My two children are blessed with incredibly high metabolism. It's particularly apparent in my baby.
He was born as a chubby baby of 4.1 kg (96%) and 54.5 cm (100%). He shed the fat quite quickly, despite me having more than ample milk supply.
We checked in with his paed periodically and verified there was nothing really wrong. In fact, he was ahead in his milestones. I expressed once and found I could express 3 oz easily after nursing him. Milk looked normal with acceptable level of fat. He nurses direct 10-13 times daily and I think it is fair to estimate a daily milk in take of 30-39 oz, with 32 oz daily as a recommended average.
Then the only logical left is his high latent metabolism fueled by the fact he is very active.
This is where it gets contentious. Some parents would say, "my child is slim because he is active" and leaves it as that. I am of the school of thought that if a child has a higher base metabolism, then for each activitity he does, he would burn more calories. Now coupled with the fact that he is more active than the next child, doesn't this child need a higher calories count per day to survive? In order to gain weight, this child will need to consume more calories than his body daily requirement.
My objective is less of getting my children to gain weight. My objective is that I am feeding my child as much as he needs to grow optimally. I want my child to realise his potential.
Now the usual approach to baby weaning has been the nutrition / puree approach. However, comparing like for like of an apple versus rice, the former contains less calories. The puree approach using fruits is also more likely to create sugar high and low in babies. Therefore, our mothers and grandmothers were doing something right after all with the porridge base approach to baby weaning!
The meals I designed and prepared for my own baby, babies and bigger kids in school tend to be carbohydrates and good fat based. Over 50% of a child's calories should come from carbohydrates.
Tonight's dinner for my 9 month old baby is organic oats noodles (egg free), boiled shredded pork, a chunky avocado, VCO and Singo pear puree as sauce. High in calories, fat and iron. The baby gave his stamp of approval and ate really quickly.
Dessert was Australian mango (diced) and egg free white bread (1.5 slices). Then he nursed and slept. His hearty appetite made my day in a way I guess most mommies can relate to.