Adding calories for weight gain

[jeffreysmom24]

Hi ladies! I haven't posted here before and was mostly a lurker on the other board. Was hoping to get some ideas from yall! LO had his 9 month appointment today and is only in the sixth percentile for weight (23rd for height). He is still nursing and has been a bit slow to start solids (has started to do better only recently). Does anyone have any ideas for foods we can try to add calories?

He does like teething crackers so I put some butter on that this evening and also gave him some shredded cheese for the first time which he liked. Would welcome any ideas! Thanks so much!! I hope it is ok that I posted here.

[meagpt22]

Did your doctor seem concerned? And offer any suggestions. That might be a better source to ask.

Edit typo

[lrobi13]

I saw somewhere about adding olive oil to purees and trying to get your lo to eat avacodos.

[jeniece47]

My baby loves cheese and pasta. Both pretty easy to eat because they are soft. If your pedi isn't concerned though, I wouldn't be either.

[jeffreysmom24]

Jul 28, 2015 20:33:22 GMT -5 meagpt22 said:

Did your doctor seem concerned? And offer any suggestions. That might be a better source to ask.

Edit typo

Doctor said to just work on getting him to eat more. She did give us a bunch of suggestions but I had my 3 year old son with me and it was so hard to manage the appointment - I don't really remember all of her suggestions other than adding butter to stuff and trying avocados again!

[sabby2]

Jul 28, 2015 21:46:27 GMT -5 jeffreysmom24 said:

Jul 28, 2015 20:33:22 GMT -5 meagpt22 said:

Did your doctor seem concerned? And offer any suggestions. That might be a better source to ask.

Edit typo

Doctor said to just work on getting him to eat more. She did give us a bunch of suggestions but I had my 3 year old son with me and it was so hard to manage the appointment - I don't really remember all of her suggestions other than adding butter to stuff and trying avocados again!

You can always call and talk to your pediatrician's nurse. They should be able to offer suggestions based on your pediatrician and specific to your lo's situation.

[ss265]

I went through something similar with my first - he dropped to the 1st percentile at 9 months. DH and I used to be super stressed about his food intake but we have accepted that he is just a small kid and we just try our best to get him to eat (he's almost three).

Here are some ideas/suggestions from our pediatrician.

- put butter in his baby food (I asked the pediatrician about olive oil and she said that butter is better)
- if he takes formula, you can consider switching him to Neosure by Similac. It's for premature babies and has more calories than regular formula. It's expensive so we alternated between Neosure and regular formula
- Once he gets older, give him Carnation Instant Breakfast, it has tons of calories (but also might be high in sugar, check the label)
- look at the calories listed on baby food and give him the higher calorie ones. Usually banana and sweet potato had more calories
- Offer him more table food, it usually has more calories than purees

FWIW, I've been told that around 9 months is when genetics takes over and a lot of babies fall down in the weight percentiles at that age. I was a really skinny kid and it seems that DS1 takes after me. It has taken us a while but DH and I have finally accepted that DS1 is just a picky eater and we do our best to get him to eat but we don't let it stress us out like it used to. Since his 9 month appointment, he has hovered between the 1st and 5th percentile on the weight charts but he is otherwise a healthy child. I know it's hard but try not to let this stress you out too much. Hope this helps!

[jeffreysmom24]

Jul 29, 2015 13:17:24 GMT -5 ss265 said:

I went through something similar with my first - he dropped to the 1st percentile at 9 months. DH and I used to be super stressed about his food intake but we have accepted that he is just a small kid and we just try our best to get him to eat (he's almost three).

Here are some ideas/suggestions from our pediatrician.

- put butter in his baby food (I asked the pediatrician about olive oil and she said that butter is better)
- if he takes formula, you can consider switching him to Neosure by Similac. It's for premature babies and has more calories than regular formula. It's expensive so we alternated between Neosure and regular formula
- Once he gets older, give him Carnation Instant Breakfast, it has tons of calories (but also might be high in sugar, check the label)
- look at the calories listed on baby food and give him the higher calorie ones. Usually banana and sweet potato had more calories
- Offer him more table food, it usually has more calories than purees

FWIW, I've been told that around 9 months is when genetics takes over and a lot of babies fall down in the weight percentiles at that age. I was a really skinny kid and it seems that DS1 takes after me. It has taken us a while but DH and I have finally accepted that DS1 is just a picky eater and we do our best to get him to eat but we don't let it stress us out like it used to. Since his 9 month appointment, he has hovered between the 1st and 5th percentile on the weight charts but he is otherwise a healthy child. I know it's hard but try not to let this stress you out too much. Hope this helps!

Thanks so much for these comments and I really appreciate all of the other feedback too!!