Help with high calorie food supplement for 5 yr old?

Cafe Society
1

So, last summer when I took my daughter in for her four year check up, I found out that she is allergic to the following foods:

[ul]
[li]Nuts (not just peanuts)[/li][li]Milk (not lactose intolerant, she’s allergic to the milk protein)[/li][li]Soy[/li][li]Corn[/li][li]Sesame[/li][li]Wheat[/li][/ul]
The nut allergy is the most severe but none of these are immediately life threatening. Some days she can handle eating one of things that has a slight amount of an allergen (cornbread, pizza, corn chips) and I’ll give her a Benadryl and she’ll be okay. Also, the more refined the wheat flour is, the less severe the reaction - so she can tolerate some crackers, potato bread, white bread, croissants, etc pretty well. (Thank God because we love bread.) Anyway, she’s lost a lot of weight (she’s about 40lbs now at a height of 45 inches) over the past year as we’ve tried to find things that she likes and that she can eat. A complication is my 12 year old daughter who does NOT need to gain anymore - it’s kinda tough to give one all the yummy fatty foods and restrict the other.

We eat good healthy foods so I’m not too terribly concerned about vitamins or protein - a staple base dish I cook each week is saffron rice with chickpeas, peas, onions, chopped salami & red beans that I add some sort of meat & veggie to for a quick dinner or lunch. She’s great about eating her veggies and whatnot, but it’s hard to get a 5 year old to sit still long during meal times. Plus the fact that she’s in preschool/daycare from 8:30 - 6pm Mon - Friday, means I can’t give her more mini-meals during the day.

I’ve been looking for something like Pediasure (which only has milk and soy-based varieties) to give my daughter the calories and fat she needs but am coming up empty handed.

Does anyone know of any product that would fit this situation or any ideas for high-calorie, healthy and tasty smoothie recipes? I’m just really drawing a blank and she’s getting so thin.

2

This thread Dairy/Soy free drink ideas | Mothering Forum seemed to have some good ideas.

3

When my son was younger, it was a struggle to get him to consume sufficient daily calories. We eventually resorted to making an avocado-based smoothie for him each morning to drink on the way to school (to supplement his regular meals). I know it sounds odd, but it was actually really good. Avocado is high in healthy fat, full of fibre and is surprisingly well-suited to sweeter recipes like smoothies and shakes.

We didn’t follow a set recipe, preferring to just use whatever we had around, but it usually included avocado, soy milk (you could use rice milk), assorted fruits (especially frozen bananas), and a scoop of protein powder. It’s a highly adaptable concoction and can easily be flavoured to fit your daughter’s tastes.

The smoothie format was ideal because it took my son a lot less time to drink it than it would have taken him to eat the equivalent calories, which worked perfectly for his attention span. He eventually started to actually eat enough calories and no longer needs the morning smoothies, but they were lifesavers when we needed them.

4

Is she allergic to wheat or gluten intolerant? If she’s gluten intolerant, that can cause weight loss. The gluten will damage her small intenestines, and she won’t be able to absorb nutrients properly.

It’s not unusual for someone who is gluten intolerant to be hospitalized and put on an IV because they simply can’t absorb the nutrients they need any more.

I would suggest keeping her on a really strict diet for a while. I understand how difficult this will be, I have multiple food allergies as well. Try to keep her from eating any of her allergens for a month or two, and see if she starts gaining weight.

5

Coconut milk and cream can be added to lots of food, both sweet and savoury. For example, a good breakfast would be oatmeal with brown sugar and coconut milk. (And you can give it to the older child with skimmed milk instead). Similarly, cream of rice with coconut milk and chocolate chips.

6

Coconut milk is not something I’d mess with. It’s a nut. My own daughter is allergic to nuts and that includes coconut–I checked.

Sorry, don’t have time to contribute more just now. Will think about this.

7

From what I’ve read about gluten intolerance, I’m pretty sure that isn’t her problem, “just” the wheat allergy. Once she started eating solid foods - age 1 or so - she had no issues gaining weight and we were eating lots of wheat breads, wheat pastas, wheat crackers, etc. The only reason I suspected something might be wrong with her is that every time we had a meal that was cooked, and sometimes with snacks, she would cough and cough and cough. Since I couldn’t pinpoint the cause of it, and the coughing was seemingly the only problem I decided to wait until she was 4 to have her tested for allergies. I thought that it was probably an additive that she was sensitive to. For the first few months after her food allergies were identified, she was on a really strict diet and the change was remarkable. Mealtimes were so quiet! Surprisingly even though she’s really sensitive to milk and ice cream - for some reason she can eat yogurt occasionally without too much problem. I’ve relaxed restrictions on pizza and cornbread - as occasional treats. I come from a southernish black family - giving up cornbread completely hurt my soul.

In any event, she’s lost so much weight because I haven’t found an adequate substitute for the milk which she used to drink all the time. I can’t replace it with nuts and I don’t want to replace it with unhealthy fats and sugar.

spoike She does like avocado - especially guacomole. I’ll have to try making a smoothie with it. Could you post a basic version of the ratios you used? I’m kinda bad at making up recipes and I haven’t made that many smoothies in my life. :slight_smile:

Filmgeek, I had done a google search and found a thread on that board, but not that thread - so thanks.

One of the mothers mentions that kefir yogurt might be a good option for kids that tolerate yogurt since it predigests the milk protein. Has anyone ever tried drinking this in a smoothie or making it at home?

Thanks Blue Mood for the idea - we use rice milk in oatmeal - but she’s not a big fan of oatmeal unless it’s used as a delivery system for strawberries and blueberries. Even then the ratio of oatmeal to fruit is like 1 grain of oat to 5 berries. :slight_smile:

Thanks for the warning dangermom.

8

grayhairedmomma, it’s been a while since I had to make an avocado smoothie, so I’m kind of winging it in terms of ratios. It’s highly adaptable, so if your daughter doesn’t like it initially, keep tweaking.

1 avocado
2 frozen bananas
1 scoop protein powder
1 cup fruit of choice (berries, applesauce, whatever; frozen is fine)
Blend with enough rice milk (any flavour is fine, but Rice Dream Enriched Chocolate is yummy) to make a drinkable consistency (about 1/2 cup?).

The above concoction has around 800 calories, but we got 2 servings out of it. My son was older than your daughter, so you may get 3 servings. Either way, it can be stored in the fridge. It won’t have the same frozen consistency as the first day, but, once stirred, it’s still tasty.

I googled “vegan protein powder” and found a number of options, but this one touts itself as a complete meal replacement, so I thought it might be perfect for your needs. We always used a whey-based protein powder, so I have no idea how the vegan one tastes, but I imagine the flavour will be hidden by the other ingredients anyway. It has about 175 calories per scoop. Depending on its flavour and texture, perhaps it could be added to some of your daughter’s other foods to increase the calories.

My final suggestion is the line of Rice Dream Non-Dairy Frozen Desserts and Supreme Non-Dairy Frozen Desserts. A half cup serving every night would give your daughter an additional 150 calories, and it tastes good, so it’s a win either way.

Good luck!

9

Oh, please - no, no no! Do not EVER give a child a food she is allergic to! PLEASE don’t do that! You can get away with it for awhile, but you are running the very real risk of a severe reaction and a scary ride to the ER. Please, please, do NOT take that risk. Anaphylactic reactions are terrifying to both the allergic person and those around her - I speak from experience. Please, please stop doing this. I beg you. Do not risk your child’s health in this manner.

Yes, I know it’s a struggle - I’ve had multiple food allergies all my life, for over four decades now. Please don’t succumb to temptation. Your child will be MUCH healthier if you don’t, and she needs to learn proper food discipline now, not that it’s OK to cheat. Because it isn’t.

If she stays away from those foods she’s allergic to then there is a chance she’ll outgrow some or all of them. If you keep irritating her system she probably won’t - pretty much guaranteeing a childhood problem becomes a life long one.

Geez - look, most bread is unhealthy for your child. It’s a pain in the butt, but you can get breadlike items that contain no wheat, no corn, and no soy.

When my parents weren’t aware of what I was allergic to and inadvertantly kept feeding it to me I was underweight, too - in my case from chronic diarrhea and lots of vomiting. Maybe this isn’t the case with your daughter, but if her system is irritated from constant exposure to allergens it’s NOT helping her digestion work efficiently.

Yes. That’s one of the sucky things about food allergies: all the things other people can eat that you can’t. Too bad. She needs to learn early what food is bad for her even if it’s good for other people. I have a niece who have never eaten ice cream. It’s annoying, but that’s all it is and otherwise her life is really good. I’ve had to give up foods I loved because of allergies - I deal with it, because I like being healthy more than I like any particular food.

Can she eat rice, barley, and rye-based crackers (assuming they contain no allergens)? Does she like olive oil? An herb-flavored olive oil (which you can make at home) for dunking crackers can be pretty good and there’s calories there.

Can she eat eggs? Eggs are excellent nutrition, and contain fats in the yolk.

Does she have any taste for oily fish? Hamburgers? Sausage without fillers? Bacon? I was raised with these as snacks instead of cookies and sweets, along with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables available. Oil pack sardines or tuna on a “safe” cracker might be a good snack for her, and it’s healthy. Sardines and salmon can also be a source of calcium for a child who shouldn’t be eating any dairy at all (which is the case if she’s allergic).

I don’t know if Qadgop the Mercotan has anything to contribute here, but he has some experience in raising a child requiring a non-typical diet although in the Mercotan family it wasn’t allergies but another illness.

10

You know, I have NEVER asked my family to give up ANY food to accommodate my allergies. Neither has my niece. You’ll drive yourself crazy if you do. Both of us were taught early (in my niece’s case, by a couple stays in the hospital) that there were foods other people could eat that we shouldn’t. If the rest of you are having cornbread then, of course, your daughter needs something she likes instead of cornbread to go with her meal. This isn’t easy. Dinners in my family can become a minefield and require the ingredients in each dish to be explicitly stated, but it’s not reasonable to make the world an “allergen free zone” because, truthfully, the world will not accommodate that.

If she’s seriously underweight then, until she gets to a normal weight, I’d argue that “fats and sugars” aren’t unhealthy for her. Obviously, you want to maximize her nutrition given that her diet IS limited, but what is unhealthy for an older child with a weight problem might be just what she needs right now.

If she is actually allergic to milk do not do this! Please! If she was lactose intolerant it would be OK (probably), but NOT if she’s allergic. If she’s allergic to milk then NO DAIRY. AT ALL.

So… this is a problem? There’s lots worse things than eating strawberries and blueberries with a little bit of oats on top.

Anyhow - if she doesn’t like oatmeal then she doesn’t like oatmeal. Don’t be afraid to keep trying to find things she likes. At one point in my life I was using cooked barley and cooked rice as a breakfast cereal, either hot or cold, with milk. Maybe she’d like one of those better?

11

My niece, only slightly older, has Crohn’s disease and a similarly restrictive diet. Might want to check out parenting threads about that.

12

Yeah, that one made my stomach clench up, too.

It may be okay. There are differing types of food allergies. However. Most of the ones I’m familiar with – and, live with – are the kind that get a little worse with every exposure. I didn’t know I was allergic to nuts for the first 30 years of my life, because the reaction was so mild each time, but the mystery illnesses and rashes and whatnot finally grew severe enough that I could connect it to an allergic reaction. My nephew got it even worse than me – at 3, just brushing a nut against his skin caused itchy, puffy redness.

IF an allergist has said it’s okay to go for the reaction, then follow with Benadryl, then it’s probably safe… but, damn, hope you got a good allergist.

[quote=“grayhairedmomma, post:1, topic:495884”]

[ul]
[li]Nuts (not just peanuts)[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]

Also, just because this is one of my allergies – please don’t lump in “peanuts” with “nuts” like that as though they were the same thing. Often nut allergies and peanut allergies occur together. Many of us – like, me and my nephew – can eat all the peanuts we’d like despite being allergic to nuts.

They’re not the same things.

In addition to coconuts, if your daughter has a tree nut allergy be careful of pine nuts, too (no pesto).

Your daughter might grow out of some of those allergies – we’re hopeful my 1 YO niece may grow out of her allergy to milk – but with that long list I’d talk to an allergist about desensitization. My nurse SiL has looked into it for my 6 YO nephew in a few years… and I might too just out of solidarity for the kid. (frankly, my limited food allergies weren’t a bother once I found them out; oddly enough, I never liked eating those things, anyway.)

13

I may be missing something, but what’s the purpose of feeding the kid calories? Nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and protein are what’s important, and low-calorie diets, if anything, seem to be the healthiest thing science has ever yet discovered.

14

The child is reportedly underweight. Being slim is one thing, being actually below a healthy weight, particularly in a growing child, is every bit as unhealthy as being obese. It’s no longer a common problem in the western world, but for people who are underweight getting enough calories becomes just as important as getting enough vitamins. Young children also need a higher percentage of fat than older children and adults, both for the energy required for growth but also for proper development of things such as their nervous system.

15

kids cant grow without calories, you cant survive without them. you are asking why you have to keep putting gas in the car because you think it should do fine on the motor oil alone.
that list of allergies is pretty damn scary in length. I have been slowly acquiring mine over the years and share a bit of that list.

some foods to keep in mind.
rice milk as already mentioned.
Fruit Shakes (aka smoothies) the basics for this are orange juice, ice, and bananas, blend the crap out of this and is really really easy to get kids to drink (and adults) and the best part is you can add whatever other fruit/berry that will blend to it for more goodness.
(note the orange juice/banana combo makes for a really foamy smoothy feel but you can do whatever you want with it.

also here in Seattle we have a place called whole foods that carries a brand called Namaste, from the label “made in a dedicated facility free of Gluten, Wheat, Soy, Corn, Potatoe, Peanuts, Tree nuts, Dairy, Casein” they make a nice variety of baked style good mixes that come in brown bags you make yourself from the mix very easy to follow and as I turn it over I see my personal favorite the pizza crust has the following listed as ingredients “magical pixie dust”

https://www.namastefoods.com/shopping/storefront/cgi-bin/news.cgi?Category=Home

Roasted Garlic is a treat some kids love and would go good with rice crackers as would just some jelly/jam, kids love simple things.

also you can make flavored olive oils with Sweet type spices as well as more traditional stuff, I almost always have some Cinnamon olive oil around so you might keep that in mind as well.

also check with your Allergist but Goat cheese is a fantastic substitute for cow. (pricey though)

16

@Boomstick: Do you know of any charts one can use to determine if a child is underweight? Because I have a friend who may be restricting the calories of her kids too much, at least, according to her grandparents and friends. I’d really like to know if the kids are underweight.

17

BMI calculators. Although usually used to determine overweight they work on the other end of the spectrum, too. If I recall, a BMI under 19 is underweight.

But for children you also have to consider what height percentile they’re in, as restricted calories can also result in stunted growth. An underweight child of normal height is one thing, if the child is also abnormally short for his/her age that can indicate a much more serious state of affairs.

18

Wow, she’s purposely limiting her kids’ calories? Sounds like it could be a job for Social Services.

19

Broomstick & everyone else, I hear what you’re saying and will respond more when I have time this afternoon. I just wanted to respond to this right now because it’s quick. I meant that I’m having a hard time giving the fattier foods to my youngest and NOT having my oldest - who does not need the extra calories - eat that much too. One thing the youngest loves but oldest does not care for too much are smoothies, so that’s an easy way to beef up the younger one without beefing up the older.

On the issue of unhealthy fats and sugars - if we get to the point where I have to feed her anything just to keep her alive then I’ll do that. But I’m trying to keep her longterm health/eating habits & my other daughter’s health/eating habits in mind as we struggle with this adjustment. It’s a tough line to walk (and I know we’re not the first family in the history of the world to deal with it) - I don’t want her to grow up thinking that because she can’t eat such & such foods, she can eat all the junk she wants.

To her credit, my youngest daughter is very good about not eating any nuts, peanuts, milk, ice cream (she loves sherbert so that’s easy), or anything she can easily identify as something she’s allergic too. It’s a little bit of a pain because I found Sunbutter (made from sunflower seeds) and she won’t eat it because it looks/smells too much like peanut butter. :slight_smile:

spoike, thanks for the recipe & the vegan protein powder link- we’ll give it a shot tonight.

Critical1, thank you, thank, you, thank you, thank you - for that link to Namaste! It will be so much easier on all of us when don’t have to say “no” so much.

20

Sherbet has milk- sorbet generally does not. My daughter had a milk protein allergy that she grew out of. Yogurt is can be ok for the lactose intolerant, as the bacteria breakdown the lactose. However, the protein itself is not broken down.

People use the term “milk allergy” very loosely, often when they mean lactose intolerant. I always needed to be very careful when getting advice that I knew specifically what they meant.

My son has had similar issues with weight due to medication he is on. Boy I feel your struggle- he needs calories and nutrients. He’s such a healthy eater that I struggle with feeding him junk just for the calories, but he needs the calories! Boy, it’s hard!