Weight Gain for an Almost 11 Month Old.

My son was also very small at 10 mos. He was still taking formula, so the doctor had me double the strength of the formula and add a tablespoon of corn oil to it. I know you said he didn't like formula, but I would ask the doctor if he recommended adding oil to whole milk. And I would not be so concerned about baby food, because they are usually low in fat and calories. I would stick to whole milk and finding ways to "beef" it up.

S.,
Here is a great article for you to read!

http://www.reliv.com/includes/userfiles/file/wellness/US/...

If I can be of any help...let me know!
Take care,
A.
www.HopeShared.com

How much is he eating at mealtime? You mentioned milk/formula and a little baby food but nothing about real food. By 8-9 months all my kids (and most babies I know) were eating 3 meals a day at the table with the rest of the family - just eating what everyone else was eating cut into pea-size bits (my kids didn't get teeth until after 1st b-day so they could gum like all babies but take bites off). At 11 months, he can eat pretty much anything (all my doctor friends tell me a child should be 100% self-feeding (mostly fingers, spoons/forks come later) by the 1st birthday.

As for baby food, just stop wasting your money. There's little calories in it... the food the rest of the family eats is more nutrition- and calorie-dense, jarred baby food is mostly water. Try the typical higher calorie/fat stuff like yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, etc. For whole milk, try adding a bit of chocolate or strawberry. It only adds a bit of sugar and the benefits outweigh it (numerous studies show that kids who drink chocolate/strawberry milk drink more milk - flavored or not - than kids who never get to drink it flavored). Try one of those straw cups they sell next to the sippy cups - my oldest preferred those to sippy cups once he was about 9 months old.

You also didn't mention how active he was. My 2nd oldest didn't gain any weight between 6 months and 10 months because she was so darn active (crawling at 6 months, walking with help by 8 months, running by herself at 11 months). My doctor wasn't worried when I told him how much she was eating - she was just burning through calories. So, if your son is eating alot at mealtime (you didn't mention it), and is very active, then you probably don't need to stress too much over it.

You're not a bad mom, I've always worried about my son being too skinny.

My son hated formula too, and he refused a bottle early on, but he would drink formula from a sippy cup if it was ice cold. I would add rice cereal or oatmeal to his fruit & veggie purees so it would be more filling. Around that age I also started giving him yogurt for breakfast, and I would mix in some cheerios or kix to bulk it up. My son never liked vanilla yogurt but he loves most of the fruit ones.

I tried making my own baby food for a while, and every recipe book recommended adding butter (without salt) to baby food to help them get enough fat. Also he might like it better & eat more because the butter will give it more flavor. Good luck!

I have totally been there - it is so weird to be the mom looking for what has the MOST calories in the grocery store rather than the other way around. If it makes you feel better, my daughter was also 14 lbs at that age. She is now 32 months and weighs 22 lbs however she has been tested for everything and she is VERY healthy. She just needs extra calories which she gets in the form of pediasure. She also started to grow slower when solids were introduced because she's never been a big fan. If you have health insurance ask to see a nutritionist - they will help you to make sure that he takes in enough calories. You can use cereals to add calories to other food, once he is having dairy use heavy whipping cream in place of other liquids to make food like oatmeal or mac-n-cheese. Add butter to veggies. My DR also had us start peanut butter early since we have no allergies in our family.

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I have totally been there - it is so weird to be the mom looking for what has the MOST calories in the grocery store rather than the other way around. If it makes you feel better, my daughter was also 14 lbs at that age. She is now 32 months and weighs 22 lbs however she has been tested for everything and she is VERY healthy. She just needs extra calories which she gets in the form of pediasure. She also started to grow slower when solids were introduced because she's never been a big fan. If you have health insurance ask to see a nutritionist - they will help you to make sure that he takes in enough calories. You can use cereals to add calories to other food, once he is having dairy use heavy whipping cream in place of other liquids to make food like oatmeal or mac-n-cheese. Add butter to veggies. My DR also had us start peanut butter early since we have no allergies in our family.

We had problems with my 4 year old gaining weight from about 6 months on, but I think he weighed about 17 pounds at 11 months. One of his problems was that he had reflux and associated eating with pain. We were told to give him whole milk products and mix formula in everything we could for extra calories. At 12 months we were told to give him Pediasure because it had more calories and vitamins than milk. We really struggled trying to get him to eat and gain weight. It's not easy, but try to bulk up with calories whatever he will eat.

We were always told that children will eat when they are hungry and not to force them to eat. They won't let themselves starve. Well, ours would. We were scared because the doctors were making such a big deal about it. The more we tried to force him to eat, the more he refused. We finally backed off and would put the food on his highchair and tell him he could eat if he wanted but didn't have to. After awhile, he started eating because he realized we weren't forcing him to and he didn't have to have a power struggle with us. A psychologist told us that our son was fighting us on eating because he wanted control over something and that was the thing we were forcing on him the most.

We went through intensive feeding therapy and everything but nothing worked until we backed off. Even though your son hates formula, if you mix it in applesauce, pudding, yogurt or something along those lines, it will blend in. There's also something called Duocal that can be mixed in food and drinks to boost calories. We also used that. It's a tasteless white powder that mixed well.

Hope you can get your little guy to eat and gain weight. I know it's not easy!

Our grandson had this problem and for a while he had to be given an enzyme before he ate. He is 10 now and a wiry energetic boy like his dad. He was taken to a pediatric gastro-enterologist when he was between 1 and 2 since he was so low on the growth chart.

I had two (of five) children diagnosed failure to thrive. I felt like the most terrible mom too. I had to remind myself that the drs.have to put it in the chart or they are at risk for getting sued later for not noticing. You are a good mom! Remember that. With that said... One of my kids was not eating because he needed me to find the right foods (table, high in calories). The second was because he was not growing. He had some medical issues. The specialist who discovered it told me "of course he isn't eating, he isn't hungry. He's not growing. Stop trying to feed him or he'll gain the wrong kind of weight". Hmmm. I thought he wasn't growing because he wasn't eating! If you can't find "the right" foods for your son, you may want to make sure there isn't another reason he isn't hungry. Medical issues for this are not common, but worth checking if high calorie food doesn't work. However, mine had eating issues and failure to thrive from 2 mo until 18 mo. Best of luck!

my daughter had an awful time gaining weight at that age too (four months of maintaining and losing). what worked was when we were told to put whole fat yogurt into EVERYTHING she ate. she loved it, and gained enough weight to back off. a lot of kids at that age already don't like being fed something "different" from you, or find baby food bland already. We also have a food mill that everything we ate, she could eat (plus yogurt). that worked way better than "baby food"

You are not a horrible mom. It may feel that way today, but a lot of kids fall into this category - I had the opposite problem. My kids were both chunks, and I was so embarrassed. They've both thinned out nicely now.

Have you considered mixing whole milk with formula (1/2 and 1/2). Obviously it's not ideal and you'll need to run it by your pediatrician. But, it may make the taste of formula more palatable and give your son more calories.

Instead of baby foods, have you tried giving him table foods. Small pieces of banana, cooked frozen vegetables, small pieces of cheese, yogurt, etc?

The American Academy of Pediatrics changed their policy on what foods could be given to children at which age a little over a year ago - there are really no longer restrictions on strawberries, peanut butter, etc. unless there is either a family history of allergy or the food item poses a choking hazard.

I'd even recommend hot dogs (I know they're not really food), well-cooked noodles, turkey burgers to help with is weight gain.

He is almost a year old and if he does not like formula then give him whole milk. Also try giving him the food that you are having now instead of baby food , it is common for them to start to dislike baby food around 9 months anyway , try giving some pasta , soft veggies such as carrots , broccoli , sweet potato fries. Basically whatever you are eating for dinner , put him some aside and let him eat , you may find he isn't so picky when he has more variety.

My son needed to gain weight as well, and his nutritionist and gastrointerologist had us add olive oil to his baby food. (Healthy fat and high calories!) We also used PediaSure (as directed by his doctor). I'd make sure your doctor thought this was ok first! We used this instead of milk/formula at about 13 months of age. It helped greatly. Plus, we used the vanilla flavored one and he loved it. Now, we had to slowly transistion him to whole milk (now 20 months old) using vanilla flavoring, but he drinks plain white milk now with no problems.

I also agree with the other posters who recommended foods like mashed avacado and other healthy high calorie foods.

You might have him checked by a gastrointerologist just to make sure nothing else is going on to cause this, but it's not that uncommon. They can give you more tips as well as provide a nutritionist to give you specific ideas for your family!

My son was the same way. At a year old he weighed 15 lbs. He is four now and only 28 lbs. Our Dr. also did all of the test and everything was fine. You need to consider many factors, as will the Dr. if the test come back fine. Birth weight, dad and mom's height and weight are all factors. My hubby is 5'8 but only weighs 140 soaking wet with clothes and a tool belt. Seriously! Me on the other hand am only 5'1 and still carrying way too much baby weight to put it nicely! I have 4 kids and the oldest was the same, he weighed only 18 lbs at a year old (he will be 13 this summer and only weighs about 70 lbs). My daughter now was my eater and she weighed that at 9 months. So each kid is different, the Dr. told me to put olive oil and butter (preferably olive oil) on rice, potatoes, things like that. My middle boy also refused formula (who can blame them, that stuff is nasty!) so around 9 months when he decided to ween himself I started giving him whole milk (caught alot of slack from the Dr. but he turned out fine LOL). That has alot of fat so that may help with weight gain also. I would just go through all the procedures but don't stress too much. Just try to make healthy food choices for your little one and everything will be fine. Your doing a fine job and don't need anymore stress or anyone making you feel like less of a mom or that the job your doing isn't good enough. I pray the test results come back fine. Carnation milk also is what the Dr. said to try. Hopefully this helps.

YOu are not the most horrible M. in the world, just start giving him real table food - oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, peas, carrots, chicken breast in pieces, bread, crackers...mix his formula with something else, like the cereal, and he should begin to gain some weight

Lots of good answers & advice. Some good, healthy foods to try: avocado (high in Omega fatty acids); my son likes it mashed with some banana. I would go for the olive oil on top of foods. Tahini (you can find it in the Middle Eastern/African stores, or sometimes in the ethnic food section of regular grocery stores) is a paste made from sesame seeds and is high in fat, and can be spread on bread/toast/etc like peanut butter and has a nutty taste. Egg yolks are safe for kids under 1 year to eat, according to what I've read (my son doesn't like them, unfortunately). I second the ideas for whole-fat yogurt and occasionally whole-fat cottage cheese (but cottage cheese tends to be pretty salty so beware!). If you make bread at home (we have a bread maker) you can substitute whole milk for the water portion of the recipe (and/or add an egg) to up the nutrition/calories; if you don't have a bread maker and want to try it out, check out your local thrift store--a lot of times they have breadmakers for sale pretty inexpensively.

hi S.,

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