How to Help Your Child Gain Weight Even if They Don't Want To
Help your child foster body confidence., Be careful what words you use., Consider gaining some weight yourself., Find you child some fat-positive media., Avoid exposing your child to people who discriminate against heavier people., Introduce your...
Step-by-Step Guide
-
Step 1: Help your child foster body confidence.
Pay them compliments regularly and never make disparaging comments about their appearance
- and especially not about their weight! Buy them clothes that they like and think they look good in. , Remember to never use words like 'obese'
'overweight'
or 'normal weight'
or even say things like 'chubby'
'thick'
or 'plump' around them.
Do things like remark casually about how attractive and healthy heavier people you know seem to be.
This will subtly help them realise that weight itself doesn't mean anything
- one doesn't need to be skinny to be healthy., This can set a good example, assuming that your own weight isn't such that gaining more will negatively impact your health.
Your kids will be much more comfortable becoming heavier if you lead by example! This may happen naturally if your follow step 2 anyway, so be prepared., In Disney films for example, the protagonist is always unhealthily slim, and any fat people are always the villains! This is exactly the kind of thing that will make your child unwilling to gain weight.
Try things like Lilo and Stitch, Winnie the Pooh, and Steven Universe to show that any body shape is fine.
Show them pictures of heavy Olympic athletes, such as Holley Mangold, or just about any shot-putter or weightlifter. , Remind your friends and family members to always stay fat-positive around your child.
Bear in mind that your child may witness bullying or discrimination no matter how you try to prevent it.
Explain that this happens sometimes, and it's wrong. , Their messages will greatly help your child open up their mind to other lifestyles and perspectives., Diversifying their social circle to include kids who aren't so focused on their looks or weight will help expose them to the idea that healthy lifestyles can come in all shapes and sizes.
This will help remove the fear of weight gain for them., This can show your kids that beauty is a social construct and that in many places big is beautiful.
Good destinations include places like Mauritania, South Africa, Jamaica, or Nauru., If your attempts at removing their fear of weight gain still haven't seen any success after a few months, it may be necessary to make changes to their diet.
Calculate their daily calorie needs using an online calorie calculator.
Then increase that value by around half
- this is your child's new daily calorie goal.
For example, if your child is a moderately active 10 year old girl, her daily calorie need is about 1800 calories.
Increase this by half to get a 2700 calorie daily goal.
Don't tell them their goal of course, this is just to guide you in how you feed them; if they manage to achieve or exceed this goal consistently, they should gain weight very quickly.
All those extra calories they are consuming are not being burned, and will thus be stored as fat deposits on your child's body, increasing their weight. , Cookies, cereal bars and potato chips are all excellent snack foods for promoting weight gain.
Leave them in easy reach on tables and surfaces, and your children with be snacking in no time.
This is probably the easiest way to radically increase your child's food intake., Buy some larger plates
- this will make big portions looks normal compared to the plate itself, encouraging bigger meals.
This is much more subtle than pushing your child to have a second helping
- though by all means, try that as well if you think you can get away with it.
If your child never seems to have seconds, increasing their first portion and insisting on a clean plates policy can compensate., Some medical professionals have doubts about this strategy in the long run, partly because of how it can impact a child's emotional relationship with food.However, if your child is actually underweight, rewards can offer an additional way to add calories into their diet in the short term.
If they do something well, award them with a snack of some candy, or with something else they enjoy that's high in sugar.
Try to build a system where they are regularly rewarded with food, and come to expect it.
Rewarding a daily chore like washing dishes after a meal with a muffin, for example, is adding 350 calories to your child's diet daily., Easy, cheap recipes can be found online or in any cookery book.
Aim especially to cook meals that don't seem to be particularly fattening, but actually are.
Salads, for example, are notorious for being healthy, but when loaded up with a fatty meat, plenty of cheese and a full-fat salad dressing, they can easily exceed a child's recommended daily fat value., For example, slip large amounts of butter and cheese into meals they already like, and fry things in animal fat instead of oil.
This will help radically increase the amount of fat in their diet with very little observable difference., A big dollop of ice cream and some full-fat milk, blended in with some Oreos or Nutella, and you have a delicious, extremely high-fat drink that will be adored by any child with a sweet tooth., It is much higher in fat and calories than semi-skimmed milk, and recent research has shown it contains more beneficial nutrients as well.
With only advantages, buying whole milk is the obvious choice., Two or three cans of soft drinks a day is an easy way to massively boost your child's sugar consumption, and are even a good source of extra calories.
Similarly, fruit juice is just as sugary
- but as it's seen as a healthy drink your child may be more willing to drink large amounts., In most cases, exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle.
Exercising can help a child build muscle mass, which will mean that they gain weight.
However, in extreme or unusual circumstances, your child may need to cut back.
If you suspect this is the case, consult your doctor to get an idea of how much exercise is healthy for your child at their age and stage., It may not seem like much, but that half hour walk is a hundred calories burned.
Add that up twice a day, five times a week, and you're looking at a thousand calories you have to make up elsewhere during the week!, The resulting tummy ache will sabotage their enjoyment and put them off that exercise in the future! Similarly, give them a high-calorie snack immediately after any activity, to offset the calories burned before their body starts breaking down fat., If they do a sport after school or as part of a club, push them to do enter things like the chess club, cooking club, or debating
- essentially anything sedentary.
Once their schedule is cluttered, they will be more willing to give up their sports clubs to get some free time., Then, ensure that their scruffy sports clothes begin to 'disappear'.
Before long you'll have an ironclad excuse for disbarring them from activities
- that it would ruin their nice clothes!, This will be very dependent on the age of your child, but keeping them inside and sedentary in the evenings
- with access to snacks
- will help them gain weight easily., If you can get them interested in television shows, movies and video games, they will easily spend much of their day completely sedentary.
Consider swotting up on the shows they like so you can have discussions about them with your child, or getting good at a cooperative video game so you can play together.
Combined with regular snack breaks, this will help your child gain in no time. -
Step 2: Be careful what words you use.
-
Step 3: Consider gaining some weight yourself.
-
Step 4: Find you child some fat-positive media.
-
Step 5: Avoid exposing your child to people who discriminate against heavier people.
-
Step 6: Introduce your child to the HAES (Health at Every Size) movement
-
Step 7: and feminism.
-
Step 8: Try to encourage friendships with children of all sizes
-
Step 9: backgrounds
-
Step 10: and interests.
-
Step 11: If finances allow
-
Step 12: consider a vacation to a fat-positive country.
-
Step 13: Handle diet decisions delicately.
-
Step 14: Try allowing more snacks between meals.
-
Step 15: Try increasing portion sizes.
-
Step 16: Consider rewarding good behaviour with food
-
Step 17: in the short term.
-
Step 18: Aim to cook meals high in fat and carbohydrates.
-
Step 19: Sneak extra fat into food they're already used to eating.
-
Step 20: Make them a milkshake.
-
Step 21: Buy whole milk whenever possible.
-
Step 22: Allow unlimited consumption of soft drinks.
-
Step 23: Talk to your doctor about whether they need to cut back on exercise.
-
Step 24: Supply a bus fare or a lift instead of encouraging walking to school.
-
Step 25: Encourage your child to overeat before sports
-
Step 26: to build up energy.
-
Step 27: Promote less physical hobbies
-
Step 28: Try buying some 'fancy clothes' that your child isn't allowed to exercise in for fear of spoiling them.
-
Step 29: Implement an early curfew.
-
Step 30: Allow your child unlimited screen time
-
Step 31: and try allowing a TV in his or her room.
Detailed Guide
Pay them compliments regularly and never make disparaging comments about their appearance
- and especially not about their weight! Buy them clothes that they like and think they look good in. , Remember to never use words like 'obese'
'overweight'
or 'normal weight'
or even say things like 'chubby'
'thick'
or 'plump' around them.
Do things like remark casually about how attractive and healthy heavier people you know seem to be.
This will subtly help them realise that weight itself doesn't mean anything
- one doesn't need to be skinny to be healthy., This can set a good example, assuming that your own weight isn't such that gaining more will negatively impact your health.
Your kids will be much more comfortable becoming heavier if you lead by example! This may happen naturally if your follow step 2 anyway, so be prepared., In Disney films for example, the protagonist is always unhealthily slim, and any fat people are always the villains! This is exactly the kind of thing that will make your child unwilling to gain weight.
Try things like Lilo and Stitch, Winnie the Pooh, and Steven Universe to show that any body shape is fine.
Show them pictures of heavy Olympic athletes, such as Holley Mangold, or just about any shot-putter or weightlifter. , Remind your friends and family members to always stay fat-positive around your child.
Bear in mind that your child may witness bullying or discrimination no matter how you try to prevent it.
Explain that this happens sometimes, and it's wrong. , Their messages will greatly help your child open up their mind to other lifestyles and perspectives., Diversifying their social circle to include kids who aren't so focused on their looks or weight will help expose them to the idea that healthy lifestyles can come in all shapes and sizes.
This will help remove the fear of weight gain for them., This can show your kids that beauty is a social construct and that in many places big is beautiful.
Good destinations include places like Mauritania, South Africa, Jamaica, or Nauru., If your attempts at removing their fear of weight gain still haven't seen any success after a few months, it may be necessary to make changes to their diet.
Calculate their daily calorie needs using an online calorie calculator.
Then increase that value by around half
- this is your child's new daily calorie goal.
For example, if your child is a moderately active 10 year old girl, her daily calorie need is about 1800 calories.
Increase this by half to get a 2700 calorie daily goal.
Don't tell them their goal of course, this is just to guide you in how you feed them; if they manage to achieve or exceed this goal consistently, they should gain weight very quickly.
All those extra calories they are consuming are not being burned, and will thus be stored as fat deposits on your child's body, increasing their weight. , Cookies, cereal bars and potato chips are all excellent snack foods for promoting weight gain.
Leave them in easy reach on tables and surfaces, and your children with be snacking in no time.
This is probably the easiest way to radically increase your child's food intake., Buy some larger plates
- this will make big portions looks normal compared to the plate itself, encouraging bigger meals.
This is much more subtle than pushing your child to have a second helping
- though by all means, try that as well if you think you can get away with it.
If your child never seems to have seconds, increasing their first portion and insisting on a clean plates policy can compensate., Some medical professionals have doubts about this strategy in the long run, partly because of how it can impact a child's emotional relationship with food.However, if your child is actually underweight, rewards can offer an additional way to add calories into their diet in the short term.
If they do something well, award them with a snack of some candy, or with something else they enjoy that's high in sugar.
Try to build a system where they are regularly rewarded with food, and come to expect it.
Rewarding a daily chore like washing dishes after a meal with a muffin, for example, is adding 350 calories to your child's diet daily., Easy, cheap recipes can be found online or in any cookery book.
Aim especially to cook meals that don't seem to be particularly fattening, but actually are.
Salads, for example, are notorious for being healthy, but when loaded up with a fatty meat, plenty of cheese and a full-fat salad dressing, they can easily exceed a child's recommended daily fat value., For example, slip large amounts of butter and cheese into meals they already like, and fry things in animal fat instead of oil.
This will help radically increase the amount of fat in their diet with very little observable difference., A big dollop of ice cream and some full-fat milk, blended in with some Oreos or Nutella, and you have a delicious, extremely high-fat drink that will be adored by any child with a sweet tooth., It is much higher in fat and calories than semi-skimmed milk, and recent research has shown it contains more beneficial nutrients as well.
With only advantages, buying whole milk is the obvious choice., Two or three cans of soft drinks a day is an easy way to massively boost your child's sugar consumption, and are even a good source of extra calories.
Similarly, fruit juice is just as sugary
- but as it's seen as a healthy drink your child may be more willing to drink large amounts., In most cases, exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle.
Exercising can help a child build muscle mass, which will mean that they gain weight.
However, in extreme or unusual circumstances, your child may need to cut back.
If you suspect this is the case, consult your doctor to get an idea of how much exercise is healthy for your child at their age and stage., It may not seem like much, but that half hour walk is a hundred calories burned.
Add that up twice a day, five times a week, and you're looking at a thousand calories you have to make up elsewhere during the week!, The resulting tummy ache will sabotage their enjoyment and put them off that exercise in the future! Similarly, give them a high-calorie snack immediately after any activity, to offset the calories burned before their body starts breaking down fat., If they do a sport after school or as part of a club, push them to do enter things like the chess club, cooking club, or debating
- essentially anything sedentary.
Once their schedule is cluttered, they will be more willing to give up their sports clubs to get some free time., Then, ensure that their scruffy sports clothes begin to 'disappear'.
Before long you'll have an ironclad excuse for disbarring them from activities
- that it would ruin their nice clothes!, This will be very dependent on the age of your child, but keeping them inside and sedentary in the evenings
- with access to snacks
- will help them gain weight easily., If you can get them interested in television shows, movies and video games, they will easily spend much of their day completely sedentary.
Consider swotting up on the shows they like so you can have discussions about them with your child, or getting good at a cooperative video game so you can play together.
Combined with regular snack breaks, this will help your child gain in no time.
About the Author
Nathan Robinson
A seasoned expert in education and learning, Nathan Robinson combines 5 years of experience with a passion for teaching. Nathan's guides are known for their clarity and practical value.
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