Couple of weeks back my son, Devansh, was suffering from vomiting and loose motions due to teething. Luckily it settled down after a couple of days but he lost his appetite during that time. When children don’t eat properly even for 2-3 days they end up losing considerable weight. Same thing happened with Devansh. Now I couldn’t immediately start feeding him heavy food as it would put strain on his digestive system. So it was more of moong daal khichdi, moong daal-rice, daal rice, and rice kanji for him for some 4-5 days. But now I am a mom on mission, I need my baby—well he’s almost 2 but still my baby—to put on weight.
To help him gain weight, I started feeding him kheer in the evening. I didn’t want to give him kheer during the day because in summer it’s better to eat food that is easy to digest during the day when the temperature is quite high. Then one day instead of kheer I fed him curd rice and he kept asking for kheer. I got a bit alarmed because I did not want him to get addicted to sweet food. So I thought of trying out something different that will help him with weight gain.
I had been meaning to make mashed potatoes for a long time but somehow had never gotten around to making them. Now was the right time to make them, with butter, cheese, and milk, loaded with lots and lots of calories. But a word of caution—all those dairy products packed in one dish make it quite heavy to digest. So go easy on cheese if you are making these mashed potatoes for babies who have only just started having dairy.
Mashed potatoes
Ingredients
- 2 medium-sized potatoes peeled and cut in 4 pieces
- 2-3 cups milk
- 3-4 tbsp butter you can melt this beforehand if you wish
- 1 cheese cube grated
- Approximately 1/4th tsp black pepper powder adjust the quantity depending on your baby’s age
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat 3-4 cups of water in a pan with a little salt added to it.
- Add potatoes and cover the pan partially, leaving some room for the steam to escape.
- Turn off heat when the potatoes become tender. (You can poke a fork in it intermittently to check.)
- Heat a pan, add the boiled potatoes, and start mashing them.
- After you have mashed the potatoes, stir in half the milk.
- Add butter and grated cheese and keep stirring the mixture. (If you have just started giving dairy products to your li’l one, you should go easy on cheese as his/her digestive system may not be ready for it just yet).
- Go on adding more milk as the mixture thickens and keep stirring.
- Add salt and black pepper powder, and stir for a couple of minutes. Go easy on the salt if you have used salted butter. (You can choose to not add pepper for smaller babies.)
- Add some more milk if required. (You will want the mashed potatoes to have pudding-like consistency for smaller babies.)
- Stir one more time and turn off heat.
Must be very delicious. This is my favourite food.
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nice! i make sandwiches with mashed potato. Add a mix of curd and ketchup on one side and mashed potato on the other. Heat the sandwich on a flat tawa using butter on both sides. I ensure its not too crispy. My lil one loves it, I have to resist myself from eating it, still struggling to lose weight :p
Hey that's innovative Eisha…good way to get older kids to eat mashed potatoes…would never have thought of that :-)Kalpesh n I couldn't resist mashed potatoes this time…we're losing the battle of bulge BIG time :-S…next time I'm going to make quantity just enough for Devansh ;-)
Hey Mukta , this is superb !! My baby is 13 month old and is underweight , i have tried everything possible under the sun to help her gain weight but with not great results. The brighter side is she is a very happy child and very very energetic but you know how we moms are !! Anyways , i am a working mom and gets very difficult for me to decide and plan her meals , do u have any Meal Planner that can be used to plan the snacks/meals??
Hi Sapna…initially when I started giving Devansh solids, I followed the food chart given by his pediatrician….by the time he was around your baby's age I used to give him four proper meals…breakfast, lunch, evevning snacks, and dinner…in between I would give him some mini-snack like some cheese or a fruit…at that age he did not like milk so I had to add it in his food like Sheera…if your daughter drinks milk you can give that in between her meals…I used to include food from all food groups across Devansh's meals…grains, veggies, fruits, proteins, dairy…kids need big meals at an interval of about 3-4 hours when they're awake…although each baby is different…watch out for cues provided by your baby…Hope this helps…
And if your pediatrician is OK with your baby's weight don't worry too much about it…I know it's easier said than done…like you said we moms are like that :-)
Hi Mukta,i tried this receipe y'day for my 10 months old baby boy Anvay.He likes it very much i was so satisfied :) Thank u very much.
Anvay is 7.690kg last week.he is not gaining enough weight :(.I am working mom..very much concerned @ his weight though he is very active boy.
could you please suggest some more weight gaining receipes.
Thanks for your help.
Rashmi
Hi Rashmi,
Bananas and eggs are good for weight gain, make sure you include these in your baby's diet. Ghee also is very good for weight gain, try and cook his food in ghee and serve his rice/khichdis etc topped with ghee.
If you have introduced dairy in his food, you can also make kheers for him, add powdered dry fruits in the kheers as that too will help in weight gain.
But above all ensure that his caretaker gives him his meals at regular time intervals. Also, is he served warm meals? Babies don't like eating cold food, so ask your caretaker to feed him warm food. Also ask her to engage in some fun activity while feeding him food. Show him things he likes like cars, birds, or some nursery rhymes on phone. Ask her to tell him stories. Babies/toddlers/kids tend to eat properly when they're engaged in some entertaining activity.
To view recipes for weight gain click on the label: Weight gain recipes. Make sure they're appropriate for his age. You may need to customize some to suit his needs.
But I really must add, being a working mom is commendable. That's like battling on two fronts at the same time. Kudos to you. Good luck with your li'l one. :-)
Hi Mukta, My baby is 1 year 8 months old now and she weighs 9 kgs i feel it is underweight , but the doc says she is normal . The brighter side is she is a very happy child and very very energetic but i am worried a lot !! Anyways , i am a working mom and gets very difficult for me to decide and plan her meals , She drinks twice one cup of milk (i.e. morning and evening) , one time ragi porridge (i have made it at home by putting all types of dhals and grains) at around mid morning and lunch in the afternoon by 2 or 3 but the problem is having dinner she sometimes refuses to eat. Now after seeing your blog i started to make some soups and give her around 8 or 8'30 i feel she is full but concerned a lot about her weight gain can you please give me suggestions
Thanks
Rajeshwari
Hi Rajeshwari,
What I write in my blog is through my experience and from what advice I get from friends/relatives/pediatrician. So regarding, food for weight gain, I'd suggest the same thing I wrote to Rashmi…take a look at the above comment if you haven't already. In the mixed grains porridge that you're giving your daughter, you can add powdered cashew nuts and almonds for weight gain. While making the porridge, you can roast the powder in homemade ghee before adding water/milk, that too should help with weight gain. (You can take a look at Mixed Grains Porridge recipe for reference.)
You mentioned your daughter's not keen on dinner. There's not much physical activity after dinner, so if she has proper dinner, it'll help her gain weight for sure. Give her something rice-based as it'll be very filling. I almost always give Devansh moong-daal rice for dinner as he likes it and has it in good quantity. You can try out different khichdis, daal-rice combinations till you zero in on one that she likes. Also don't foreget to include vegetables and fruits in your daughter's diet to ensure a balanced diet. If she doesn't eat roti-sabzi yet, you can add vegetables in poha, upma (I've 3 types of upma recipes in the blog.) Add the veggies in her daal and give it to her with rice. You might want to take a look at the mashed vegetables recipe in the blog. It's a real time saver esp. for busy moms ike you….you can make it once in 4-5 days and then freeze it in airtight container.
I think worrying about a child's weight is us mothers' number one concern….so it's probably easier said than done but don't worry too much about the weight if the doctor says the weight is fine and your daughter's active . As kids grow up, they tend to lose their baby fat. As their physical activity increases that means bye bye puppy fat. Telling this from experience, Devansh does so much masti these days, there's no way he's gonna be chubby no matter how hard I try…Earlier I used to be quite concerned about Devansh's weight….I used to ask his pediatrician about his weight…he assured me that it was fine and I needn't worry about it…also with time I realized there are kids who're chubbier because they are fed readymade food frequently….biscuits, chips, chocolates…these won't amount to healthy fat so it's alright really for kids to not be chubby if their healthy and active…Hope this helps…take care :-)
Thanks Mukta for writing to me in detail i will surely check the receipes you have mentioned.
For porridge i add one spoon ghee along with it little salt n sugar , and i give her rice and rasam in night that is of one small katori after that if i force she vomits the entire thing :-(
Can you tell me how you prepare moong-daal rice let me give a try for that ;-)
My love to Devansh
You're welcome Rajeshwari….The moong-daal rice recipe is in the blog…here's the link:
https://mummumtime.com/2013/01/moong-daal-rice.html
All I can say is thanks…ur recipes r simply awesome n very practical n balanced..my kiddo is 18 months…fussy eater..just 7.8 kgs…although happy n active…I serve him mostly Kheers khichadi…paratha grinded in milk…coz he doesn’t eat paratha like how v eat…he takes 4 meals in a day…brkfast lunch evening snack dinner…n mostly milk while sleeping…still doesn’t gain weight..I fear tat m not giving him chance to hav finger foods n tat he won’t get habit of having it…..if in between these meals I give him a thing, mostly he doesn’t eat n if ever he eats his rest meals gets affected….m expecting a baby nxt mnth..very concerned for his food…coz he never ask for food..always he has to b diverted well only then he eats..
Hi Ifat. Thank you for appreciating my recipes. Regarding your son’s weight it’s definitely on the lower side. What does his pediatrician say? Get him/her to rule out any underlying health concern and if s/he says all is fine don’t worry about the weight too much if your child’s active. Add ghee (homemade if possible) to your son’s food like khichdi and paratha. Cook his kheer in ghee, you can also add powdered dry fruits like almonds and cashews to his kheer. Include bananas and eggs in his diet as these foods will help him in weight gain. My son too couldn’t eat dry paratha till he was almost 4. He still prefers to have his paratha with daal or curd. Don’t give him food before his meals but if he has 4 meals, you can give him fruits in between two meals. While you’re giving him ghee, banana, eggs etc just monitor that he’s able to digest all the heavy food. All the best and congratulations for the new baby on the way. :)
Hi mukta,i just want to ask you is it right to add salt in milk..?i have heard from my mom that salt shoudnt be combined with milk,what do u suggest here?
Adding salt in milk causes it to curdle. In this recipe we’ve to add salt after the mashed potato thickens not while there’s a possibility of milk curdling. Earlier generation of Indians do believe milk and salt should not be used in the same recipe but a lot of continental recipes use them together. For e.g. white sauce is made using milk which we add to pasta, that has salt added to it. It depends on your belief.
I got your point,thanks for replying,actually my little one really loves this recipe and i wanted to be sure abt giving it to her.you are doing very appreciable work here mukta,well done.👍
Can we give this recipe to 6month baby?