Parents Food Ideas

[Flippers Mom]

I could use some ideas on food selections for Flipper. Here's the problem: she has had a rough winter with H1N1, getting tooth infections (finally had two of the 4 involved pulled) and now staph infections. She has never been a very big kid, but is now struggling to maintain her weight. At the doctor yesterday, she was told that she has to eat more or exercise less - if she loses any more weight, the doctor threatened to restrict her gymnastics.

She already eats constantly - loves food, but eats only healthy food. I know - I am glad she likes good food and that she has learned to listen to her body and knows she feels better when she eats healthy, but we need to pack some calories into her. Another mitigating factor is teeth - she has several loose and a couple missing making eating meets and nuts difficult or painful. She doesn't like anything frozen (think that stems from early childhood teeth problems).

Recipes? Ideas? I hate to think what this will do to my hips! I told her daddy that I would pay a doctor to tell me to eat more and exercise less, but it's not going to happen!

 

[Juju's Mom]

Lilly absolutely loves protein type drinks. She drinks one every day for breakfast and typically before meets. You can get Ensure, Boost and Carnation even makes one too and they come in lots of flavors. She eats very well too, but is not big on eating first thing in the morning. We tend to sleep as long as we can and rush out the door every day for school/work so it works great for us.

We now get the one from Carnation that has No Sugar Added. It has 13 grams of protein along with calcium, antioxidants & fiber.

It sounds like Flipper could use the extra calories from the Sugar version.

 

[bogwoppit]

Here are links to a few good articles

How to Gain Weight The Healthy Way on MedicineNet.com

Healthy Ways to Gain Weight - iVillage Your Total Health

I would try to get her to eat more calorie dense foods, add nuts including nut butters. Encourage rice and pastas and make sure she gets enough protein. Pure fruit juices and maybe go back to full fat milk for a little while.

Smoothies with greek youghourt and bananas will be good. Also try cheese and crackers and try to ancourage the 6 meals a day concept as she will be able to take in more calories that way.

Don't we all wish we had her probelem!

 

[Shelovesthebars]

My 4 year old dd had a lot of trouble gaining weight when she was younger and had to see a feeding specialist for about 3 years. We still have to keep a close eye on her eating habits and weight. We were taught some tricks such as the Carnation Instant Breakfast over ice cream. You can also put it in a glass of milk and heat it up as hot chocolate, sprinkle it over friut, ... She was also given a drink made from Carnation that is carbonated that you can mix with fruit juice. We had to mix it with Sprite a lot to wake up her mouth. Melting peanut butter (easy on the teeth and good calories) and mixing it with things she likes is good too. Melted peanut butter and applesauce tastes better than it sounds. Since she doesn't like frozen things as much, make the smoothies without the ice blended in and them put in a minimal amout of frozen shaped (fish, hearts, seasonal shapes) ice cubes made out of juice or water. My dd's favorite food is just chicken that has been boiled as a whole chicken until it is very soft and then deboned.
My dd has the added alergy component so most of the prepacked bars and snacks aren't an option.
If I can think of some of the other things that I have learned that I now do in my sleep so to speak, I will let you know.

 

[emandelsmom]

We have had to watch Emma as well. We were on 3 most ped checkup and have just moved to 6 mos ones with her. What I did for her, the carnation breakfast with an omelet(frozen at the grocery store)-lots of protein for breakfast and quick. Lunch-ham sandwich-double the serving and double the cheese on wheat bread, cup of yogurt, milk, and some chips. Dinner healthy meal that we all eat. Drink with milk. She will eat ice cream so we added that to her snack menu. I took out the carbs she was devouring and made her snack on protein. She was a raisin bread junky-4 slices at a time. I did lots of protein for her. She gained 6 pounds doing this. I feed our family usually very low fat foods and healthy organic foods. I just started watching her protein with all the other stuff. Her coaches are personal trainers let me know how much protein she should be getting in a day.
Hope this helps.

 

[emorymom]

How are her vitamin D levels? Has she been tested for something like Celiac or another absorption problem?

Since most of the time kids do not have trouble maintaining weight while in gymnastics if they are eating a lot of healthy food, I'd probably think about finding another doctor who has a more "House" (detective) type approach. Cutting back on gymnastics seems like a band-aid fix.

 

[Flippers Mom]

How are her vitamin D levels? Has she been tested for something like Celiac or another absorption problem?

Since most of the time kids do not have trouble maintaining weight while in gymnastics if they are eating a lot of healthy food, I'd probably think about finding another doctor who has a more "House" (detective) type approach. Cutting back on gymnastics seems like a band-aid fix.

Flipper was adopted internationally and her pediatrican has done an incredible job of researching all the issues she has faced (both before she came home and after). We have had all kinds of testing done. Flipper is tiny boned, has an incredible metabolism - the real problem seems to be getting hit by the flu, staph AND dental problems. Working out 20 hours a week (plus the hours she jumps on the tramp, bikes, etc.) - well, she just doesn't eat enough calories to keep up. Mind you, she eats twice or three times as much as her 13 year old brother at every meal, she just uses everything she eats. BTW - Grandpa has celiac disease, as do several cousins, but Flip isn't genetically related.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

 

[emorymom]

Oh, that's good that you've got such a great doc.

What I have read has reassured me about raw egg safety. I also will give the kids peanut butter on a spoon if I get hit with "I'm hungry" on the way out the door, or if they're not quite hungry yet but will be in the middle of a training session.

I have recently started giving vitamin K2 to increase tooth enamel strength ... hopefully. We started really striving for high vit D levels oh, a year ago? two?