weight gain drinks for kids?

My three-year-old is really, really skinny and I'd love for him to put on some weight. I'm not worried about nutrition, he LOVES his fruits and veggies - which is kind of the problem. He'll eat all his lettuce and broccoli and we have to cajole him to eat the chicken nuggets (yes he's weird). He also just doesn't have a huge appetite - this morning he was up for hours before he was interested in breakfast. We can't find pants that fit him - the ones that are long enough just fall down! Has anyone used Pediasure or other supplements to put pounds on their kid?

My three-year-old is really, really skinny and I'd love for him to put on some weight. I'm not worried about nutrition, he LOVES his fruits and veggies - which is kind of the problem. He'll eat all his lettuce and broccoli and we have to cajole him to eat the chicken nuggets (yes he's weird). He also just doesn't have a huge appetite - this morning he was up for hours before he was interested in breakfast. We can't find pants that fit him - the ones that are long enough just fall down! Has anyone used Pediasure or other supplements to put pounds on their kid?

Hey sounds like my nephew. Kid always loved his veggies more than anything.

He's 7 and still a skinny kid. He was on pediasure for years (by prescription) and he never really gained any weight from it it's possible it helped him maintain his weight. YMMV.

We made sure he ate a lot of the high calorie food he liked like potatoes and bread when he was with us. But he does like chicken nuggets. His little brother (who's 3, is a chunk compared to him).

Aren't kids pretty skinny in general?  Then they start to fill out a bit around puberty. My instinctive opinion is that as long as they are eating nutritious food, kids can manage how much to eat.  Any extremes will be temporary as they will change habits constantly as they grow.  I also think that turning food and weight into an issue at such an early age could lead to life long problems.

What does your doctor think?  I'd value his opinion highly.

My son is skinnier than everyone in his class by far. We're not making an issue out of his eating - basically if he eats a decent dinner he gets to have dessert, but we don't cajole or get upset if he doesn't. I want him to trust his own body to tell him if he's hungry or not. (We have started instituting a time limit on dinner though since he will take literally an hour to eat dinner if given the opportunity.)  The GPs aren't concerned because he's stayed on the same percentile (9%) but I'd really just like to set him up to not be a scrawny adolescent like both of his parents were.

Unfortunately the kid hates potatoes (I told you he was weird!) or we'd just load him up on my husband's incredible mashed potatoes every week!

I don't have kids but I've seen my cousins in the US go through years of paediatric drinks forced on them by the doctor, even though as far as I could tell they were perfectly healthy and had no requirements for the extra drinks (apparently they were underweight and needed to gain a certain number of pounds, yet by the end of it they were verging on overweight).

I do worry though that as they become adults, they may develop eating/food complexes because of this and I'm not sure how psychologically healthy the entire experience has been for them.


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I would talk to your GP and possibly ask for a referral to a dietician.  From an outsider's view, it sounds like your son has a really healthy diet and it's okay to be on the 9th percentile.  Someone has to be.     My daughter is down there too.  But she eats us out of house and home (she just burns it off as quick as it goes in).

Does your son complain of any food upsetting his tummy or is it just a taste preference?  We are an allergy family, so my only concern for you would be that he might be avoiding foods because they actually make him feel unwell.  If that's not the case, I think you are probably in a great position and he's healthy - just small.  But leave that for the medical professionals to tell you. 

For what it's worth, my husband is 6'6" tall and is about 165 pounds and is considered a perfectly healthy weight.  He could be much skinnier and still be considered healthy!  Kind of crazy...

I wouldn't suggest putting a time limit on dinner unless it's negatively affecting something. Eating slowly and only until your full is actually healthy since it takes your body 20 minutes after it's physically full for your brain to know. Crazy right?

My parents never made me eat quickly or to clean my plate and I'm at a much better weight than my in-laws and husband who clean their plates.

He doesn't complain about things upsetting his stomach, but he does have a thing about textures. My husband picked up some Pediasure powder at Boots yesterday and we gave him some after breakfast. He drank some and we put the rest in the fridge for after school. I'm definitely not putting any pressure on him. If he drinks it, great, if he doesn't, no big deal.

The time limit thing is because he is the biggest dawdler you will ever meet. Like, taking 10 minutes to eat a single fish finger. Dinner was taking so long it was delaying bedtime! (It's not just dinner, he's like that with most things. Walking anywhere is an epic journey because he has to look at every car and ask questions about everything! I generally don't fuss about it unless we have to be somewhere because I like to encourage his curiosity.) We're not making him wolf it down in 5 minutes. It's more like, after 30 minutes if he's still just dilly-dallying, I set a timer for 10 more minutes. He can eat whatever he likes in that 10 minutes, but when the bell goes off, dinner is over. If he's had a decent meal, he gets dessert. If not, "we'll try again tomorrow," as he likes to say.

I totally get the time limit on dinner.  Sometimes you just have to get on with things!  An hour is certainly VERY generous.

Does he attend a nursery?  I swear my daughter wouldn't be as good of an eater if she didn't.  I think because they all sit down together and have a variety of foods, she is more inclined to try everything and follow along with others leads.

But she would (and will) graze ALL. DAY. LONG. if you let her.  Which supposedly is what our bodies are actually designed to do.

Great news that he doesn't complain of stomach aches.  That would be my only real concern.  I bet ten years from now he'll be eating you out of house and home and you'll long the days where he would barely touch his plate.   

He does go to nursery three days a week. They provide snacks and I send him with a packed lunch, which he will eat all of. So I stuff that lunchbox full!