Help with my 15 month old girl!

[Help from Texas]

My baby girl is almost 15 months and my doc just told me that I need to feed her more calories because she only weighs 18.13 pounds. And she has been walking and running since 9 months. She is very active all day. She only naps once a day for an hour to almost 2. I don't know what to do since I don't know how to cook much except a few healthy stuff. When you say you make pasta for your child, how do you make the pasta? My girl does not like tomato sauce so she won't eat spaghetti, ravioli, etc. And I know we are not to give our child anything with a lot of sodium. Please help! Also, if you have any easy meals you can pass over to me, I would greatly appreciate it. I need to get my baby more calories to eat. She eats all her veggies....she loves them. And eats a lot of other stuff but I guess that is not enough since she can burn the calories in no time. I'm very worried about what to feed her to fatten her up a little. Please, please help!!!!

[MsDolphin]

DS likes spinach and cheese ravioli, I feed it to him without any sauce. It tends to be my "stand-by" meal when there is nothing to eat. We buy the big frozen bag from Costco. We also do the mac&cheese.

[wishin'&hopin']

Try hummus (chickpeas pureed with olive oil, a little lemon juice and tahini), you can swirl in a little bit of extra olive oil and we sometimes puree veggies into it.  Any bean can become a yummy hummus, if she likes black beans you can make black bean dip and she can have that.  Or spread black bean dip in a whole grain tortilla with cheese and have a quesadilla.  DS eats hummus with a spoon--sometimes he'll dip pretzels or crackers in it.  You can also toss whole wheat or quinoa or brown rice pasta with just about any pureed vegetable for sauce if she doesn't like tomato sauce.  Pureed butternut squash, beets or even creamed spinach mixed with pasta are all pretty good. If she likes veggies, what about cheese sauce for dipping; or put a little olive oil or butter on her serving.  

Scrambled eggs are always a hit at our house and those are great for protein and fat.  Whole milk yogurt is yummy too. 

Good luck!

[DsMamma]

My DS loves Avocado, which is full of nutrients and healthy fats and is high in calories.  I just serve him slices to eat, or I cut it up and mix it into soup, etc. or you can make guacamole and serve it spread on toast or crackers, etc.

The hummus is also a great idea.  My DS loves this too.

Slices of cheese (not processed cheese slices, just the real thing), peanut or other nut butters (if she doesn't have allergies), and full fat yogurt are also good ideas.

[DaisyO]

My 15-month-old is also skinnier than I would like (not yet 20 lbs).  I've been giving her a spoonful of extra-virgin coconut oil every day in addition to her regular food (which also includes lots of scrambled eggs and whole-milk yoghurt).  Haven't weighed her lately but I'm hoping she's grown a bit heavier...

[mommy212]

she might like cheese or spinach and cheese ravioli (good quality ones- check labels!) plain, or with butter and parmesan, or pureed butternut squash or something. Try not to feed too much high-fiber-low-cal things, like bran muffins or undressed veggies- add butter/coconut oil/olive oil or somehting tot hem to add some calories. Maybe she would like cream of vegetable soups; my ds has been digging into those lately. There is a thread i started a while back in nutrition & good eating about those you can check out