eatting by the last of the meal and may not finish her food due to taste and texture, added to the full amount of the serving it will not be as noticable for her.

P. R

I am so glad to hear someone else got this suggestion. I too was a little confused and worried when this was suggested. My son is currently 1% in weight. He was born 7 lbs. 5 oz., which is average. At 6 months he was 14 lbs. 11 oz. and then at 9 months he was 16 lbs.

Now, I put butter in everything I can. I feed him hot-dogs and he LOVES mac and cheese. Both foods are packed with calories. He also really likes buttered peas. I have been doing this for several months now, and it has not hurt him one bit. I just make sure that the butter I get has no trans fat, and I do not use margarine.

I think it is helping. We will know for sure this Friday. We go for his 1 year appointment. Maybe if we are lucky we will get to turn his carseat around (1 year and 20 lbs.). :) I am not counting on it though.

I trust my doctor, and I know he wouldn't suggest anything that would harm my baby. I am willing to do whatever I can to help him grow and gain.

I have heard of this- a friend of mine had a preemie and he was very small and she had to add butter to his meals. I think you should if your child is small- butter is made from the cream of milk and is good for a person that is underweight and not having cholesterol problems.

It sounds like your baby is growing fine. I think they say that they should double their weight by 6 months (?) My daughter is petite as well. She was about 12 lbs at 6 months (6 lbs at birth). She is now 3 1/2 and weighs about 28 lbs soaking wet with her snow boots on. I made a lot of her baby food purees and would often cook the foods in butter first--especially veggies--or add a pat before she ate. There is a really good book called First Meals by Annabel Karmel that gives you ideas for baby meals from first solids through elementary school. I know she uses butter in a lot of her recipes. I also used to give her the full-fat Yo Baby yogurts when she was a little older, which she loved. After she turned one I started using the Pediasure shakes but she didn't love those. I know it is hard to have a baby who is petite--not the standard chubby baby. It gets old hearing people comment on how small she is or not believing how old she is because she is small. I have just tried to focus on estabishing healthy eating habbits. Honestly, her size seemed like such a big deal every time we went into the doctor...and then she turned two. Now she gets weighed on the big scale and no one even mentions her weight. Hopes this helps!