Hello parents of underweight babies and toddlers! I know your pain and struggle.I've often posted on this forum asking for advice. I feel like I'm finally out of the woods with the concerns of my sons weight, so I wanted to say THANK YOU for any past advice and also wanted to offer some tips, tricks and product reviews for others who may be in my old shoes :-)For context, my son is about to turn 2, finally in the fifth percentile for weight (50th for height and head circ). When he was 3 weeks old he fell off the weight charts. He finally jumped back on around 18 months. He had undiagnosed silent reflux until he was 10 months old. My doc didn't think it was reflux since he wasn't showing symptoms, but I was desperate to try and rule out anything, as he was heading down the path of a feeding tube. She said there was no harm in trying reflux meds for a week and see what happened...well they worked. And then we began calorie counting and became obsessed with maximizing his intake. Try not to obsess to much...you need to make time for other things. This is very important.Tips: *Eliminate snack time. I know this is hard to let go - you want to pump your kid full of calories when you can! But they do eat more when they go every 2.5 hours between meals and snacks. *Make every bite count! Add cheese, oil, butter, dips, jams, nut butters where you can. These are easiest to add with crackers, breads, pastas but also veggies. Dust some Parmesan on brocoli or veggie of choice, roast at 425 and stir every 15 or so minutes. Roast until you see toast! Sometimes it takes 30-45 minutes.Products: (The highest calories generally result from homemade food, but I think I've found some good on the go options.) *Happy Tot makes purée pouches that are 100 calories or more, while others are as low as 50!! Look for the butternut squash, apple, carrot mixes for the highest. *Freeze dried fruits. 'Nuff said. *Duocal...this is worth it, I think. They are non-gmo and it's strictly a calorie booster. We maybe used a half a can before it expired, but I still recommend. Very easy to add an additional 25-50 calories per meal. Very easy to add to scrambled eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, ketchup, mayo, marinara, alfredo...etc! *Toddler formula. So formula or breast milk is recommended up to one year. You can continue after, with the advice of your predication, and it's worked for us. We specifically use Baby's Only Organic. We use 8.5 oz of water and 6 scoops to maintain a 27 cal per oz ratio. We attempted to switch to a more toddler appropriate formula (pediasure or pediasmart) and it was like going from drinking milk to a milkshake...my little guy never adapted to the texture, so we switched back to what he liked. You can also add Duocal to milk, if you are done with Formula.Do's and dont's: *Bridge foods. For example, my toddler eats almost every meal with ketchup. Ketchup is his bridge. It's familiar, so if we always offer a side of ketchup, he will o for new foods and eat more 99% of the time. *Offer small portions. Portions could be overwhelming if too big. We stick to 2-3 tbsp portions for each different food. Example meal: 2-3 tbsp of scrambled egg, toast bites and either sausage or home fries (we get frozen home Fries!) *Don't cave into their immediate needs....what I mean is this: When they are used to grazing and all of a sudden are expected to wait longer between meals, you may have tears. It is a strong burst of emotions, but they CAN wait another 10 minutes for dinner to finish being ready. Water is a great offer during those 10 minutes that you may need to finish cooking dinner. This will not fill them up. *Limit juice. It's low in calories and filling due to natural and sometimes, added sugars. *Let them eat ice cream!! So high in calories. Make it special...top with whipped cream! Also, add whip cream to fruits for a calorie boost.As always, take my and any advice with a grain of salt. What works for me, might not work for you. Always consult your pediatrician! via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2wCTNCS
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