Fatty Foods for Toddler

My son is in a similar situation, in that he is on the skinny side in spite of the fact that he eats very well and is allergic to dairy. One really good food to give is advocado. My son has liked them since he was introduced to solid food, but now I mix it with mashed black beans and spread it on a tortilla or let him dip tortilla chips in it. Sometimes I mix in some shredded vegan cheese as well.

Also, he drinks hemp milk (available at whole foods) as his milk replacement. It's somewhat expensive, but has much more fat content than rice or soy milk (almost as much as whole milk), and all the same vitamin and mineral supplements. I just learned that you get a discount when you buy 12 or more at a time (case discount).

My 14 month old has a similar issue. Avocados are supposed to be the quickest weight-gaining food and they are super nutritious as well. My son hasn’t acquired a taste for them yet but he’s getting better. Sometimes I mash up some and put a bit of breast milk in it. Also, I put a small spoonful of ground flax seeds in his cereal. The oil from it is rich in Omega fatty acid. I’ve been thinking about getting some flax seed oil and adding it to his food instead of the ground flax seeds. I hope this helps!
-J. Q.

Assuming your pediatrician wants her to gain weight...

* avocado
* nut butters (soy, almond, etc.) if the pediatrician say to start these - I think tree nuts are different from peanuts
* fish
* chicken

i'd go for lots of other good protein sources like meat, shrimp, and beans. i'm not sure what your doctor's views are on nuts/peanut butter, etc for her age. but they are great sources of good fats. also avocados are a great source of good fat.

Olive oil is a good start. Unfortunately most milk replacements are very low calorie, which may be part of the problem. My daughter is failure to thrive and on a high calorie diet. First make sure to give 3 meals and two snacks and carbs with every meal. As parents we get so wrapped up with making sure that the fruits and vegetables are there that we forget that carbs are important for active little bodies. Our nutritionist advised starting peanut butter at 18 months because of our daughters high calorie needs. Alvacadoes/ gaucamole are wonderful if you can convince her to eat them. Bright beginnings also makes a soy based high calorie toddler drink that you can use to supplement her calories (250 kcal/ 8 oz). If your pediatrician is concerned, you could ask her to refer you to a nutritionist who can help - especially because of her difficult to manage allergies.

Many people didn't state the obvious here, but is your doctor concerned about her lack of weight gain? If not, then I wouldn't worry about it. My son is 20 months and he's hasn't gained any weight in the past two months. He eats well and his dr hasn't shared any concerns with his weight. Either way I would consult her doctor since he/she would give you the best advice on her diet.

What does your doctor say? I would be very careful giving her more fat than is in the foods she wants to eat...my son eats sporadically and sometimes doesn't gain the weight I expect...but my doctor says he is healthy and I can see he is happy - so I just go with it. Maybe just stop fretting about it? Toddlers can feel when you are stressed about things and sometimes it adversely affects what we want them to do.

You didn't mention either your pediatrician or a dietitian -- if you haven't consulted either please see your ped. and ask for a referral to a registered dietitian who specializes in children's dietary issues. The ideas below are great but if the ped. is concerned he or she should already have referred you to someone for professional advice. If the ped. isn't concerned yet, take a deep breath, try the new foods folks have suggested and visit the dr. again if you remain worried. One consideration -- Our godson ate little and was very small and until he was about five his parents were kept freaked out by doctors about his size. Turned out the doctors forgot to notice both his parents are short, his dad is short and very slender, and he's just genetically destined to be smaller and slenderer than some kids. Is that the case with your family? Around four or five he started eating normally and is (and was) just fine. I'm definitely not saying ignore the very low weight gain, I'm just saying get professional advice and be sure the professionals see the bigger picture too -- talk with them about every detail and don't be afraid to ask questions.

Your child will grow as she is genetically made to grow. Don't be worried. My children were skinny little kids until they reached puberty. Then they filled out beautifully. AF

Updated

If your child is not grossly under weight, then worry not about her weight gain. Children grow at their own pace. some children stay thin until puberty. Over weight is a bigger problem healthwise than under weight. I was a petite child but very healthy. AF

My daughter is also allergic to milk and eggs, and we consulted an RD to get help getting her fed. She told me that the adult hang-ups about fat in the diet do not apply to toddlers, they need as much as 50% of their calories from fat, and most get it from whole milk. She told me to serve her plenty of bacon, fatty meats - like ground beef that has a higher percentage over ground turkey, etc.- anything you can get her to eat will be perfectly healthy for her given her restricted diet. I know what a challenge it is feeding a child with these allergies, if I can chat and help at all please send me a mail note at seeit2 at yahoo dot com.

my 2 year old is also allergic to milk and eggs. I give him coconut milk mixed with rice milk so he gets the good fats from the coconut milk.
Talk to the pediatrician mabye he has suggestions.

Think outside the box. Have you tried soy based infant formula? The American Academy of Pediatrics says that nearly 25% of all formula-fed infants are being given soy-based formula and exhibit normal growth and development. Soy milk is different from soy formula. The formula is based on soy protein and the milk is made from the whole soybean. The formula is also fortified to meet the special requirements of growing infants, soy milk is not. Although the fat content is generally lower than milk products the soy protein can be more easily metabolized for growth.
About the eggs: Most allergic reactions are triggered by the White, not the Yolk. The yolk is more calorie dense anyway. Unless your child's egg allergy has been medically confirmed, I would try introducing egg yolk.
Some mothers find their children tolerate and digest goat's milk far better than cow's milk. The allergies originate from specific proteins, the typical culprits in cow's milk allergies are significantly lower in goat's milk. Goat milk is actually far similar to human milk than is cow's milk. Check out askdrsears.com . That site is loaded with helpful information presented in an easy to follow manner. I hope this helps.

K.,
Time to switch Dr.'s to a more knowledgeable practitioner who knows about nutrition. We are vegan. My son was on the low end around that age and up till about 3 yrs. old. He is has been in the 90th percentile for height for the last 6 yrs. now. Avocado is great, so are: flax seeds, hemp seeds, and chia seeds. Walnuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds are great too.
Congrats on your transition to a vegetarian lifestyle.
L. M.

I noticed one person mention your pediatrition... is the Dr. concerned? I was also wondering if she has grown taller in that time frame. Sometimes, my boys didn't gain weight, but grew taller in certain time frames. Then they would go through a time when they put on weight but didn't grow much taller. I think the body gets focused on one kind of growing at a time. ;)

Otherwise, it sounds like you've gotten some great leads on some good foods... my mom is allergic to so many different foods, including dairy. She eats a lot of goat cheese and soy products. There is a lot of good stuff out there, and I've heard that Trader Joe's has a good organic and dairy free selection.

Good luck.

Hi K.,
I had a similar problem when my son was younger. My doctor gave me a list of fattier and higher protein foods. Granted, most items were dairy products. Some things you may want to try are wheat germ and peanut butter.

Sunflowerseed butter is a good replacement for peanut butter because it's very unlikely to be allergenic.

Also, coconut oil is great to add to foods--it is a good source of saturated fat that your kiddo needs that she isn't getting from animal foods.

Smoothies with coconut milk, frozen fruit like mango, bananas, and avocados are very high in calories and fat and delicious!

Avocados are a great source of the "good" fats and they're also high in Omega 3's! See if she'll take some avocado cut up on top of her food (especially salad if she eats that) or you can make her some fresh guacamole & give her tortilla chips to dip it in...one way my son liked it when he was younger was slightly mashed up with a banana.

Also you can try giving her oatmeal (that is, if she isn't eating it already) - it can be helpful with really having something to stick to her bones, as they say and again, a good whole food. We are vegan, so we just make our oatmeal with water, cinammon & raisins...we let that all soak for about 30 min. & it's great! We like our oatmeal room temp...not hot/warm, but if you want to warm it after it soaks up, that should be fine!

Good luck!

I realize that you are not vegan, but if you are looking for some great recipes that are egg and dairy free, a great place to look is recipes in a vegan cookbook. One of our favorites is Healthy Cooking for Kids, Building Blocks for a liftime of Good Nutrition, by shelly Null. It has a section on allergen free cooking and some really great recipes that are attractive to my two kids.

I would not worry too much about weight gain unless your doctor has told you that something is wrong.

Good Luck!

M.

Olive oil is a good start. I've had the same problems with my 15 month old Son, who is allergic to eggs, but not milk. Avocados are full of good fat, but my son doesn't like the taste. Try sneaking some in with her other foods and she may not notice! Once in a while, I'll pan fry my son's chicken breast in butter. It sounds so terrible, but he loves it! I also know that at this age, fish is allowed to be introduced into the diet, try fish! Hope this helps!

I know exactly how you feel. My son is not chubby and doesn't have that "baby fat" look to him. He has always been lean. He was born at 7lbs 8 oz but had to wear premmie clothes because he was so "lean". My husband and I are vegan but may son eats what he wants within reason (not a lot of processed foods). He does not eat dairy or meat but eats eggs. We use rice milk instead of cows milk and vegan cheeses as well. I also make my own cheese sauce for mac and cheese using cashews, nutritional yeast and rice milk.

Like someone else posted, avocados are great nutritionally and things like rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes and any starchy vegetable like corn or peas. Adding oil may not be the best thing to get your child to gain weight. You want her to get her nutrition. We don't add oils to our foods we get them from the foods we eat. Does she like olives? Olives are "fatty" just like avocados. You can put the avocado in a fruit smoothy because it makes it creamier and you can't taste it. You can also make "ice cream" using avocado and banana.
You have gotten some great advice. My opinion is that with the amount of obese children these days the weight charts are not something to use to gauge my child's health by. I look at how he has been developing since birth. He has gained very slowly. My son is 4 years old and only weighs 34.5 pounds but he is healthy. The doctor mentioned something to me the last time we were in about how my son didn't gain much since his last visit. I explained that we had changed our diet. Not only that but we were there because my son had thrown up that morning, couldn't keep anything down and hadn't eaten anything for over 18 hours so what would you excpect him to weigh?
Try to give her calorie dense foods that are healthy like Complex carbohydrates (starches) such as whole grains, pasta, cereals, beans, yams, potatoes and rice. Fruit and fruit juices are high in calories, juice more than the fruit but you want her to get her fiber too.
Look at vegweb.com and see if there is anything there that looks good to you. It is a vegan sight so you may find that there are a lot of recipes that exclude dairy and eggs.
I hope this helps but like others have said:
If she is growing and developing properly, the doctor doesn't seem concerned, if she is eating well and has energy then I personally would not worry. Try not to compare her to other children, she is her own person and has her own physicality. It is hard not to look at other children and think that your child is skinnier or not as "plump" but as long as you are taking good care of her then I would just enjoy your daughter and keep doing what you are doing.
Keep up the great work momma.Trust your instincts.

My now-4-year-old was the same, despite eating far more than other kids her age. Until we dealt with the cause of her problem -- which in her case was that her acid reflux and other body issues weren't allowing her to process/use the nutrients she was taking in - no matter how many calories we gave her, she still didn't gain weight.

In our case we turned to a homeopathic MD (Dr. Margaret Gennaro in Fairfax, VA -- highly recommended), and between enzymes (for digestion), probiotics and other supplements, she is now thriving, getting bigger and gaining weight. Ironically she is eating LESS now, but gaining more weight than before.

BTW she also has food allergies -- dairy, wheat, beef and banana.

Good luck - L., wife and pt working mom to 2 girls

From what I understand, an 18-month-old isn't expected to gain very much weight at this point. My son (22-months) hasn't gained all that much either over the past several months, but, from what I understand, it's normal. (And he is a HUGE eater--four servings of dinner tonight!) Unless your dr. has concerns about her weight, growth or health, I wouldn't worry about it too much just now. Offer as much healthy food as you can and let her eat when she's hungry and how much she needs until she's full. Kids are great at regulating what their bodies really need, which is different for every kid. It's us, the silly grown-ups, who have the food issues! :)
B.

Hi, K., If she is eating well and seems healthy, I really wouldn't worry about the lack of weight gain. My youngest did not triple her birth weight in the first year, and at one point, it seemed like she weighed 32 pounds forever!!! Your daughter will probably experience a growth spurt anytime now. Is your doctor concerned? Good luck.

My oldest son had trouble gaining weight as well. His pediatrian had me meet with a nutritionist for some good food ideas, including calorie rich healthy smoothies. Since your daughter is allergic to milk, you could just substitute soy milk for cows milk. I'd recommend letting your pediatrian know your concerns. All kids gain weight differently, but the doctor may also want to check for certain illnesses, such as Type 1 diabetes, which are known to cause weight loss.

Good luck!

I would suggest feeding her things she likes to eat! I have learned also that they gain weight by eating when they are hungry. My daughter has packed on some pounds because we started feeding her when we know she is hungry. When she is full she will turn her head or make a face to let us know she does not want anymore! She will gain weight in time..You have to understand to that all children are different! Good luck with the little one! Your doing a great job =)

Avocodo's are a great source of good food. Raw nut butter from, cashews or almonds.
Organic butter,if not that some other organic source on sweet potatoes because both are high calorie! Banana's, I have a friend that sells raw goats milk, and that is superior and has what is nesscary in it to be digested.
Let me know!
P.

If your daughter doesn't like plain avacado, mash it with banana!! It tastes just like banana and is SO healthy. Once in awhile I even put a dab of chocolate syrup on it and it tastes very similar to a banana sundae.

My understanding is that you need protein to help increase muscle mass. Fatty carbs are not necessarily going to put on the kind of weight you want. Try to increase her protein intake - whether that's with chicken or fish or tofu or turkey burgers or whatever. Sometimes kids love meat,and sometimes they hate it, but usually there's some kind or another they will eat. I know people who have done organic deli meat slices (to reduce the chemicals) and others who have done chicken nuggets every which way they can think of. Good luck, and know she will eat when she is hungry. She's also probably in a very active/curious phase, so she's probably burning a lot more calories each day than she was this time last year.

My son also has food allergies to milk and egg and problems gaining weight. One thing he always loves that is full of healthy fats is avocado- I usually let one ripen and mash it up with a half of a banana and he eats it up. Another thing he eats a lot (if you have no issues with nut allergies) is almond butter. It has a lower incidence of allergic reaction and also has healthy fats and is calorie dense. He also loves salmon (be careful to give small pieces if you get filets that have bones in them). We also give a lot of soy yogurt or coconut milk yogurt. Hope that helps with a few ideas. If you come across any good ones for me please pass them along!