In a century where many people suffer from obesity, it is tough to find information on how to help your kids gain weight. Here are ten tips I've found useful.
- Check with your doctor to see if your child could be underweight due to a food allergy, food intolerance or other medical issue. Celiac disease (wheat and gluten intolerance) is relatively common disorder that can cause nutrient absorption problems and stunted growth.
- A friend's child was underweight due to a milk allergy. Dairy allergies are also common problems and another area to consider. Besides having a medical check up, you can also just try different diets for a week and track your child's weight each day. For one week keep your child off dairy products and see if that results in any weight gain. Research studies are conflicting on whether milk helps children lose or gain weight, so trial and error may be the best way to determine what is best for your child.
- Track how many calories your child eats each day. Children can be underweight for a variety of reasons. Some may not have much of an appetite and may not be taking in enough calories. Another possible reason is that your child may be eating enough food but is not absorbing the foods he or she eats. Tracking daily calorie intake, even if just for a few days, can help to narrow down the possible causes for your child's low body weight. You can keep track of this yourself with a pencil and paper in a notebook, or if you are really serious about tracking your child's calorie intake, you can buy a nutrition software program for kids called Nutribase. With this program you can enter what your child eats each day and compare the actual values to recommended amounts of calories, fats, protein and most vitamins and minerals based on your child's goal weight and activity level.
- Zinc deficiency is one possible cause of a lack of appetite. Children should get their zinc from food only, since they only need 2 to 5 milligrams daily depending on their age. Good sources of zinc are blackberries, red meat, beans, fish, eggs, some crackers and cereals.
- Research has shown that people tend to eat the same volume (about five pounds) of food each day, whether that food is high or low in calories. So the objective is to provide foods that are low in weight but high in energy density, but still healthy, like nuts and dried fruits. There are many foods like cookies and doughnuts that have high energy densities but only provide empty calories. Try to avoid serving those at home and only focus on foods that are both nutritious as well as energy dense. See: Relatively healthy foods with high energy densities.
- Kids are allowed to eat more fat than adults, especially full cream milk, butter and cream cheese. They need fat for growth and development of various body functions.
- Kids who are underweight often do better with cooked foods. Cooking usually makes foods easier to digest. Cooking also helps destroy any bacteria, fungus, and such that may be on the food. Foods that have been simmered for a long time, likes soups and stews, are easiest to digest.
- For dessert try serving fruit with real whipped cream for some extra calories. If your child has a dairy allergy you can use coconut cream instead.
- Have healthy snacks like nuts, dried fruits, bread and cheese easily available so your kids can feed themselves when you busy or not around.
- Always plan to have enough food for leftovers at meals. Then if your children have an increased appetite for a given meal, you will have enough food to keep feeding them until they are full. Otherwise, you will have leftovers for healthy snacking.
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