Is your child underweight? Just because they look thin, dont force food down their throat. Read on to find out more tips on how you can cope with underweight children.As six-year-old Samar rushes out to play with his friends, his mother Rekha is left staring at yet another of his unfinished meals. Although she knows that many kids are fussy eaters, Samars appetite worries Rekha because she thinks her son is grossly underweight for his age.Obesity among children nowadays is a much-talked-about issue. But some parents find themselves at the other end of the scale. Clueless about how to achieve a healthy weight for their kids, they often resort to force-feeding. It isn’t entirely wrong, on a parent’s behalf, to assume that feeding their child more or more frequently will result in them gaining weight. Under normal circumstances, a child’s weight is mostly dependant on two factors - their food intake and the amount of physical activity they engage in. Now, parents cannot discourage their children from being active, nor can they encourage a sedentary lifestyle for their very young children. Encouraging your children to sit tight, or not run around too much, or not spend their time playing with other children or their peers is wrong. It is wrong not only because this can lead to socialisation problems later on, as this is the age where they learn how to interact with others in social situations, especially with people who are not family members. It is also wrong because encouraging them to sit back can also end up validating a lethargic lifestyle in their mind. They may think that it is okay to be cooped up and hang back at home. Physical activity is also essential for the healthy growth of their body as activity stimulates their body into producing hormones that trigger growth with strength. So, naturally, parents resort to increasing the size of their child’s servings during meals or up the frequency of their meals and snacks in hope that if they eat more food than they burn in their physical activities, they will put on weight faster. But unfortunately, their may be many reasons other than their nutritional intake for their less-than-ideal weight, and force-feeding is hardly the solution.Force-feeding doesnt solve the problem but worsens it by making eating meals a chore. Children start dreading meal times because in their perspective this is the time their parents try to wrestle food into them. Parents need to understand that eating does not equal nutrition. But before we give you some tips on nourishment, it is important you get a correct diagnosis.Is my child underweight?Your paediatrician or physician will be the best person to answer this. Your childs weight and height will be taken into account and compared to standard growth charts. His BMI (body mass index) will be calculated. A less than 5 percentile BMI will mean that the child is underweight. Your physician might ask you to boost their nutrient and calorie intake. Many children may be slow climbers on their growth chart but gradually overcome the problem.However, if your child still does not gain weight gradually even after proper nutritional intake, your doctor would test him for underlying medical problems.If approaching a paediatrician feels like a drastic measure for the time being, or you feel like even if your child is falling behind in terms of how much weight they should be putting on it is still not a cause of concern but you’d still like to keep an eye out for some of the markers that may signify that it is serious and are concrete evidence that you need to visit a paediatrician as soon as possible, here are some things you can look out for-Keep a careful watch on how frequently you need to change out your child’s wardrobe because they have outgrown their old clothes. For a child with fairly healthy growth, you would have to buy new clothes every season, i.e within 3-6 months. It may seem a very short time period, but if you are a parent you know how rapidly kids often grow. Keep in mind this is still an approximate and not an exact measure. This is more of a thing you should keep in the back of your mind, rather than be worrying about.Every child, and also adult for that matter, have an average weight they maintain or hover around, unless they take special efforts to lose or gain weight. For an adult is weight stays more or less the same throughout as they have completed their growth. For children, this weight should grow proportionately to their height and age, which is how they measure BMI. And children often have a particular age where they particularly shoot up in height and then grow into their height by putting on weight. So if your children haven’t reached that stage yet, maybe they are late bloomers. It is always a good idea to get an assessment regardless, even if only to check whether everything is on track or not.This is quite possibly the most serious sign that you should definitely consult a paediatrician, and that is if your child’s ribcage bones are visible when they are changing clothes. If the bones in their chest jut out, or even if they are prominently visible, it may be a cause of concern and a clear indicator that they are underweight. This is your wake up call as a parent to consult your paediatrician and explore a solution while you are still ahead of the problem.Being underweight in itself is not a cause of alarm, rather the health complications it could lead to if not paid attention to. A good idea would be to consult your paediatrician as soon as you suspect your child may be underweight and follow their instructions so that your children can achieve a healthy weight that is favourable to their well-rounded growth soon.Tipping the scales in your childs favourWhile there is no rulebook as to how you can make sure your child puts on weight, and every child and their bodies are very different. But there are some things you can do, based on general principles of how children’s biology works to tip the scales in you child’s favour and aid them in putting on a little weight to achieve better health. Here are some of those things-Chart a diet management plan with the help of your doctor. Here are some ways you can help your child reach an ideal body weight:Your doctor will recommend a higher calorie intake. Energy-dense foods are rich in calories. Choose more calorie-packed foods that have nutrients, too. Carrots, spinach, lean meats, whole-wheat bread are some nutritional foods. Whole milk, dairy products, nuts and unskinned potatoes are some high-calorie foods with nutrients. Bananas are an excellent snack too, if they feel snacky, and is a good way to fulfil their magnesium necessity too. Diet culture and the obsession with counting calories has inadvertently made people feel like calories are something bad, whereas they are simply a measurement of how your body stores the food you intake. Don’t be afraid to add calories to your child’s diet, as long as you ensure that these calories are those that will stick, calories that ensure whatever your child is consuming adds value to their overall health while being processed in their digestive tracts.Avoid foods with empty calories like cold drinks, potato chips or junk food. It can be very tempting for parents to let their children have the food they so crave as it will help them gain weight. It would be like two birds with one stone, your children get what they want and also appreciate you more because you are fulfilling their wish, you will not have to deal with their fuss, and they will put on weight too. Sounds like a win-win right? But there is a huge difference between substantial calories and empty calories. An amount of cola worth 300 calories is not equivalent to a cup of dal worth 300 calories. The cola is simply sugar and adds no value to your child’s health. On the other hand, the cup of dal will also provide your child with protein, fibre, carbohydrates, sodium, potassium, calcium, iron and zinc.Supplement energy foods with nutrient-dense foods. Try banana shakes, fruit custard and creamed soups. Serve soya bean chunks or bit-size boiled vegetables like carrots, broccoli along with a cheese dip or fondue. Top pizzas with boiled vegetables. Make puri/egg rolls with a stuffing of mashed potatoes with peas, grated carrots and chopped beans. This is also the point with empty calories. While loading up with energy-dense foods is a good idea and helps your child put on weight, as energy-dense foods create a surplus of the energy that the body then stores in the form of glycogen, it does not much help with anything else. On the other hand, nutrient-rich food items help give your child’s body the ingredients it needs to aid the growth of the body, to keep their immunity intact, and to maintain the general upkeep of the human body (especially a child’s, that is growing at a rapid rate) requires.Forget about three heavy meals a day. Intersperse small meals with soups or light snacks like chips and biscuits with vegetable toppings. Keep some roasted cashew nuts or peanuts as munchies for hunger pangs. If your child needs to put on weight, chances are they will now be consuming a bigger quantity of food per serving than they are used to, or foods that are richer. It can be very overwhelming to be served a plate heaped with food, or to finish it in one sitting. This overwhelming sensation can lessen the enjoyability of the food. It would be a better option to keep the quantities similar to what they are used to but feed them more frequently. Eventually, their digestive system will start to expect food more frequently and prepare itself by making your child hungry and more likely to eat the amount of food they need to.Eating can be fun too. Routines, meal-time happy conversations, dressing up boring meals are some ways that encourage better eating habits. The point is to make mealtimes something children look forward to so that it does not become a task to them. For their health, they will need to build a better relationship with food. You can ease that process by making it a bonding time or to make eating a positive experience for them and associating it with positive feelings.Cook simple recipes with your child. Ask them to put toppings on pizzas before putting them in the oven. They can also try their hand at cutting out triangles and circles from rolled out puris. This habit of involving them in the process of preparing the meal will help them build a better connection to their food. They will also be more willing to eat it as they will feel they have a stake in it because their choices helped create it.Say yes to breakfast. It is a very important meal because it is the bodys fuel for the day ahead. Children often refuse breakfast as they have been woken up too early to attend school and don’t feel hungry, or because they wake up late on the weekends. But breakfast is truly important, so try to get some food into them even if it is not much, and make sure to not force them to consume a bigger quantity as that will only make them feel heavy and unpleasant.Go for good fats like vegetable oils, olive oil instead of processed butter or margarine. Desi ghee is perhaps the best fat you can use for them, and it also adds the beautiful aromatic flavour to whatever dish it is added to. Brush their rotis with ghee, you can even toast their sandwiches with ghee.Any dietary supplement should be taken only on the doctors advice. Dietary supplements are still synthesised compounds to aid your child’s weight gain, but they are still tricky so do not give your child any supplements based on advertisements or word-of-mouth references unless your child’s paediatrician approves of it.
Is your child underweight? Just because they look thin, don't force food down their throat. Read on to find out more tips on how you can cope with underweight children.
As six-year-old Samar rushes out to play with his friends, his mother Rekha is left staring at yet another of his unfinished meals. Although she knows that many kids are fussy eaters, Samar's appetite worries Rekha because she thinks her son is grossly underweight for his age.
Obesity among children nowadays is a much-talked-about issue. But some parents find themselves at the other end of the scale. Clueless about how to achieve a healthy weight for their kids, they often resort to force-feeding. It isn’t entirely wrong, on a parent’s behalf, to assume that feeding their child more or more frequently will result in them gaining weight. Under normal circumstances, a child’s weight is mostly dependant on two factors - their food intake and the amount of physical activity they engage in. Now, parents cannot discourage their children from being active, nor can they encourage a sedentary lifestyle for their very young children. Encouraging your children to sit tight, or not run around too much, or not spend their time playing with other children or their peers is wrong. It is wrong not only because this can lead to socialisation problems later on, as this is the age where they learn how to interact with others in social situations, especially with people who are not family members. It is also wrong because encouraging them to sit back can also end up validating a lethargic lifestyle in their mind. They may think that it is okay to be cooped up and hang back at home. Physical activity is also essential for the healthy growth of their body as activity stimulates their body into producing hormones that trigger growth with strength. So, naturally, parents resort to increasing the size of their child’s servings during meals or up the frequency of their meals and snacks in hope that if they eat more food than they burn in their physical activities, they will put on weight faster. But unfortunately, their may be many reasons other than their nutritional intake for their less-than-ideal weight, and force-feeding is hardly the solution.
Force-feeding doesn't solve the problem but worsens it by making eating meals a chore. Children start dreading meal times because in their perspective this is the time their parents try to wrestle food into them. Parents need to understand that eating does not equal nutrition. But before we give you some tips on nourishment, it is important you get a correct diagnosis.
Is my child underweight?
Your paediatrician or physician will be the best person to answer this. Your child's weight and height will be taken into account and compared to standard growth charts. His BMI (body mass index) will be calculated. A less than 5 percentile BMI will mean that the child is underweight. Your physician might ask you to boost their nutrient and calorie intake. Many children may be slow climbers on their growth chart but gradually overcome the problem.
However, if your child still does not gain weight gradually even after proper nutritional intake, your doctor would test him for underlying medical problems.
If approaching a paediatrician feels like a drastic measure for the time being, or you feel like even if your child is falling behind in terms of how much weight they should be putting on it is still not a cause of concern but you’d still like to keep an eye out for some of the markers that may signify that it is serious and are concrete evidence that you need to visit a paediatrician as soon as possible, here are some things you can look out for-
Keep a careful watch on how frequently you need to change out your child’s wardrobe because they have outgrown their old clothes. For a child with fairly healthy growth, you would have to buy new clothes every season, i.e within 3-6 months. It may seem a very short time period, but if you are a parent you know how rapidly kids often grow. Keep in mind this is still an approximate and not an exact measure. This is more of a thing you should keep in the back of your mind, rather than be worrying about.
Every child, and also adult for that matter, have an average weight they maintain or hover around, unless they take special efforts to lose or gain weight. For an adult is weight stays more or less the same throughout as they have completed their growth. For children, this weight should grow proportionately to their height and age, which is how they measure BMI. And children often have a particular age where they particularly shoot up in height and then grow into their height by putting on weight. So if your children haven’t reached that stage yet, maybe they are late bloomers. It is always a good idea to get an assessment regardless, even if only to check whether everything is on track or not.
This is quite possibly the most serious sign that you should definitely consult a paediatrician, and that is if your child’s ribcage bones are visible when they are changing clothes. If the bones in their chest jut out, or even if they are prominently visible, it may be a cause of concern and a clear indicator that they are underweight. This is your wake up call as a parent to consult your paediatrician and explore a solution while you are still ahead of the problem.
Being underweight in itself is not a cause of alarm, rather the health complications it could lead to if not paid attention to. A good idea would be to consult your paediatrician as soon as you suspect your child may be underweight and follow their instructions so that your children can achieve a healthy weight that is favourable to their well-rounded growth soon.
Tipping the scales in your child's favour
While there is no rulebook as to how you can make sure your child puts on weight, and every child and their bodies are very different. But there are some things you can do, based on general principles of how children’s biology works to tip the scales in you child’s favour and aid them in putting on a little weight to achieve better health. Here are some of those things-
Chart a diet management plan with the help of your doctor. Here are some ways you can help your child reach an ideal body weight:
Your doctor will recommend a higher calorie intake. Energy-dense foods are rich in calories. Choose more calorie-packed foods that have nutrients, too. Carrots, spinach, lean meats, whole-wheat bread are some nutritional foods. Whole milk, dairy products, nuts and unskinned potatoes are some high-calorie foods with nutrients. Bananas are an excellent snack too, if they feel snacky, and is a good way to fulfil their magnesium necessity too. Diet culture and the obsession with counting calories has inadvertently made people feel like calories are something bad, whereas they are simply a measurement of how your body stores the food you intake. Don’t be afraid to add calories to your child’s diet, as long as you ensure that these calories are those that will stick, calories that ensure whatever your child is consuming adds value to their overall health while being processed in their digestive tracts.
Avoid foods with empty calories like cold drinks, potato chips or junk food. It can be very tempting for parents to let their children have the food they so crave as it will help them gain weight. It would be like two birds with one stone, your children get what they want and also appreciate you more because you are fulfilling their wish, you will not have to deal with their fuss, and they will put on weight too. Sounds like a win-win right? But there is a huge difference between substantial calories and empty calories. An amount of cola worth 300 calories is not equivalent to a cup of dal worth 300 calories. The cola is simply sugar and adds no value to your child’s health. On the other hand, the cup of dal will also provide your child with protein, fibre, carbohydrates, sodium, potassium, calcium, iron and zinc.
Supplement energy foods with nutrient-dense foods. Try banana shakes, fruit custard and creamed soups. Serve soya bean chunks or bit-size boiled vegetables like carrots, broccoli along with a cheese dip or fondue. Top pizzas with boiled vegetables. Make puri/egg rolls with a stuffing of mashed potatoes with peas, grated carrots and chopped beans. This is also the point with empty calories. While loading up with energy-dense foods is a good idea and helps your child put on weight, as energy-dense foods create a surplus of the energy that the body then stores in the form of glycogen, it does not much help with anything else. On the other hand, nutrient-rich food items help give your child’s body the ingredients it needs to aid the growth of the body, to keep their immunity intact, and to maintain the general upkeep of the human body (especially a child’s, that is growing at a rapid rate) requires.
Forget about three heavy meals a day. Intersperse small meals with soups or light snacks like chips and biscuits with vegetable toppings. Keep some roasted cashew nuts or peanuts as munchies for hunger pangs. If your child needs to put on weight, chances are they will now be consuming a bigger quantity of food per serving than they are used to, or foods that are richer. It can be very overwhelming to be served a plate heaped with food, or to finish it in one sitting. This overwhelming sensation can lessen the enjoyability of the food. It would be a better option to keep the quantities similar to what they are used to but feed them more frequently. Eventually, their digestive system will start to expect food more frequently and prepare itself by making your child hungry and more likely to eat the amount of food they need to.
Eating can be fun too. Routines, meal-time happy conversations, dressing up boring meals are some ways that encourage better eating habits. The point is to make mealtimes something children look forward to so that it does not become a task to them. For their health, they will need to build a better relationship with food. You can ease that process by making it a bonding time or to make eating a positive experience for them and associating it with positive feelings.
Cook simple recipes with your child. Ask them to put toppings on pizzas before putting them in the oven. They can also try their hand at cutting out triangles and circles from rolled out puris. This habit of involving them in the process of preparing the meal will help them build a better connection to their food. They will also be more willing to eat it as they will feel they have a stake in it because their choices helped create it.
Say yes to breakfast. It is a very important meal because it is the body's fuel for the day ahead. Children often refuse breakfast as they have been woken up too early to attend school and don’t feel hungry, or because they wake up late on the weekends. But breakfast is truly important, so try to get some food into them even if it is not much, and make sure to not force them to consume a bigger quantity as that will only make them feel heavy and unpleasant.
Go for good fats like vegetable oils, olive oil instead of processed butter or margarine. Desi ghee is perhaps the best fat you can use for them, and it also adds the beautiful aromatic flavour to whatever dish it is added to. Brush their rotis with ghee, you can even toast their sandwiches with ghee.
Any dietary supplement should be taken only on the doctor's advice. Dietary supplements are still synthesised compounds to aid your child’s weight gain, but they are still tricky so do not give your child any supplements based on advertisements or word-of-mouth references unless your child’s paediatrician approves of it.
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Hi Pragna, try giving your child Econorm or any other probiotic powder mixed with milk or curd. This will help your child gain weight without force feeding her.
Hi my toddler is 12 months and she is only 7 kgs.She eats everything found of eating ,very active.But very skinny.Can you please suggest how to increase her weight?
