Foods For Underweight Children

April 25, 2011

Raising a child poses many challenges. Feeding your child properly is something that is extremely important as it sets the base for your child’s future life. Proper nutrition helps the development of the brain, the immune system, muscles and organs. If you are not feeding your child some of the vital nutrients required for healthy growth, you may be putting your child at risk. If you feel that your child is underweight or has been diagnosed as underweight, you can take some remedial steps to fix the problem.

The primary step to take is to ensure that the lack of weight is not caused by some illness or disease. Your child may be allergic to some food that you are feeding it. There may also be a case where the digestive system is not efficiently absorbing nutrition from the food.

In any case, your doctor should thoroughly examine your child to make sure that there is no medical problem that is preventing your child from gaining weight normally. Children may be unable to digest some heavy foods or dairy products because their digestive system has not yet fully developed.

If your doctor does not find anything medically wrong with your child, you should focus on the diet to increase weight. Many people tend to starve their children of fatty foods right from a young age in order to avoid obesity.

However, fat is good and useful for all people. Some amount of fat is required in the body. If you are restricting your child’s fat intake to virtually nil, you should change this habit.

Often, children do not eat their entire meal as they get distracted or begin to fuss about what they are eating. In such cases, you may have to split the meals up into smaller servings and you may also have to make the food more tasty or appealing to your child. Always avoid excess when it comes to sweet or things that your child likes. However, it is not a problem if you indulge your child a little bit. Foods that you can give your child for weight gain include milk, fruits and vegetables, and partially fatty foods like meat. You should also be aware that every child is different and some have a higher rate of metabolism. These children will always be naturally thinner than others. If you are feeding your child well and your child does not appear tired or weak, do not worry too much about weight.