Underweight kid won't eat

[XSanguinus]

I have two sons, Logan and Brody, ages 6 and 3 1/2 respectively. Logan is very active both physically and socially.  This is a great relief to me as he was born 6 weeks premature.  He shows absolutely no signs of being a preemie except one - he is very underweight.  Sometimes he looks a little gaunt.  The problem is that he simply won't eat enough to put on healthy weight.  This weekend at a birthday party he wouldn't even take more than a single bite of a cupcake. His younger brother eats like a beast and is becoming a little tank.  I really want to get Logan eating more and putting on healthy weight, but nothing seems to work.  He just won't eat enough.  Healthy foods and snacks or unhealthy foods and snacks, it makes no difference.  Smoothies work more than anything else and I'm always happy to make him one. Aside from that, its hit-or-miss and really upsets me.

 

Any other parents out there who have experienced a similar situation? I could use any help I can get.  

[Krisis]

I'm in the exact same boat, almost to a tee.  Toby is 5.5 and was born 7 weeks early.  my husband and I are both overweight so having a kid who is so skinny is kind of weird  

 

We were desperate to get him to gain weight over the last few months because he is on a medication that helps with his behavior and his doctor was threatening to take him off.  It makes such a  difference in his life that we couldn't have that happen.  I tried to shove all the food I could down his throat, ice cream, cookies, etc.  He just wouldn't eat. 

 

What we did was we got a 24 oz waterbottle and filled it full of whole milk.  He has to drink at least one full waterbottle a day (we do take it away around meal times, right before, so that he doesn't get too full of milk and not eat dinner.)  The other thing is that in the morning he gets a PediaSure shake and he gets one right before he goes to bed too.  Those Pediasure are expensive but they really do help.  They get the extra calories into those babies.  

 

At dinner, he has to take at least 5 bites of everything on his plate (because he's 5.  Next year we'll go up to 6 bites.)  We try to feed him fattening snacks too, like lots of peanut butter, even French fries. 

 

It's hard because you don't want to make them addicted to bad food, but at the same time, being underweight is dangerous.  I highly recommend the PediaSure but if you don't want to go that route then definitely try switching to whole milk products and seeing if you can get him to drink at least 3 cups a day. 

 

Good luck!

[CrisciMalosh]

Alright. I have a few suggestions (my oldest has autism, so have been in a similar boat.) What I did, and what my doctor advised, is to find one nut, one dried fruit, and one portable sweet that your kid likes, and make a grazing station.

 

Put out a tray of portable finger foods for him, let him know it is there and that he can keep playing and grab as he wants, and he may slowly work his way up to eating more. Our tray is dried blueberries, cashews, and popcorn. He eats one or two trays a day now, and has gained quite a bit of weight.

 

I wish you luck!

[XSanguinus]

Thanks. I like the grazing idea.  I'll give it a try.

[CombatBoot]

I was born premature and have been underweight most of my life, nor have I ever eaten "enough" until I was 15-16. My parents worried sick about my eating habits. The point being that kids can be underweight and barely eat, they won't die of hunger. 

 

That said, the grazing idea is genius: he can take food whenever he wants to, and as long as it's food he likes, he will take it.

[Morrigainz]

My sister was always underweight. Just like a beanpole. My mom would give her eggnog (sans booze).

[Krisis]

That grazing station is an awesome idea!  My son (also autistic) has serious texture issues and won't eat dried fruit but maybe I can find a nut he likes and go from there.  

[XSanguinus]

The one problem with the grazing idea is that my younger boy will eat it all before the older skinny guy gets a chance!

[Shereads]

I have an undereater but he has celiac.This kid eats, he just has a hard time putting on weight thanks to his gut issue. Sometimes under gaining is caused by gut problems.His younger brother weighs as much as he does and our guy looks like a walking skeleton. He has sensory/ texture issues with food so it makes it very hard to find stuff he will eat. If he eats smoothies I see nothing wrong with it. My biggest trick to get our guy to gain weight was the before bed feeding of a high calorie smoothie. It also made him ravenous in the morning and I could pack  a good solid breakfast into him. His cheeks started to get fat and then boom his body used it to grow four inches.

[Krisis]

You could always add oil to his smoothies.  I have heard lots of stories of people doing that (just straight vegetable oil.)  Sounds gross to me but it might help while keeping him eating what he likes.  

 

I tried to get Toby to eat a Lunch-able today (he LOVES them) and he ate two crackers and was "done."  I had to have him pretend to be Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) to eat his turkey, and even then it was a fight.  Toby's dropped 3 lbs since May 28 and his doctor is going to FREAK OUT so we're back on the weight-packing train ourselves.  

[Shereads]

The best fat packing oil I have found was coconut. But my guy hates coconut flavors. After trying all nutritional supplement shakes We went with the vanilla pediasure with added fiber. I wanted him to get the 500cal ensures or other muscle building stuff but it was a no go. I also began making nutella shakes with the pediasure just for the added calories. Those went over very well. I have to be very careful with adding fruit thanks to his texture issues. Anything with seeds that my cheap blender cant turn to mush won't get eaten. That's why I love my Popsicle maker. A smoothie that got turned down in liquid form often gets eaten in Popsicle form. If you can get them to eat high fat foods it helps. Not junk food. The weight issues almost make me with I could put a NG tube on him and just feed whatever it was he hated down the tube. That would not solve the problem.

[CrisciMalosh]

I had that issue, the younger child eating it all before the older got a chance... I put it higher, lol.

 

My guy loves dried fruit, our struggle was the nuts.... but he does at least eat peanut butter, which helps.

 

Some fresh fruits that I have used in the grazing station are grapes, melon balls, and orange slices. Really anything that is able to stay out of the fridge for a couple of hours works great!

[alienjenn]

my youngest (13 years old) JUST broke the 80# mark... he is so tiny you can count all his ribs... and we call him chrisasaurous because his spine sticks out so much like a stegasaur (he is a total dino freak so he loves it) he is also on the autistic spectrum if that makes any difference... 

 

his problem is that he can't eat enough... he eats 3-4000 calories a day... and still can't gain weight... I ended up starting to make him a "magic drink" with carnation instant breakfast (which penny for penny is similar t pediasure nutrient wise) and vitamin c and miralax (1/2 dose) and fibre... this is a concoction that his doc and I came up with to address his weight gain and constipation issues he has 1-2 shakes a day... if he has a high calorie burn day I will add pb or ice cream to it... (sometimes I use protein powder... depends on what we have in the house)

 

he won't drink whole milk (says the texture is odd on his tongue)... he doesn't like avocado (although he recently tried my abc pudding (avocado bannana cocoa) and LOVED it... so it's something that I have to keep in the fridge...

 

I let him eat a lot of high quality foods... I try to push foods that are nutrient dense... like pb and avocado and such... I hide veggies in EVERYTHING

 

 

for the longest time he wouldn't try new things... I started with a "you must try one bite of each new food before you get seconds" at each meal (and I would only have one new food in a meal with something I KNEW he would eat... and I would always offer something like crackers at meals that had something that I knew would be difficult for him) over time I upped it to 3 bites then 5 bites... then one serving (measured by scoop or whatever the serving size was) ... then eventually I started serving entire new meals... and nothing that he would like... and he is to the point where he will eat anything that is put in front of him... he used to have serious panic attacks when something new was put in front of him... now he will just say "I don't like this but I know I am expected to eat it" and he will eat it...

 

 

my suggestion is to look for calorie dense foods... offer them to the picky eater... allow him to graze... if you have worries about the other kid taking his snacks have a kid 1 and kid 2 snack bowl (we do that here... and over the years... the kids have learned YES Chris gets more snack food than they do... and YES it's ok... and NO they can't take his food)... give him a shake... give him milk... 

 

avoid giving him junk food "just to fatten him up"... he won't always have this metabolism... and it will only cause problems for him down the line

[Krisis]

After trying all nutritional supplement shakes We went with the vanilla pediasure with added fiber. I wanted him to get the 500cal ensures or other muscle building stuff but it was a no go. I also began making nutella shakes with the pediasure just for the added calories. Those went over very well. 

 

 

That is an EXCELLENT idea.  I am definitely going to have to try that with Toby.  

 

I have started giving him whole grain bagels with lots of Nutella on them for his afternoon snack.  It fills him up and has healthy calories but doesn't taste healthy, you know?   

[CrisciMalosh]

Have discovered a new treat for the grazing station for my kiddo. =)

 

Popcorn balls made with peanut butter instead of sugar... just have to leave a wet towel near the station. SCORE!