Ways to Help Kids Gain Weight

Trying to gain weight seems easy for most of us, but if you have an extremely underweight child, you may find it hard to increase her calorie intake. Although eating healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables is always important, adding high-calorie dairy, meat and fat sources can help your child gain weight in a healthy way.

Dairy

• If you're trying to help your child gain weight, adding full-fat dairy products to her diet is a great place to start. Add full-fat cheese to everything she eats--fold it into eggs, sprinkle it in salad, melt it over vegetables or add it to pasta dishes. Encourage her to drink full-fat milk, chocolate milk, milkshakes or hot cocoa at meals instead of water or fruit juices. Give her full-fat ice cream for dessert, or try some fruits dipped in whipped heavy cream.

Meat and Protein

• Another great way to help your kid gain weight is to add to his protein intake. You can add chopped meat to absolutely anything, especially pasta, soups, salads or stews. Alternatively, try throwing extra eggs into his food, by slicing it into a sandwich, mixing it into a casserole or adding it scrambled to pasta. Encourage your child to eat peanuts or peanut butter as a snack, especially as part of a trail mix. In addition, when you do serve meat, try serving it first, so that your child needs to eat some of it before the rest of the meal.

Fats

• Although adding fats to your child's diet may seem like you're dooming her to an unhealthy lifestyle, some fats can actually be healthy--while still helping your child to gain weight. Try using fats like olive oil or even canola oil, other than vegetable oil, and add it whenever possible. In this case, frying foods in olive oil is healthier for your child than cooking them without oil. Serve fatty fish as a meal occasionally, and try adding some fatty vegetables, such as avocados, to your child's diet.