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.

Fortify foods with high calorie ingredients wherever possible.

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 milkshakes and smoothies as a snack mid-afternoon. You can also try a hot chocolate or malted milk before bed.

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.

Fortified milk

Try to use this on cereal and when cooking with milk, such as homemade custards or milkshakes.

How to make one pint

One pint is 400 calories and 25.3g protein.

Add one pint (570ml) of full fat milk to a shaker or glass, then add four tablespoons of skimmed milk powder.

Carefully place the lid on the shaker or use a whisk and mix, making sure there are no lumps.

Keep the fortified milk in the fridge. This milk can be used for the rest of the day, aim to have a pint of milk per day.

If your child has instant hot drinks such as cup-a-soups, hot chocolate or malted milk, then use the fortified milk recipe instead of water or make up the instant hot drink as per the instructions and add two teaspoons of skimmed milk powder.

High calorie milky drink recipes

• Simple milkshake: Add 200ml of fortified milk, one scoop of ice cream, one pot of yoghurt, with fresh or tinned fruit or milkshake powder and blend (300kcal, 10g protein).
• Chocolate dream: Warm up 200ml fortified milk, add one tablespoon drinking chocolate and sweeten to taste (230kcal, 17g protein).
• Banoffee treat: Mash a banana with 150ml fortified milk, one pot of crème caramel and a teaspoon of golden syrup and blend (350kcal, 12g protein).
• Banana and peanut butter smoothie: 150ml whole milk, 30g ice cream, four tablespoons of milk powder, one banana, one tablespoon smooth peanut butter, one teaspoon of honey and blend together (416kcal, 15.4g protein).

How to fortify common foods

Here are some examples of ingredients which can be added into meals to add extra calories to your child’s diet.