Sunday, April 27, 2008

Calories....

One would think as I am walking through the grocery aisles, picking up different items, shaking my head and placing it back on the shelf, that I am doing so because the item is too high in calories and/or fat.

Quite the contrary......I'm looking to fatten up a little boy. Making sure that he keeps that scale tipped at least at the 30 lb. mark! Do I sound like the witch from the gingerbread house in Hansel & Gretel?

I felt like going over the loudspeaker at the store

"Attention all Grocery Store Shoppers....The first person to get to the little boy in aisle 2 with the highest calorie pureed food or condiment will receive a $20 off their bill!"


There is hardly anything that I could find that had any large amount of calories in a small amount of food. Daniel doesn't eat a lot, so it really needs to be packed with the calories. Anyone reading this please....send me recipes, give me ideas of things to make or buy things that he can eat. He can't have solids, he can't have thick pureed foods like dry mashed potatoes....so whatever it is, it needs to be blended and liquified. Jars of baby food have approximately 70 cal. per 4 oz. jar. that's not much. I'm looking for something more!


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Melanie

I have one word for you: oil.

Molly also eats only soft food, but she is also on the ketogenic diet to control her seizures.

This diet has large amounts of fat and only tiny amounts of carbohydrate and protein (and is supplemented to be nutritionally complete).

Most of the calories in the diet come from oil, in her case MCT oil. You should be able to read about the keto diet if you Google it.

Good Luck!

Susan

PS: Don't you have a dietician working on this with you??

PPS: You could also add pure calories in the form of a powder - e.g. here in Austrlia we have Polyjoule.

PPPS: Don't forget good old butter, margarine or mayonnaise...

Anonymous said...

I agree with Susan. Drew is on the Keto diet as well. Melted butter, Oil (we use olive oil, mayo and heavy whipping cream. We can hide the olive oil well in applesauce, milk (our milk is heavy whipping cream). Costco has the heavy whipping cream at a decent price.

I can give you more ideas on Friday at school (are you going this week)?

Steph

Julie Vaicius said...

I love fattening things so I know this area pretty well - butter and malt - two things I try to avoid if at all possible. I am not sure about dietary restrictions but if possible see if you can work those things in.

Red Lotus Mama said...

What about those Pediasure drinks? I don't know what the calorie count is, but at least it offers the nutrients he would need.

Jane said...

We had additives - Polycose, DuoCal, and BeneCal, I think those were the names. The first two were powders and the last was an oily liquid but they all mixed well with his foods and added extra calories.

Billie said...

We use Benecalorie with Eden. It mixes well with soups. Eden especially likes it with Ramen and the Bear Creek Vegetable Beef soup. Would you be able to puree these to the appropriate consistency?

I do the exact same thing at the grocery store, checking the labels for the highest calorie foods:)

C said...

Melanie --

Coconut milk is IT. I just compared calorie content for Q's supplement. Here 'tis: Just for kids = 44.375 cal/oz. Coconut milk = 55.55 cal/oz.

I put some of this (or cream, which is comparable, but not quite equal) into everything I stir up for him. One of the combinations he gets: I melt cheddar into a jar of peas and brown rice, add a pinch of onion powder and a little salt, thicken with DHA added oatmeal and voila!! Also, use some of whatever you've got for high calorie base (supplement or coconut milk), make it very warm in the microwave, stir in some chocolate chips, let cool slightly, then add some Thick It to create a very calorie dense pudding. (Please tell me he loves chocolate.) Q's been getting some of this every evening lately and he slurps it down. ;o)

Having the Just for Kids with *fiber* has been a huge help. Plus, Q loves water so much that he happily drinks more than enough to keep up with the fiber, which has also helped other issues.

Will Daniel eat eggs? Like smashed into stuff? Pureed? If so, use just the yolks. Heck, make custard or vanilla pudding with cream and egg yolks.

Please share whatever else you come up with -- it sounds like there are plenty of us looking for more of these same ideas.

Go Daniel!!

Katy said...

Hmmmmm. . . I might have to think on this one, but my first thought would be any kind of dairy-based dip if you could get the consistancy right. I'm also with whomever suggested whipping cream because that is VERY high is calories.

I have to say that I would ALWAYS go with my mommy gut, but I would especially do it when it comes to feeding tubes. I feel like they want to slap a feeding tube in every kid they come across these days. My baby had a feeding tube put in at 4 weeks of age. Looking back, I'm really sorry that we did that. By eight weeks he was taking all his food by mouth and his weight has held steady ever since. We're introducing solid foods right now and he's doing well, but we have a swallow study in our future. I just hate it because he's a good weight and eats well, but now that we've had a feeding tube, we cannot get rid of that label. If your gut is saying no, then I'd go with it.

Melanie said...

Thank you everyone for all your ideas and feedback. I have started to add in the butter and some heavy whipping cream. There are some things that we are already doing (duocal), but adding the ideas in with that should really do the trick!! Watch, my luck is I'll have a 50 lbs 2 1/2 yr old that I won't be able to carry around!!! LOL