Weight Gain Foods For Your Toddler

1 to 3 years

Created by Puja Sharma Vasisht
Updated on May 21, 2018

For a toddler, who is on the verge of being an independent child from a baby, food often becomes a reason to assert her independence. It so happens that the toddler may refuse to eat or even try food. So, low weight is an important watch out for in this age group. As a parent, one is worried for one’s child’s growth and development, especially regarding her weight. Is he gaining enough weight, what can I do to improve my child’s weight, what foods could I try to help my child gain a healthy weight —are some questions a mom is battling with. Read on to find out more about foods that help your toddler gain weight.

Healthy Foods For Weight Gain In Your Toddler

Here are tips on how to increase your toddler’s weight in a healthy way:

Cereals:
Now is the time to start with finger foods or foods which the child can handle herself
- So now besides the usual mashed rice/chapatti or porridge you can give small bite size of chapatti/parantha or even rice with vegetable/egg/dal/chicken
- Add extra spoon of ghee or butter to the chapatti or rice. Paranthas/dosa can be stuffed with potato, paneer, cheese etc.
- Children in this age group start enjoying pasta, so apart from chopped/pureed vegetables, cheese/shredded chicken add butter/olive oil to make the dish calories rich. Read: Home Made Cerelac for 6 months baby
Fruits:
Banana, cheeku, mango, and custard apple can be given as fruits or in milk shake, custard or ice cream. These fruits can also be used to make smoothie with honey, powdered nuts and curds
Vegetables:
Use more of potato, sweet potato, colocassia, yam besides other vegetables. You may add these to their roti/sandwich, parantha, dosa, khichri, soups or to other vegetables
Eggs:
You can offer eggs as hard-boiled, sliced into small bite sized pieces or omelets. It can also be used to make custard, pancakes or as filling for kathi rolls, parantha or dosa
Fish/poultry/meat:
Stews and well-cooked meat, poultry, fish can be given as it or added to sandwich, parantha, dosa, pasta
Home-made paneer:
Whole milk can be used to make home-made paneer. It can be cut to bite size portion or grilled tikka
- Offer this as finger foods or a quick snack to the child
- Cheese can be given as small cubes or as it is to practically all types of dishes the child eats like sandwich, rolls, macaroni, pizza, parantha or any others
Nuts and dried fruits:
Nuts like walnuts, peanuts, almonds and dried fruits like raisins, currants and dried apricots can now be given to children
- These can be given to snack or rolled together with oats to make granola bars
- Instead of regular chocolates and candies, such bars are a powerhouse of vitamins and minerals besides being dense in calories and proteins. These would certainly give a boost to their weight

Additional Points to remember:

Additional ghee/butter/oil can be used if the child is really underweight. In case the child’s weight is normal, please use these in moderation
Whole cream milk can be used to further enhance the energy intake and weight. Once the child is on normal weight, use toned milk
While giving above foods, give only little amounts first, to check for any allergy. If there is no allergic reaction only then continue with those foods

Please note that the suggestions given here are dependent on the health condition of the child. In such cases, where the child has any illness or disorder, you should consult your doctor and a dietician for a personalized plan for your child.