Struggling with healthy weight gain for your child? These 5 Weight Gaining Foods never go wrong for babies and young kids, and are nutritious to boot!

Ask me what the biggest concern of parents is and I’ll tell you – it’s about their child’s weight! This is particularly true of new parents who are still navigating the ins and outs of starting solids and are convinced that they’re doing it all wrong. Add in some unsolicited comments from neighbors or relatives and they’ll start panicking right away!

In nearly 90% of such cases, the parents are worrying needlessly, and their child is usually perfectly fine. As long as your baby is hitting all her milestones and is developing normally, there is usually no need to worry about the weight. Chubby babies may make it look like the parents are doing a good job, but that’s just a myth!

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However, in the early days, weight is an indication that the baby is doing well and growing. In today’s circumstances, when good health is of the utmost importance (it always is), parents are more concerned about their children not gaining weight. If your baby genuinely needs to gain weight, I’d suggest doing it the healthy way. Instead of feeding your child food that is high in calories but low in nutrition, you’re setting her up for a lifetime of bad eating habits and nutritional deficiencies.

So let’s go about this the healthy way, with nutritious weight gaining foods that never go wrong. These are simple, traditional foods that offer an array of nutrients, and support healthy weight gain without any adverse consequences.

5 Weight Gaining Foods that Never Go Wrong

1. Organic Oats

One of the biggest misconceptions that abound is that oats is something that helps you lose weight. This probably came round as many experts suggested that oats was a good food for people suffering from lifestyle diseases. Well, all this is just part of the big picture.

Oats isn’t exactly low in calories – it is a whole grain that has 166 calories in 1 cup. However, oats has many other nutrients, including good dietary fiber, antioxidants, oats also contain beneficial nutrients like fiber and healthy antioxidants along with phosphorous, manganese, magnesium and thiamine.

Oats is also low in saturated fats, making it a good food for life long good health. Going with organic oats ensures that your child gets all these benefits in the purest form, without the influence of any pesticides or chemicals.

2. Sprouted Ragi Powder

Ragi or finger millet is a super food that the world is waking up to, and which is becoming the food of choice to tackle malnutrition in developing countries. This is because finger millet contains a good amount of protein and calcium, along with fiber and potassium.

But that’s not all; with 119 calories in 100 grams of ragi, it delivers on the carbohydrate and calorie front as well. Ragi makes any meal more filling and nourishing. Sprouting ragi increases the bioavailability of its nutrients, which means your baby can absorb them more easily.

3. Raw Kerala Banana Powder

Raw Kerala bananas may be called bananas, but they’re actually more similar to starchy vegetables like potatoes and tapioca. That is because it has more carbohydrates and calories than regular bananas, making them a great pick for babies to gain weight. Just one cup of cooked plantains contain 215 calories – that’s a lot!

Even though they’re more calorie dense than regular bananas, they do share a similar nutritional profile. Plantains are an excellent source of potassium, with 663 mg in one cup. It also has good amounts of Vitamins A and C, making them a good immunity-boosting food as well. Raw Kerala bananas are usually quite difficult to prepare for consumption for babies, so a powdered mix makes life much easier.

4. Mixed Nuts Powder

One of the best ways to gain weight and loads of nutrients in one go is to snack on nuts. Whatever nut you choose, they’re packed with healthy fats and protein, along with healthy calories. Just 100 grams of walnuts, cashew nuts, almonds or pistachios contain a whopping 310 calories. Now imagine all that together in one mix!

That’s what the Mixed Nuts Powder offers, a mix of all these nuts in one super nutritious combo. This also makes it easier to feed babies and young kids nuts without worrying about choking, since this can be easily added to all their dishes. The nuts powder goes well with both sweet and savory dishes.

5. Sathumaavu Health Mix

We’ve seen many individual ingredients that can help in healthy weight gain of babies and kids, but if you want to really amp up your efforts, it helps to go with a mix that has a mix of everything. The Sathumaavu Health Mix is one such mix, which contains whole grains like rice, wheat and corn, along with an assortment of lentils and nuts.

Together, these create one potent mix that adds not just calories, but healthy fats, proteins, fiber and lots of essential minerals. This can be made into a porridge for babies or it can be added to batter or dough when making kids’ favorite dishes.