by Selina J

Created on: July 12, 2008

When my daughter weighed in at less than sixteen pounds at the age of one, her pediatrician's advice was simply TO FEED HER. When I explained that she would stop eating after three to four bites, he told me to try giving her hot dogs and take her to McDonald's for french fries.

After promptly switching pediatricians and learning that my daughter has several developmental delays, thus physically lacking the strength in her mouth to eat like a typical child, I tried to learn all I could to help my little girl gain weight. We needed to focus on both her food intake as well as building up her muscles, and muscles weigh more than fat - which would therefore increase her weight.

Every bite counts. Each spoonful that goes in needs to have the maximum amount of calories and nutrition. Here are a few suggestions of foods that can help build your child's body. (Please note: if your child has low tone, you will have to wait until muscle tone improves before trying some of these foods.)

Yogurt - we like YoBaby organic baby yogurt. Can also blend the yogurt with fresh fruit, or frozen fruit for a cool smoothie.

Nuts and seeds - as long as your child has reached the appropriate age to introduce nuts and seeds, and there's no family history of allergies, nuts and seeds are loaded with fiber and "good" fat.

Frozen grapes and blueberries - loaded with vitamins, and fun for kids especially on a hot summer day (and great stimulation for low toned mouths)

Potatoes - slice them up, drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and put in the broiler. Can use Idaho potatoes or sweet potatoes.

Granola bars - has more fiber and nutrients than a candy bar, and appeals to older kids.

Pediasure - we resisted giving her this has it has a lot of sugar in it (not to mention it is expensive), but after she fell further off the growth chart, we began her on two cans a day. It does have a lot of vitamins, and we noticed a weight gain after a couple months.

Carnation Instant Breakfast - we add this to whole milk, sometimes throw in some ice cubes to make it a "milkshake" loaded with calories and nutrition

Even if your child is older, you can mix in sweet potato or carrot baby food into things like pancakes, or even brownies.

We worked with a physical therapist to strengthen her muscles to help her gain weight by gaining muscle. When we started, she was not even crawling (at 14 months). We are still working on her core strength and muscles by making her bear crawl, wheel-barrel walk, kick a ball backwards with her heel, throw a ball backwards over her head, lift her arms and legs off the floor while lying on her stomach, and every other exercise we are given by the physical therapist. General physical activity is also important.

In addition, we needed to strengthen her mouth and tongue muscles. This is not a common problem for children, but we addressed this in her speech therapy with various exercises. These exercises included having her bite on popsicle sticks, blowing bubbles, licking pixy stick dust off her lips and kissing a mirror.

We are proud to say that our daughter is now on the growth chart. At the age of five, she just tops thirty-two pounds - and although every ounce on her body has been a battle, it has been a battle worth fighting.

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