kid friendly weight gain recipes / products / ideas?

I use a lot of peanut butter for my always borderline underweight 5 year old. He eats a lot of peanut butter chocolate chip larabars and peanut butter on bagels. We try to go full fat wherever possible - full fat yogurt, homo milk, anywhere we can add extra calories. I find it easier to add more calories throughout the day than try to get him to drink shakes or smoothies since he's not really a fan of drinking much except water.

Powder. Sorry fat fingers here.
Hope some of he suggestions work.

cwolfman13 wrote: »

hotpepr2018 wrote: »

Great ideas, thanks! That is so funny about the peanut butter and brussels sprouts for dinner. My daughter would totally eat that.
I am always laughing inside when I offer her a bunch of delicious, buttery, creamy options and she just wants cherry tomatoes, and her favorite snack is those little crunchy seaweed snacks that are paper thin and I find them distasteful. They probably have NEGATIVE calories for crying out loud!
Her brother is very allergic to peanut butter, but we're just going to have to get past our feelings and have it around more. He's very safe around it, but daughter will need to be careful with utensils, countertops, etc.

How about almond butter? My youngest is allergic to peanuts, but he can have almonds and other tree nuts.

I also give my kids whole milk and other full fat dairy and they eat lots of cheese to keep their calories up.

^^ This. Also hazel nut butter (with or without chocolate) and sunflower seed butter. My nephews are both allergic to peanuts, so we switch things up while they're around.

Avocados and coconut milk have a fair amount of fats in them for veggies, too, and you can roast almost any veggie in olive oil or butter for a bit of extra calorie kick. Just teach your kiddo strategies for boosting calories, stress the importance of boosting their calories to hit a range sufficient to power growth, and let them puzzle things out as their taste buds demand.

Oh, and full fat ranch dressing... Leave that lying around for veggies as well...

If she likes tomatoes, does she also like vege sticks? Could be served with a creamy or cheesy dip.
Maybe dried fruit?

My miss 9 is a slim wee thing (not related to meds, she just has other priorities than eating, apparently), so I try and add higher cal spreads to crackers, and have dips for a lot of things.
Baking little treats can work well (bliss balls, muesli bars...) though mine enjoys the first few and says they're great, but as soon as I make a second batch, she stops eating them!

We go through phases of making a lot of smoothies - banana, berries, cocoa (or choc smoothie/meal-replacement powder), milk...even ice cream if we have it. We've tried blitzing oats too, but she doesn't like the texture.

Even though we have a really good large blender, we have recently bought a drink bottle blender which has made her more keen to make smoothies for herself.

On top of what I posted above, you can google fat bombs. Those should make it real easy to get more calories.

My kids eat breakfast cereal like there’s no tomorrow...

We are in the same boat! It is so hard to try to lose weight when you're trying to get someone to gain weight! My cute son is on the autism spectrum and takes adhd medication to help with impulse control issues which kills his appetite. He would go all day without eating if I didn't remind him. It doesn't help that his favorite snacks are steamed shrimp and watermelon. My first thought was: Instead of reducing medication dosage so it's not effective (I mean, really, what's the point?), is there something you can add? We use an antihistamine that helps to increase his appetite (also helps with his seasonal allergies). Maybe something like that can work for you. Also, there are a lot of ways to add calories to food. I make chocolate milk with whole milk, and add a little protein powder and cream. He loves egg nog, so I buy that whenever it's available. Drizzle oil over pasta before adding sauce. Butter toast while it's warm and it melts into the toast - you can add a lot of fat that way! I make caramel sauce to dip apples and pears (his favorite fruit) in, and homemade hot fudge to drizzle over bananas for snacks. He has a bit of a sweet tooth, so even little things like mixing a little bit of maple syrup into peanut butter and using it for a dip with celery works for us. For dinners, he loves creamy soups, so I add a block of cream cheese to the roux for thickening when we make potato soup or chicken noodle soup. It's a little hard to introduce new foods (adapting to change isn't his forte), so I try to bulk up calories in his favorites. And when it's cold out, he loves "butterscotch milk" - whole milk with a pat of butter and a tablespoon of brown sugar in it.

Lastly, we take medication breaks when he's not in school. He's more willing to eat and hungrier. I can handle the constant motion and talking in exchange for getting him to consume more calories. Good luck!

psuLemon wrote: »

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10326769/are-you-a-hard-gainer-please-read/p1

This can help. Also, not all protein powders are created equal. If you can, I would recommend ordering some samples of PEScience and Quest. They not only taste really good, but don't have any grit to them. And if you like chocolate, add their chocolate flavor to chocolate milk and add some heavy cream.

I picked up Quest Vanilla milkshake when I ran out of Optimum nutrition vanilla ice cream, and while it's not gritty, I find the flavor sickly sweet.

It languishes in my cupboard for now.

Cahgetsfit wrote: »

My kid sucks at eating and is very very skinny. I make banana bread/muffins and will chuck some protein powder in there for extra protein, use lots of eggs, use butter. Not "diet" banana bread LOL. I have put collagen protein in her Milo in the morning too. She not only sucks at eating but is also a self-proclaimed vegetarian so I need to keep on top of her protein intake.

Vegetarian collagen protein? I don't think there is such a thing ...

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Designer-Protein-Lite-Protein-Powder-Chocolate-Cookies-Cream-10g-Protein-0-6-Lb/51222397

My 2yr old loves this one it’s vegetarian. It’s low calorie (60 per scoop mix well it’s clumpy but the clumps taste like chocolate so my picky eater doesn’t get upset if I missed one) so I add ice cream a few scoops,chocolate syrup Hershey 1 serving,milk any your choice,I add coffee creamer vanilla to Carmel flavors. Use a blender I make lots put in a glass bottle you can reuse that way just shake y pour all day long.

Peanut butter pancakes 🥞-
Peanut butter cups upon cups of it.
Greek yogurt a cup
Honey 🍯 (if you want )
Milk any type (my son only likes unsweetened almond milk 🥛 super picky but it’s 30cal so try a higher calorie milk if yours will let you.
Eggs 🥚 or egg whites (depends on Doctors diet recommendations free range is best)
*If they love less simple ingredients Can add chocolate 🍫 ,raisins,fruits,etc*
He eats his plain but is a good snack to meal.

Cheese sandwich 🥪
Wheat or any bread they like
Cheese 🧀 (real cheese not artificial)
A tab of margarine on top
Air fryer 9-10 minutes
Serve with chips to even chicken or any meat or soups

Pizza 🍕 papa Johns has high calorie chicken wings y cinnamon bites also you can make pizza higher calorie.

It’s hard when their picky the list of things they’ll eat is so darn tiny. Mines 2yrs old so that list is a damn thumbnail still. Luckily they grow out of the terrible 2’s pickiness with age ...or their Sheldon from the Big Bang theory lol 😂.