Maia is my teeny girlie--3 yrs old and 24lbs makes her my smallest chick thus far. We have always tried to get her to eat more. Whether it be by sneaking in extra butter and oil on her food portions, feeding her as many spoons of peanut butter as she will eat, by letting her eat the butter she'll finger scoop from the Smart Balance tub or by giving her special ice cream milkshakes. It hasn't really worked.
Recently, my littlest sister was told by her OB that she needs to gain 5lbs in a month. I figured out for her that if she were to eat an extra 350 calories a day that she would gain those 5 lbs in a month. This got me to thinking about Maia and creating a plan to see if it would work for her. The plan had to be one that would allow us to easily add numerous calories to her diet--without her knowing. I have came up with a plan--whipping cream in her ovaltine soymilk--a drink we affectionately refer to as "choco". Maia isn't a huge eater, even when I have limited her amount of drink to help her eat more. She used to be but when she turned 2.5 or so her appetite shifted. I have discovered that by adding 3 tablespoons to each of her current 2-3 cups of ovaltine it will add an extra 360-540 calories to her diet a day. Think it will work? I hope so. I will let you know in a month.
12 comments:
she is so beautiful! i hope it works. good luck!
I love that first picture. She's gorgeous, whether she needs fattening or not.
With a second daughter who has now fallen below the 0 percentile in weight (although Miriam's not nearly as severe as Adriana), we've become pros at fat-loading our kids' food. Will Maia eat avocados? If she doesn't like them plain, they're easy to mash up and hide in other foods, and are a nice, healthy food high in fat. Good luck!
oh what a sweetie. i had to laugh because leah was also not on the charts until about 11 months when they made me change her diet to butter and cheese. :) now she's a plump 24 lb. 2 year old. good luck!
Oh my goodness! I can't even imagine having this worry. S-girl was a rolly polly 20 pounds 8 ounces at her 6 month appointment. She was a chunk! Good luck with this. I'm interested to hear how it goes.
-Jessica
The hard part will be when she's getting the extra calories and fats, but still not gaining any weight.
Ethan's drink of choice was half milk, half cream. And his morning cup got a few spoonfuls of Carnation as well. The boy drank at least 36 oz of milk/cream a day, plus the crazy diet and still didn't gain any weight. In fact he lost some at one point.
Some kids are just meant to be tiny. Enjoy it!! (But good luck too. It's nice to finally get the drs off your back about it.)
Drez had trouble gaining weight because of his reflux. They changed the way I fed him to keep him reflux under control, and he started gaining literally a pound week. He is now a 27 pound 14 month old. *giggle*
The good part is that my both my dr nor I are worried about her. So I rest easy on that account. It would be nice to see some weight on her so she can maintain body heat a little better and to see if a serious, concerted, consistent effort will help her gain anything. I haven't really stuck with it or wasn't able to because her appetite wouldn't support extra portion or she would eat less because the fat would suppress her appetite making her eat less. So far the cream is working in that she still eats her normal amount but is just getting extra calories in her drink. It will be interesting to see for sure.
Suzanne--nope, she doesn't eat avocados presently. She used to when she ate a ton when she was one--now she eats like a bird and is a bit more picky.
My grandma was 24 lbs. when she started kindergarten. I haven't had to worry about weight-gain with my children, but they have all gone through stages of not eating anything. Hopefully this stage for Maia won't last long. Hopefully the extra calories will help. Good luck!
Jerry asks how you are doing? (in a former Home Teacher kind of way)
It should work. Eric needed to put on pounds at one point in our marriage so he was eating a slimfast WITH breakfast. The extra calories added up, even though he generally does not gain weight easily. Noel is small for her age too. She is still 21 LBS, but alas is a year younger than Maia. Although she hasn't gained any weight at all since she was 12 months old, she is also short. But anyway, Maia certainly is beautiful, my goodness!
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