Your dietitian may advise you need to fortify your child’s meals to help promote weight gain and prevent weight loss. This is a short-term dietary change to help your child gain weight.

If your dietitian has recommended this, you can follow the guidance below.

What meals to have

Offer three meals a day, aim to offer breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Offer a carbohydrate food at each meal, such as pasta, rice, potato, bread or cereal.

Offer protein twice a day, for example meat. Lentils, pulses, egg or fish.

Aim for at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

Snacks

Try to have two snacks a day. This could be mid-morning, mid-afternoon or before bed.

Little and often

Consider this if your child can’t manage three meals and two snacks a day.

Large meals can be off putting, so offer smaller meals and snacks more often.

Offering realistic portion sizes can help to encourage your child with eating.

What is a portion?

Use your child’s hand as a guide.

• Carbohydrate – your child’s fist size.
• Protein – your child’s palm size.
• Fruit and vegetables – however much they can fit into the palm of their hand.

Drinks

Try to include nutritional drinks during the day, such as a small glass of fruit juice with breakfast or homemade plant-based milkshakes and smoothies as a snack mid-afternoon.

Offer drinks after main meals so your child does not feel full before the meal.

You can also try freezing nutritional drinks in a lolly mould.

Fortifying foods

Fortify foods with high calorie ingredients wherever possible. Try to look at each meal you are preparing and see if you could use any of the fortification ideas.

Remember to start with a small quantity and build it up gradually to get use to the taste.

Common meals which you could fortify with additional calories include:

• bolognese
• stew
• casserole
• chapatti
• mashed potato
• mashed vegetables
• jelly
• pancakes
• waffles
• porridge
• pureed fruit or vegetables
• rice puddings
• smoothies
• soups
• yogurts
• desserts
• sauces.

Milk substitutes such as prescribed formula, oat milk or soya milk can all be added to cooking to help increase the nutritional content.

Milk substitutes can replace water in the cooking process to increase the calorie content of the food.

Remember to check and avoid items containing cow’s milk ingredients. If you would like further advice on how to look for these ingredients, please ask your dietitian.

Milk alternatives

Below is a table of different milk alternatives, if you need to increase your child’s calorie intake, try to pick a higher calorie milk alternative if possible. Try to pick a milk which is fortified with calcium. The table shows how the milks compare to full fat cow’s milk.

Milk	Volume	Calories	Protein
Full fat cow’s milk	100ml	64	3.0g

 

Milk alternative	Volume	Calories	Protein
Alpro soya growing up drink for children	100ml	64	2.5g
Oatly Barista	100ml	60	1.0g
Oatly Whole	100ml	57	1.0g
Oat milk	100ml	44	0.3g
Soya milk	100ml	39	3.0g
Mighty Barista	100ml	35	2.4g
Hazelnut milk	100ml	29	0.4g
Coconut Milk	100ml	20	0.1g
Cashew Milk	100ml	23	0.5g
Almond milk	100ml	13	0.5g

 

Note: Rice milk should not be given to children under five as it may contain unsafe levels of arsenic.

Calorie boosters

These boosters can be added to any appropriate meal or eaten alone. Please make sure you look at the ingredients to check they do not contain anything you or your child are avoiding.

Spreads and oils            

Food	Serving Size	Calories	Protein (g)
Cashew butter	1 teaspoon	33	1.25
Dairy-free spread	2 teaspoons	55	0
Nut butters	2 teaspoons	65	2.5
Oils	1 tablespoons (15ml)	140	0
Peanut butter	1 tablespoon	100	3.7
Dairy free pesto	1 heaped teaspoon (20g)	77	0.5
Green olive tapenade	25g	66	0.5
Hummus	1 tablespoon	50	1.6
Taramasalata	2 teaspoons	52	0.3
Free from/dairy-free salad cream	1 tablespoon	35	0
Tahini	2 teaspoons	66	2.7
Dairy-free chocolate spread	1 heaped teaspoon (15g)	81	0.6

 

Other savoury boosters

Food	Serving Size	Calories	Protein (g)
Chickpeas	50g	61	3.4
Egg	1	65	6.5
Tofu	2 teaspoons	10	0.8
Free from soft cheese	2 tablespoons	80	2.5

 

Dairy-free creams, crème fraiche, custards and yogurts

Food	Serving Size	Calories	Protein (g)
Almond yoghurt	100g	132	4.0
Creamed coconut	1 teaspoon   (50g)	35	0.3
Coconut tinned milk	2 teaspoons	10	0.1
Coconut yoghurt	100g	113	0.7
Oat crème fraiche	50	88	0.6
Oat custard	100g	170	0.8
Soya custard	100g	81	3.0
Soya yoghurt	1 tablespoon	16	0.9
Soya cream	50ml	75	1.0

 

Fruit and nuts

Please note whole nuts should not be given to children under five due to the risk of choking – nuts can be ground instead. Make sure stones and pips are removed from foods.

Food	Serving Size	Calories	Protein (g)
Banana	1	100	1.3
Dried apricots	5 (50g)	100	1.7
Prunes	6 (60g)	144	1.3
Dates	2 to 3 (40g)	112	1.0
Avocado	Half an avocado	158	1.5
Pecans	25g	176	2.7
Walnuts	25g	172	3.8
Ground almonds	2 teaspoons	63	2.0
Cashew nuts	25g	146	4.4

 

Recipe ideas       

Pasta

50g pasta with 350ml of milk substitute, boil slowly for 30 minutes, the pasta will soak up all the milk.

You can also try adding oat creme fraiche, dairy free pesto or drizzling with olive oil.

Rice

Boil 75g rice with 150ml of your chosen milk on a low heat, add more milk during cooking if your rice absorbs all the liquid and is still not soft enough.

Risotto

Fry your risotto rice in oil, add in flavourings and vegetables as desired, add a stock cube, add milk alternative gradually and stir. Continue to add milk until the risotto rice has thickened and the rice is the correct texture.

Try one cup of rice to three cups of milk.

You can mix in soya cream for a creamy taste or mix in puree chickpeas and dairy free spread.

Dairy-free white sauce

Add 25g dairy-free spread, 25g plain flour and 600ml milk alternative into a pan, heat and continue to stir until sauce thickens.

You can try adding dairy-free cheese to your sauce or pouring the sauce over your vegetables.

Dairy-free smoothie

Blend together 100ml milk alternative, one coconut yoghurt or soya yoghurt, one spoonful of peanut butter and one banana.

Pancakes

Mix 80g flour, one mashed banana and 100ml milk alternative. Use oil when frying.

Rice pudding

Mix 850ml of your chosen milk alternative with 100g of pudding rice and cook in the oven for 30 minutes at 160 degrees.

Try adding mashed banana, jam, peanut butter or blended dates to further increase the calories.

Breakfast muffins

Mix together 150g dairy-free spread, 125g sugar (or use a banana in replacement), one egg, 100g self-raising flour, 125g ground almonds and one apple grated. Add to baking cases and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.

Chocolate mousse

Mix 300g of blended tofu with 80g dark chocolate (check label to check for cocoa percentage and to check if milk free), add in three tablespoons of honey, transfer into pots and chill. Honey is not recommended for children under one.

Custard

Mix two tablespoons of milk free custard powder with a small amount of milk alternative, heat one pint of milk and add to your paste, stirring until custard thickens.

Try adding a mashed banana for a banana taste, ground nuts or dairy-free chocolate spread for a chocolaty taste.

Other ways to add in extra calories

• Flavoured milk: Add Crusha/Nesquik into your chosen milk alternative to make a quick milkshake or try flavoured milk alternatives, such as chocolate Oatly, strawberry Alpro soya milk or add hot chocolate.
• Mashed avocado on toast with pesto.
• Dairy-free spread with Hummus on dairy-free crackers.
• Rice cakes with peanut butter.
• Bread sticks with Hummus, taramasalata or mashed avocado.
• Make scrambled egg with milk alternative, dairy free spread or soya
• Make porridge using your milk alternative. Try adding peanut butter, dairy-free spread, banana, ground almonds or Oatly crème fraiche.