Underweight 10 monthers

[twinthing]

Hi All,

I'm sure someone in this discussion thread has been in my shoes, which is why I am hoping someone can help me!

I am really frustrated at the moment. My twins are almost 10 months they were 5 wks premature. The Dr has really worried me about their weight. They are 6.5kg and 7.3kg (not even on the growth charts).

I am having a real problem feeding them. They are still on jars and i try to introduce home cooked things like pasta and rice but they gag and don't really eat. They are now on formula milk, but they barely drink 4/5 ozs 3 times a day. I wanted to know what kind of high calorie foods I could try to introduce to help them grow. Is there anything available to increase their apetite? or any products i could add to their meals to boost the calorie content of the food? I give them yogurts now, can i introduce cream and cheese?

They seem like happy little girls other then the growth issue, responsive and alert- but the professionals have a real way of freaking me out about the development of the girls!
(My 3 yr old is also underweight, but at least she is on the growth chart).

Any ideas will be most welcome...I'm desperate!!

[hunkermunker]

You can give them cheese and cream. What sort of yoghurts are they having?

Avocado is high-calorie.

How much formula are they having?

[twinthing]

they're having fromage frais. They don't have much formula about 15 ozs per day

[foundintranslation]

ds (term baby) weighed just over 7 kg at just under a year. It isn't that far offthe growth chart - our doctor wasnot unduly worried but asked us to come back in a month. We started cooking his meals in oil or butter rather than steaming so often, and als introduced some other stuff he hadn't been having (bread, wheat... we were terribly careful weaning because of allergies in the family) and he put on a good half kilo in just over a month (which has slowed now).

ds doesn't have the eating issues yours did. But might it be possible to make veg purees with butter/olive oil in? You could possibly put piecesof pasta in too and then puree. Or porridge with pureed fruit and cream.

Good luck!

[foundintranslation]

The Greek style natural yogurt is higher in fat and calories than the normal kind.

[2plus2plus1]

5oz milk 3 times a day isn't much. IIRC you should be aiming for at least 500-600ml/day (which is 16 - 20oz). Formula milk has lots of calories. If you can manage to do some home cooking you could add milk to lots of things which would increase milk & calorie intake. You could do that in addition to the cheese & yogurts/fromage frais.

I was adding milk to everything just to keep the milk intake high enough.

[jambuttie]

Hi twinthing

My twins are 2.yrs now and there is still an issue with DT2's weight. He has seen a dietician who advised me to give loads of calories. Here's a few tips that we have tried and tested not sure how much will be of use though are your wee ones are 10 months.

Porridge:- with honey, jam, chocolate spread.

Buttery toast- must be loads of butter that the bread is soggy

Soup with buttered bread in it- looks awful though DT2 didn't go for this one at all we used heinz tomato soup, cream of chicken as suggested by dietician

Fruit dipped in melted chocolate- I never done this one though as I felt it defeated the purpose of giving fruit, thought he may want this all the time and not eat "healthy" fruit

Quavers with- dips e.g tubs of sour cream and chive dips,

Mashed potato with grated cheese in

Hope these few tips help in some way hun

[twinthing]

Thanks all,

am in the process of trying your suggestions...i think i need to be patient with them, and less stressed out about 'friggin weight charts!'

[belgo]

My dd is 7.3kg at the age of one, and she wasn't even premature or a twin! She's also way under the growth charts. She has never had much of an appetite until this last week. Some babies are just small. I've been giving her high calorie food for the past couple of months - cheese sauce, ice cream, butter (low salt) on bread, as well as the more usual foods. But she's never eaten much of anything, then suddenly this past week, she has a huge appetite! As long as they are healthy and developing fine, try not to worry.

[devondoris]

A good protein calorie provider is quinoa which you can get from health food shops. Not sure if you can get it readily in supermarkets as I don't shop in them! If you get normal raw quinoa you can make it into a kind of porridge and add it to purees and the like. It comes out a bit like rice puddding but much smaller particles, IYSWIM! Also, once you've made some up, you can put it in the oven to make little cakes for finger food, maybe with a bit of fruit for flavour. Have you tried using lentils too? Make a thick soup with them and then put some other stuff in for flavour? Pumpkin or something? Not sure what your two will like, but just an idea! Also shouldn't have problems with allergies with that. I also used to put a spoonful or two of ground almonds in DD's yoghurt.