While I feel like most of the world looks at the nutritional facts of food trying to find low calorie foods, those of us with children who are FTT look for the foods with the highest calorie content. This can be a challenge when many of the food today is made to be low fat.
Here are some tips that I have read/used/been told.
- Add butter and/or oil to anything and everything. Ava doesn’t really like oil added to things but she does like butter and lucky for her, she is definitely allowed!
- When Ava was on powdered formula I would sprinkle it on almost everything. I would add some to yogurt, ice cream, eggs, sprinkle it on cereal, pancakes, etc. Every sprinkle of the powder meant more calories so I put it on everything.
- The nutritionist suggests using heavy cream and adding it to her milk but Ava is sensitive to the thickness of things. She refuses to drink it if we add cream so we had to think of another way to increase the calories of her milk. Carnation Instant Breakfast does the trick. She drinks it right down and it is good for her.
- They also suggested giving her Pediasure but again, I think because of the texture, she would not drink it. Instead Ava has Peptamen Jr twice per day. She gets it as a prescription from her doctor as it is not for everyone but works great for her.
- Cheese, cheese, and more cheese. Although it does not help with her constipation, it definitely helps with her weight. Ava loves cheese so I give it to her whenever I can…grilled cheese, cheese sticks, sliced cheese with pepperoni, parmesan on pasta, shredded in eggs, etc.
- Peanut butter whenever she wants. Peanut butter is so good for her so again, we give it to her whenever she would like. She loves it on bagels, crackers, and on sandwiches.
- Dips galore! Ava’s nutritionist said that every little calorie helps so we give her dips with just about everything. Her favorites are ketchup and ranch dressing.
- Crackers! Ava is a fruit and veggie lover at heart but when trying to get her to gain weight, this does not help the cause. However, I have found that she does love crackers almost as much. Now I tend to not offer her the fruit until after she has eaten something more substantial such as crackers….
- Offer the higher calorie more substantial stuff first. With my first son, Landon, when I made him lunch I would put a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some grapes on a plate. I would also give him his milk to wash it down; with Ava though I have to just give her the PB&J so that she will eat as much as possible of it. If I give her the milk and/or grapes along with it, she will just drink her milk or eat the fruit and leave the sandwich untouched.
