biancadonk Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 My husband and I are doing the W30 now for the first time, and though we aren't making it a whole family thing yet, we've been off and on Paleo for a while and I really believe it's the healthiest choice for all of us. Unfortunately, my daughter is extremely small for her age (she was a premie and has been tiny since birth). We've just started her on growth hormone to see if that might help her, but it will likely take a few months to see any changes, if it even works at all. I've been totally neurotic about her eating since she first started on solids. She's four now and I still agonize over what to feed her because she's very picky, and I frequently have to sit with her and just kind of shovel bites in her mouth because she's so uninterested in eating. Of course she loves fresh fruit and vegetables, unlike a lot of kids her age, but it's actually at the point where I say to her "you need to have a bite of your pasta before you have anymore carrots," because I'm so worried about her low weight. Has anyone experienced this kind of thing? How you get someone who is severely underweight or malnourished to gain weight on this kind of diet? My kids eat a slightly "healthier" version of the typical American diet. We don't do fast food, but they eat a lot of mac and cheese, pb&j, fish sticks, hot dogs, and oatmeal. The other constraint for my daughter is that she has a small mouth and has hemifacial paresis (weakness of the muscles on one side of her face) so she struggles with tough/chewy food, like most meat. Anyone have any thoughts? I'd really love to find a way to feed my whole family the healthiest food, and to stop having to cook 6 meals a day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2A&M Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 Scrambled eggs, smoothies, puréed meat in a soup, guacamole, almond butter on her fruit or veggies, shredded fried sweet potatoes with cinnamon, applegatehot dogs(I peel of the skin) Just some ides to increase fats and protein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpinSpin Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 Hi biancadonk! I know pretty much what you are going thru--my daughter was born with Goldenhar Syndrome and has a facial palsy and had a rather severe cleft palate so I totally understand! She was also a preemie and was very slow to grow--14 lbs at a year! and still is tiny 4'10"--she just turned 20 in October. Some of her favorite things were avocado, scrambled eggs, minced cooked chicken, shrimp, stir fries, meat loaf, mashed sweet potatoes, and well cooked veg and apple sauce. She could live on ranch dressing and when I made the dressing from Well Fed, you would think she had died and gone to heaven--everything she could dip, she did! From strips of chicken, to salad. She was also a big fan of soups and chili. There were plenty of times I would blend her meals too after various surgeries (she has had 17), and that was always fun and I could sneak things in. Another favorite is deviled eggs--anyway she could get them. Tuna salad and chicken salad with plenty of mayo too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Carmosino Beougher Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 I totally get the paranoid thing about weight. My daughter was 5 weeks early and not even 5lbs when we brought her home. She's almost four and just now touching 30lbs. I worry sometimes that she's small, but though she's always been about the fifth percentile for weight, her growth curve has always been fine. Our pediatrician has always been more concerned with her rate of growth, not the actual number on the scale. I'm grateful we never had to go the route of growth hormones or anything like that. It would have to be dire before I'd give my girl those. That said. The transition from her constant eating as a baby to how she eats as a toddler has been something I have to remind myself of that her rate of growth has dropped off. I think my pediatrician said between three and four a weight gain of only four to six lbs is completely normal, so she's actually right on track. Chloe loves soup of any kind, chili, smoothies, sweet potato. Just remember, she will eat when she's hungry. If you're neurotic about it, she'll become neurotic about it (from one neurotic momma to another (: ). It seems with Chloe if I start stressing over her food she eats less, kind of as a hah, you can't make me or something. If I don't make an issue, she eats more. Our only rules are she must try one bite of everything and is not allowed to say she doesn't like something she's never tried. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KellyF Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 My children, 11.5 years, are both pretty small and are at the bottom percentile for weight. My daughter was preemie (though not super early), but the real issue is likely that their birth moms had no prenatal care, and their first 8 months they were not adequately nourished. Both kids started losing weight when we started the W30 lifestyle. They eat a lot of veg and fruit, but I have found that I really need to push the protein and fat. Their meat portions are about 2-3 times the size of their palms. You may have to alter the template to suit nutritional needs. I think pureeing meats in soups/stews is a great idea; it will allow you to increase the amount of meat without it being difficult to chew. For fat, I drizzle ghee over their food and make great use of the Magic Sauce Recipe from 101 Cookbooks.com (for some reason, the link won't post). I also use a lot of coconut - coconut oil, coconut milk, coco cream and coco butter. And yes, my kids do get smoothies, even though they are not W30 compliant (sorry mods!). I use them as part of their lunches as a way to increase fat. Since your little one doesn't have much of an appetite, concentrate on maximum nutrition in small packages. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biancadonk Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 Thanks so much for the replies, everyone. My daughter definitely falls into the very abnormal range for size. She turned 4 in mid-December and is still only 20 lbs., the weight of an average 11 month old girl. I appreciate all the suggestions, and a lot of these are things we've tried before, but I guess what I'm really getting at is that our understanding of nutrition (at least those in the Paleo community) has changed since 20 years ago. A lot of people are finally getting that eating fat doesn't make you fat. People often specifically take on Paleo diets as a way to lose weight. So if all these people are cutting back on carbs, and upping fat and protein to try to lose weight, doesn't it follow that I should do the opposite to try to get my daughter to gain weight? Obviously, I still want to give her as many healthy foods as possible, but if I give her tons of avocado and almond butter, maybe that'll just send premature satiety signals to her brain and keep her from gaining much needed weight. I dunno...this whole thing is really tough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtracyb Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Yes, it is tough. (See my thread re adhd kids!) My daughter was adopted from Russia and is turning 7 in a month and weighs 32 lbs and is 42 inches tall. I was doing the same thing you were doing today - shoveling her food into her, telling her she had to finish her (blank) before she gets to have any more pineapple. I've been doing the same thing - fats, fats, fats. I gained 20lbs the first year of the adoption because I switch to full fat everything for my kids. Her brother is also adopted from Russia and does not have a speck of fat on him but is at 75% percentile for height. My kids love Well Fed's Chocolate Chili. My daughter loves bacon and steak. My son loves hot dogs. I made homemade applesauce, using apples and ghee in the slow cooker. I am making them paleo muffins with almond meal, and they have almond milk. I tried making a smoothie for them using almond milk, strawberries, blueberries and spinach. They loved the flavor but are not sweets eaters so they took one sip and set it aside. I ended up turning the smoothie into popsicles instead and they ate the one smoothie divided over a few days as popsicles. One change I have made related to whole30 - I used to stuff food into them all day long. Now I only do three meals and a rare snack. I find they are actually eating more at one sitting than when I was letting them graze (or not) all day. I'm doing my best to keep my kids compliant while I am on my Jan1 whole30. I do give them Paleo snacks - smoothies, sweet potato-based muffins - just because I am not worried about sugar demon with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtracyb Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 I don't have an answer for you whether doing the opposite from Paleo is what you should do. My kids have severe adhd so gf/cf/grain-free/sugar-free is for behavior, not for weight gain. I think if she were going to respond to carbohydrates to gain weight, she already would be doing that. I did notice my kids looked a little gaunt the first time I tried to whole30 them - it is why I am loosening up and allowing them to eat Paleo snacks. I throw fat into everything I can for them. I do think protein and fat are the most important factors for growth. Interesting your daughter is on growth hormone already at 4. We were stopped by an endocrinologist as we walked through a restaurant once, telling us to get her in before she starts puberty. It is on my list to get a consultation this month, so I don't miss some window. Unfortunately, in my daughter's case, it is probably genetics, not a deficiency, so the best we can probably get is an inch or so. You should find a way to pose your question to The Paleo Mom (thepaleomom.com) as she is a biochemist and could comment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biancadonk Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 Thanks for the info, Tracy. I'll definitely try to reach out to The Paleo Mom. I've been reading a guidebook put out by The MAGIC Foundation, a non-profit group that serves kids with all kinds of different growth issues. You might want to check them out for your kids, too. My daughter almost certainly has some kind of genetic syndrome, but we haven't figured out what yet, so for now she's just considered "small for gestational age" (SGA). Her endocrinologist says that when kids with SGA haven't "caught up" in growth by 2, that they're unlikely to do so without some kind of hormonal intervention. And obviously they only have a limited time to grow, so starting with GH earlier is better in most cases. We don't know whether it will work for my daughter, but the side effects for this kind of use in children are pretty minimal, so in our case, we think it's definitely worth a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drtracyb Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Thanks - I'll bump up my timeline to see the endocrinologist, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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