Uh oh, I'm losing, but so is my special needs child

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2

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  • skinnyforhi
    skinnyforhi Posts: 340 Member
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    skinnyforhi wrote: »
    Can you give him high calorie nutritional supplement shakes between meals? They typically sell that at drugstores and supermarkets. They are tasty enough, but I doubt you'd reach for that to satisfy any type of craving. I suspect they could be blended up with a banana or peanut butter.

    Ah- I forgot to mention you'd have to look for lactose free ones. I thought they made them, but I haven't bought them. They could be sold on Amazon or a specialty store. Dried fruit can also be high calorie (though pricey). I can house a bag of dried mangos in one sitting.
  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,070 Member
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    Give the boy sausage! LOL. And like you mentioned, more peanut butter. Coconut cream is one of the highest calorie things around, so make shakes out of that. Protein bars. Pure protein is really yummy. Lactose free full fat milk.
  • ToriGabrielle
    ToriGabrielle Posts: 25 Member
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    My daughter has cerebral palsy and she is typically underweight. I don't make my meals the same as hers because I try and cook everything she eats with full fat. So when I would eat light cheese, she eats full fat cheese. When I might drink skim milk, she drinks homo milk. If I buy 0% fat yogurt then I buy her the 2.5% etc. That is what her pediatrician recommended for her. She doesn't eat a lot of junk because that's no good. I try not to eat peanut butter because it is so high cal but why can't she eat tons of it? Also avocados (or avocado oil if he won't eat avocados), pasta, Ensure drinks...etc. Most of this stuff I can still eat but in smaller portions or like I said I just buy full fat and light of the same product.
  • __leis__
    __leis__ Posts: 100 Member
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    You can make granola bars at home. Trader Joes has dark chocolate bars that have no milk. You could cut them into pieces and mix them in your granola/nut/honey mixture or melt it and drizzle on top.
  • chookywillow
    chookywillow Posts: 270 Member
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    coconut oil is high calorie nutritious and easy to hide in foods. my daughter couldn't swallow solid food until 14 months has many food allergies and I used to make chocolate cookies with vegan protein powder. I would put scoops of mixture onto baking paper and freeze. then just take out a couple to cook for her everyday.
  • PearBlossom9
    PearBlossom9 Posts: 136 Member
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    You could try adding a bit more fat to his diet such as olive oil or coconut oil. They are fairly easy to hide if taste is an issue.
  • rnewyn
    rnewyn Posts: 12 Member
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    Ditto to the folks who are also on the autism spectrum that agree with your assessment of your son that he may have no idea when he's hungry or full. Is he currently in OT? That really helped me with that issue. It's not even "normal" but I can at least tell if I'm starving, stuffed, or somewhere in between. So yeah I wouldn't let him eat a million sausages. There are some great frozen pre-cooked sausages, or cook your own and freeze them. Use them as supplemental calories with breakfast or dinner since you know he'll eat them! For lunch, yes ok junk food is not the best way to manipulate weight, but maybe buy some individual serving packs of cookies or fruit snacks or whatever he likes to send in his lunch? Then count them with him every day so you're not tempted to steal a pack!!
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    Is he opposed to trying new foods? Does he have any food texture issues? Date bars may be an option. They are simple to make: dried fruits, dates and ground nuts in a food processor until it forms into a uniform ball then chill and cut.

    If no new foods work I would just go back to how things are and disassociate yourself from the foods you used to stock thinking something like "It's his not mine".
  • courtneylykins5
    courtneylykins5 Posts: 168 Member
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    Bolthouse brand drinks are a go to for one of my lactose intolerant underweight friends. For the nutrition offered, they seem relatively calorie dense and are easy to digest.
  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,214 Member
    edited May 2016
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    I have found it easier to lose weight by keeping an eye on my carbs (not low carb, but I was eating much greater than 50% previously). Proteins and fats keep me fuller longer. So MY instinct would be to give him more carbs. Noodles for example, with butter perhaps. My husband is also lactose intolerant but he can handle cultured butter (we buy Lactantia) without any problems at all. He can also handle very aged cheese in small amounts (like parmesan). But back to the carbs, two granola bars instead of one, prepackaged cookies (so you are not tempted), small chip bags etc. Treats are a problem for me, so I sometimes give them to my husband to hide somewhere in the house. Were it me I would ask my husband to get me a week's worth for lunches every Sunday, and try to think of them like medicine. Harder, but better yet, would be to bake healthy treats (like carrot cake, zucchini loaf, banana bread etc) and freeze them.
  • elgie3
    elgie3 Posts: 23 Member
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    Besides dev ped, try a registered dietician, esp. one with peds experience. They'll have loads of ideas. But yeah, nut butters, avocado (guacamole), whole grain breads, dried fruits, oats, trail mix, coconut milk
  • Colorscheme
    Colorscheme Posts: 1,179 Member
    edited June 2016
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    My son is also on the spectrum. I am not and I was underweight virtually my whole life until I hit 20s. Then what I ate started catching up to me since I was also doing less activity :/

    Maybe ensures or smoothies would be an option. I was a picky eater as a kid but carnation instant breakfast was something I would drink when I didn't feel like eating.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    Thanks for the update. It looks like he is going to be better with the whole team involved <3
  • chastity0921
    chastity0921 Posts: 209 Member
    edited June 2016
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    I work in nutrition with kids under 5, some with issues concerning underweight/ADHD/chronic kidney/CP. Not sure how old he is, so that would make a difference. First off, is he doing any kind of feeding therapy? A lot of therapists recommend pairing a preferred food with a new food. The foods that you are eating that he likes can always be more calorie dense by adding oils, butter, avocado, dried fruit, or nut butters. For example, if you cook rice and he likes it, you could add butter or oil to it for him. There are also supplements such as Pediasure which is supposed to be used exclusively for underweight or failure to thrive children. I would recommend using the powdered form and adding it to his food, such as in his coconut yogurt with fruit, breakfast muffins, oatmeal, or in a lactose free smoothie made with banana and spinach. The website also has several recipes. I don't like the liquids, because if someone gave me a milkshake everyday, I would love it. I have seen way too many children become overweight on those.

    Most importantly, the doctor should have given some recommendations. What were those?
  • fishshark
    fishshark Posts: 1,886 Member
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    chastity0921 wrote: »
    I work in nutrition with kids under 5, some with issues concerning underweight/ADHD/chronic kidney/CP. Not sure how old he is, so that would make a difference. First off, is he doing any kind of feeding therapy? A lot of therapists recommend pairing a preferred food with a new food. The foods that you are eating that he likes can always be more calorie dense by adding oils, butter, avocado, dried fruit, or nut butters. For example, if you cook rice and he likes it, you could add butter or oil to it for him. There are also supplements such as Pediasure which is supposed to be used exclusively for underweight or failure to thrive children. I would recommend using the powdered form and adding it to his food, such as in his coconut yogurt with fruit, breakfast muffins, oatmeal, or in a lactose free smoothie made with banana and spinach. The website also has several recipes. I don't like the liquids, because if someone gave me a milkshake everyday, I would love it. I have seen way too many children become overweight on those.

    Most importantly, the doctor should have given some recommendations. What were those?

    not sure if u read her update but she said a big problem was him not being able to tell the difference between being full/too full or hungry/way under calories.
  • las148
    las148 Posts: 30 Member
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    I'm lactose intolerant. There are lots of lactase supplement options out there, if they work for him :) They were a godsend for me when I was younger. I'm sure you've probably heard of them before though.
  • suzan06
    suzan06 Posts: 218 Member
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    My son is 8 and on spectrum. He is really into nutrition and we talk about how you need protein at every meal and veggies at lunch and dinner, and not too much sugar, etc. So even though he would prefer to live off sugar alone, luckily his "rule follower" personality works in our favor! He has developed a list of 10 veggies he will eat, and we try to offer one at every meal. He can pick his protein at lunch, and at dinner he gets the family meal. He is limited to 2 servings of cheese a day because he'd eat only cheese if I let him. For him, those clear rules help.

    Sounds like you've figured out some of the issues. One other suggestion would be to include him in cooking or recipe selection if he is able to. This helps us a lot. I recently found 2 kids farm to table cookbooks at our library, which are great because all the recipes are fairly healthy and they all have pictures

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