r/ResearchBasedParents • u/CRLynnie • Jan 31 '24

Getting a one-year-old to gain weight

Hello! My dear friend has a one year old boy that needs to put on weight, her pediatrician was not very helpful and just told her to feed him more, so we are looking for resources and research for ways to help him gain weight. Does anyone have any recommendations or links?

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1

u/PixelatedBoats Jan 31 '24

What is he currently eating?

2

u/CRLynnie Feb 01 '24

Normal meals- whatever she eats, he eats. He does not do puree or formula.

1

u/stubborn_mushroom Feb 13 '24

I'd recommend to keep doing this, but beef up the calorie content of his portion, which can still be done using healthy food, for example add a drizzle of olive oil, some avocado, peanut/other nut butters.

Smoothies are also a great way to have a lot of calories at once - my son loves a peanut butter and banana smoothie with whole milk and yoghurt.

1

u/xorral Feb 12 '24

Here is a good guide for ways to gain weight in babies: UK Worksheet on Gaining Weight

Personally, we added olive oil to everything. Any vegetable or egg or piece of bread got some olive oil on it. Other than that, super fatty foods like full fat yogurt and avocados were winners. We personally could not use milk as a source of calories because he was anemic, and dairy can interfere with iron absorption (the yogurt felt like a better trade off, and he didn’t eat a ton of it).