Increase 1 Year Old Baby’s Weight When Refusing Milk

Mom’s Question:

My baby Madhu is not gaining weight. Her birth weight is 2.75kgs. Now she is one year and two months, but she’s weighs only 6.75kgs.

She doesn’t like bottle feed and cow’s milk. She can’t even stand it. She looks very thin but very very active. Please give me suggestion to improve her body weight. You are the only hope to me.

by DURGA DEVI
(MADURAI,TAMILNADU,INDIA)

Baby Helpline:

Feeding Tips For Skinny Toddler

I agree with you that your daughter’s weight is at the lower end. A rough guideline is that a baby should weigh around 3 times his or her birth weight at the age of 1 year, so that would mean that your daugher “should” weigh about 1 kg more than she does. But these are just estimates, and how your child develops, if she grows in length, if she is happy, healthy and active, are a stronger indications of her well-being than her actual weight.

You say that she is very active – that is a good sign! If she seems weak, isn’t eating or increasing in length, make sure you take her to a doctor to have her checked.

Being active is wonderful for a 1 year old – it means that she is developing and exploring the world. But it also means that she can benefit from eating quite often.

If she doesn’t have time to sit down and eat, give her a healthy snack on the go several times per day. A small sandwich with butter, or a piece of banana are great snacks to boost her energy intake. Cooked vegetables are also good, as well as fresh avocado, which is calorie dense and packed with nutrition and fats excellent for a baby’s development. If she likes peas, give her some to discover in a small cup – many babies love picking them up.

Make sure she eats something 6 times per day – three regular meals and three snacks – at least. And if her regular meals become very small, because she is too busy, then simply offer more healthy snacks while she is playing. Find tips on healthy finger foods here.

Regarding her refusing milk – that’s actually quite common for babies at around 1 year old. Some start prefering solid foods and seem to think that they are no babies anymore. :-) What you can do is to add some formula or milk to her foods and mash it. Then she might not notice that she gets it and she will still get the nutrition from the milk.

An effective and healthy way to get more calories in her is to add butter or oil to her foods. You can read more about adding fat to baby food here.

Unless your baby’s doctor says that you really have to work to increase your daughter’s weight, I would stop focusing on her weight and appearance and instead focus on her energy levels and overall development.

Some people simply are more skinny than others and being skinny (if healthy) is far better than being obese from a health perspective in the long run. Give her plenty of healthy foods often and try to make eating enjoyable for her. No nagging or forcing, simply offering foods to try and also lots of opportunities for her to feed herself either while you are eating or while she is playing. Learning to enjoy a nice meal and the taste of differnt healthy foods are the main key for her future development.

I hope this gives you a few ideas. Enjoy your little girl,
Paula

Paula Dennholt

Paula Dennholt founded Easy Baby Life in 2006 and has been a passionate parenting and pregnancy writer since then. Her parenting approach and writing are based on studies in cognitive-behavioral models and therapy for children and her experience as a mother and stepmother. Life as a parent has convinced her of how crucial it is to put relationships before rules. She strongly believes in positive parenting and a science-based approach.

Paula cooperates with a team of pediatricians who assist in reviewing and writing articles.