Ryan is and always has been a slow grower - average 3oz weight gain a week and below the 0.4th centile (bottom) line on the new growth charts, so we see consultants every few months and have just seen a dietician today who has strongly advised a high calorie diet for at least the next 6 weeks to see if he will jump up a centile or two.

We've just started weaning this week as he's 6 months on wednesday, just some porridge, bits of fruit and some veggies so far but all my weaning recipe books are mostly veggies and the dietician said this isn't really suitable for Ryan as he needs lots of full fat dairy products and meat/ fish as soon as possible. We have to aim to be having 3 full meals a day with puddings in the next fortnight!

So I was wondering if anyone else is in a similar situation and if so do you have any good meal ideas as I'm struggling for main meals - the puddings are pretty easy!

How about doing lots of stuff with cheese sauce? That gets the dairy/fat content up? I quite often do a sort of pie thing, with chicken in a cheese sauce with mashed potato on top (then bake it).

Can't think of anything else right now, I'm sure someone who's already started weaning will be more help

Avocado is very calory-dense. Also try stirring olive oil into all your purees to increase the calory content. Doing lots of stuff with cheese sauce is a great idea, you can mix it with veggies or minced meat.

my lo is too under the 0.4th centile ad on average puts on arond 2-5oz a week, hv suggested cheese however it hasn't agreed with my lo and he has beenill with it, doctor asked how sad about cheese cos its hardto digest so spoke to hv and back to his normal weaning foods again as he has to get used to his new milk as well now going on SMA high enegy, so adviced not to introduce 3rd meal and new food untill usedto new milk!! thus really need some other ideas I have never had Avocardo

I haven't been told to increase calorie content. Connor is below the 0.4th centile, he was 9lb 14oz at 26 weeks. We introduced foods slowly and started on the simple veg/fruit purees. He is now on 3 meals a day with desserts after 2 meals. I give the baby cereals for breakfast as the kcal/100g are more than weetabix. I am trying 'heavy' foods now though - cauli/broccoli in cheese sauce, veg risotto, chicken/veg dinner. I've not tried pasta yet but have bought the very small pasta shells, (not bought baby branded ones though as they are expensive), found next to the ordinary pasta in the supermarket.

Desserts tend to be fromage frais although he likes mashed banana and rice pudding too. The 1st weigh in 2 weeks after weaning showed his average weight gain which is 4 oz a week and this time (after 3 meals/desserts) showed nearly 7oz per week (13oz in 2 weeks).

I looked at kcal content of jars to get an idea of the more calorie laden ones before making my own. Hipp and heinz produce that product information on their websites too.

Harry was the same too... we were actually referred to a dietician at one point because he wasn't eating much and wouldn't drink much milk either. I was told to try to get as many calories into each meal as poss.... for example, if you have to make something like baby cereal up and it says use water, use formula instead as it's got more calories. Avacados are REALLY good - mash one up with a banana and some full fat yogurt... full of good fatty stuff. Toast should be dripping in unsalted butter. Stuff like that. Cheese is good too, but obviously if it's not agreeing with your little one, you can't use it. Unless it's the type of cheese?? What did you try? I gave Harry the mildest cheddar I could find and he was ok.