Bulking Up a Baby with Allergies

 

We had our visit with the dietician last week. I was hoping for some magical way to bulk up my skinny little toddler, but it turns out we were already doing most of what she suggested. Adding vegan butter to her rice and vegetables. Making sure each snack had a high calorie component (sun butter, vegan cream cheese, avocado, etc.) There’s no magic bullet to raise her BMI (though if there was it would definitely be dairy, too bad that would kill her in the process :-/).

After the visit, the dietician sent us some handouts that had general education on nutrition, ideas for picky eaters, and tips for increasing protein and calories. The dietician mentioned to ignore any of the tips that included foods my kid was allergic to. Clearly a good idea. But take a look at this list of high calorie foods-

High Calorie Food	Calories per Tablespoon	Allergens?
Vegetable oil	120
Butter	100	milk
Peanut butter	85	peanuts
Whole egg	74	egg
Heavy whipping cream	52	milk
Cream cheese	52	milk
Sugar	46
Nuts	45	nuts
Light whipping cream	44	milk
Granola cereal	35	nuts
Sour cream	30	milk
Light cream	29	milk
Half and half	19	milk

Yowzer! From this list, the only allergen free suggestions are vegetable oil and sugar. That’s crazy! My kid can’t be the only kid who needs more calories and is allergic to milk, eggs, and peanuts.

The easiest things to replace for dairy are store bought dairy free alternatives but those have a couple of problems. One, they usually have less calories than their cow counterparts. You know how nobody has ever said, “I’m too skinny, I think I’m going to cut out animal fats to try put on some pounds.” It turns out vegans are really missing out on easy sources of calories. Second, the dairy alternatives can sometimes have soy or tree nuts instead.

So, here’s my list of high calorie foods that have none of the top 9 allergens in them (well, maybe, depends on the brand).

Allergy Friendly Foods	Calories per Tablespoon
Vegetable oil	120
Coconut butter	100
Sun butter	100
Vegan butter	80
Chocolate chips	70
Coconut cream	50
Sugar	46
Vegan sour cream	45
Vegan cream cheese	30-50
Full fat coconut milk	30
Avocado	14

I added chocolate chips because if pure sugar can be on the original list, chocolate chips seem like a perfectly acceptable addition. The whole sugar angle was one thing I hadn’t been doing much. I had over looked adding honey or maple syrup to add calories, because I had only considered fat/protein content. Well, if this can make me feel good about adding chocolate chips to pancakes and yogurt (it’s for her health!) than I'm not going to argue.