Increasing calories/fat intake for somewhat picky kid who won't eat meat

[Anonymous]

On doctor's orders, we are trying to increase our kid's caloric intake. Also specifically trying to boost the amount of protein and fats she consumes. Meat is a very tough sell for her (we can put it on her plate and sometimes she nibbles around the edges but I've never seen her eat an actual serving of meat in her life) but she's fine with dairy.

Doctor gave us some good tips, including switching to whole milk, adding chia seeds and hemp hearts to a lot of things, making sure any fatty ingredient we use is full fat, and also encouraging more high-fat options like avocados and nut butters, etc. We're doing all that, but I'm wondering if other parents have suggestions for specific meals or snacks that their kids have liked that are high-calorie and fatty. We are trying to stay away from super processed options like protein shakes if we can.

Like if you've been in this situation, is there a breakfast or afterschool snack, in particular, that your kid liked and you could regularly give to ensure an extra 300-400 calories?

[Anonymous]

What does she eat in a day already? That's more helpful than what she does NOT eat.

Like if she eats pasta, but an extra pat of butter on top of her serving, or drizzle with olive oil and stir. If she eats eggs, don't use cooking spray, use a very generous heap of butter to cook. Will she eat cheese? Add it to things you might not (like pasta or eggs!). Even just a serving of ice cream after dinner can get you an extra 200 calories with very little effort.

[Anonymous]

I make my own banana bread with whole milk/yogurt and protein powder. My youngest (6) is also not a meat eater much so we upped her protein intake this way. It's a favorite snack and lunch (paired with cheese sticks and fruit)
If you want to add more incremental calories, fry/sautee in coconut oil and butter. We do a lot of very buttered seeded bread toast. Amazing how much of it kids can consume. We get kerrygold or Plugra as it tastes better.
Biggest game changer for us was getting her to eat scrambled eggs. Gateway was fried rice with egg oddly. Now I make my own scrambled eggs, add some milk or cream. And also very eggy fried rice with lots of butter for dinner some days.
Full fat Greek yogurt with choice or jam and mix ins (Cheerios etc).

[Anonymous]

We aren’t dealing with that specific issue, jr I have a skinny kid who moves a lot so I try to keep his calories up. Sounds like Dr gave you good advice including switching to WM which we did last year too.

Dates stuffed with but butter

Greek yogurt parfait with trail mix on top

Nut butter and Greek yogurt smoothies. You can use peanut butter powder too

Greek yogurt muffins. Can add vegetables, fruit, nuts to this

Greek yogurt Frozen ”bark”

Guacamole with chips or with a quesadilla

Also add an extra drizzle of olive oil or an extra pat of butter to meals.

Ice cream for dessert

[Anonymous]

I also recently bought high protein cereal. I think it’s special K.

What about soy - soy milk, tofu

Will she eat fish? Mine will eat shrimp, salmon (especially if cooked with butter and brown sugar and soy) and surprisingly, canned sardines. I just rinse the sardines and add them to pasta.

[Anonymous]

Remember to add in or sub higher protein vegetables/legumes and grains too in ways that she will eat them. Quinoa, edamame, peas, beans, lentils

[Anonymous]

I have a skinny kid and I have started giving him a protein shake every day. The one we buy is "Core Power." He seems to eat the same amount in meals, but I give him the shake right after school.

I don't love bottled and processed foor, but it has maybe 24g of protein!

[Anonymous]

Will she eat chips and guacamaole?
My kid loves avacado and that’s a healthy fat. I literally just smush it and add some salt.

Eggs with cheese on
Full fat yogurt, either as a yogurt or put in a smoothie.

[Anonymous]

Are you willing to compromise on "processed" and "healthy" to get fat and calories into her? My picky kindergartener won't eat plain full fat Greek yogurt, even with honey, but will eat storebought flavored "protein" yogurts.

[Anonymous]

Milk shakes!

[Anonymous]

What about ground meats? My DD isn’t a fan of chicken breast or steak but eats ground turkey in our spaghetti sauce and ground chicken with rice (like an Asian bowl). And she’ll eat mini meatballs. Basically she’ll do soft foods better so I try to make our proteins differently. She also likes salmon and shrimp, probably because they’re also soft.

At one point she was so underweight that I sprinkled olive oil on all her food. She didn’t seem to notice.

[Anonymous]

My picky kid’s go to snack is a banana with peanut butter or sliced apple with peanut butter. With a glass of milk. Sometimes I’ll let him have Nutella instead of peanut butter.

He likes almonds, pistachios, and cashews a lot, so I try to keep those on hand as a quick snack. Sometimes I mix in raisins or chocolate chips.

Cheesy scrambled eggs with buttered toast or buttered biscuits are good for breakfasts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about ground meats? My DD isn’t a fan of chicken breast or steak but eats ground turkey in our spaghetti sauce and ground chicken with rice (like an Asian bowl). And she’ll eat mini meatballs. Basically she’ll do soft foods better so I try to make our proteins differently. She also likes salmon and shrimp, probably because they’re also soft.

+1

Many kids who won't eat just a piece of meat will be be fine eating it in a more processed fashion... in bolognese sauce, meatballs, breaded cutlets or nuggets, on pizza, in a casserole, wrapped in puff pastry... most of these things can be made from scratch and reasonably healthy.

[Anonymous]

I started frying quesadillas in olive oil for this reason. So good and healthy fat.

I make the cooks illustrated muffin recipe using Greek yogurt instead f regular and subbing almond flour for 1/3 of the AP flour.

How sweet eats has a good no bake peanut butter chocolate chip snack ball

Extra protein pasta with olive oil and fresh Parmesan.

My meat hating kid loves Italian sausage — the texture and flavor are very different— so I’ll mix that into things. She also likes really really garlicky shrimp scampi if the shrimp are small (she doesn’t like the texture of biting into a big fat shrimp—feels too meaty). If you experiment you might find things she’ll like. Some people who hate meat love canned tuna for instance.

Mini quiche or regular quiche.

Ernils breakfast casserole (but I use 2 percent milk instead of half and half).

Protein pancakes — 1 cup oats, 4 eggs, 1 cup cottage cheese, one teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon vanilla, one teaspoon cinnamon, blend in the blender until smooth.

[Anonymous]

Mac and cheese made with cream? More ice cream?