Foods and nutrition have an equal and important role on one’s health no matter whether its an adult or a baby. Food has an amazing effect on gaining weight in babies and losing weights in babies as well. In the initial stages of the baby’s growth, food is an important aspect.
In this article, we will focus on the foods that help the baby to increase their weight. The foods that help the baby gain weight are listed below.
Why Do Babies Need To Weight Gain?
The initial stages of a baby’s life are important to crucial for building healthy eating habits. When you start exposing solid foods to your baby at the early stage of growth and development, it helps a lot in gaining baby weight. It also ensures fewer food-time fights and fussy faces as they grow up in their later stage of development. A proper diet also helps to develop the immunity in your baby.
Best Foods For Babies To Gain Weight:
While exposing the solid food to babies, mothers need to keep the nutritional requirement and value of the foods in mind. Babies must consume a well-balanced diet that will provide substantial and healthy calories which helps in gaining weight.
Mothers should follow to make mealtime interesting so that the babies look forward to it and don’t become fussy eaters.
Check Out These 15 Foods That Helps In Gaining Weight For Babies
Here are the Best Foods for Weight Gain in Babies that You Should Include in Their Healthy Diet:
1. Breast Milk:
Breast milk is the best source of food that helps in weight gain for babies. It is well recommended by WHO to exclusively breastfeed your baby for at least six months. While breastfeeding, it is important for the mothers to empty one breast completely before moving to the next. This is important because the milk that the baby gets at the beginning of the feeding is thinner foremilk and the real fat-rich milk comes after that.
This includes the best nutritious and calorie-rich food that helps in weight gain in babies. Breast milk is rich in fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. It is also rich in an excellent source of vitamins and calcium.
2. Banana:
Banana is one of the best baby foods to gain food. They are rich in potassium, vitamin C, vitamin B6, and carbohydrates. It is a complete package of baby food to gain weight. You don’t need to cook it and it can be fed to the babies by mashing or making a smoothie or shake of it.
Banana is also a travel-friendly food for the babies. Banana is a high calories food that leads to healthy gaining of the baby weight. This is the one food that can be added in each stage of development right from initial to a later stage.
3. Sweet Potatoes:
Sweet potatoes are excellent baby food that helps gain baby weight. After six months, it can be given to the babies. Sweet potatoes are easy to boil and can be given to the baby after mashing it.
They are quite tasty, nutritious, and healthy. It is easy to digest for the babies. The sweet potatoes are rich in vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin B6. It is a complete package of the best food to gain baby weight.
Sweet potatoes are loaded with dietary fibers as well. They are very low in saturated fats which make it a great combination of baby weight gain food. Sweet potatoes can be given in the form of chips, kheer, halwa, etc. to the babies.
4. Pulses:
Pulses are known as the powerhouse of nutrition. They have an ample number of benefits on the baby’s health and nutrition. Pulses are rich in vitamins, minerals, protein, calcium, iron, etc. If you have been worrying about the lack of weight gain in your child, pulses can change that for you. Pulses are always easy to digest and healthy foods for weight gain in babies.
The best time to serve pulses to your baby is during lunchtime. At the initial stage of your baby’s growth, try to give soup made with pulses. Once the baby grows up to 1 year of age, expose him with the real texture of pulses.
5. Ragi:
Ragi is an Indian superfood that goes very well with gaining the baby weight. Ragi is also known as finger millet. It is rich in vitamin B1, B2 and vitamin B6. It is one of the best foods to gain baby weight. It keeps the baby’s stomach full for a longer period of time. It is easy to digest and can be exposed to a baby in the 3rd month following their birth.
Ragi also has a lot of benefits on the health of the baby as it also strengthens the teeth and bones of the baby. You can introduce ragi to your baby in the form of dosa, idli, cereals, kheer, etc. It is a very kid-friendly and nutritious food for babies. The mother just needs to keep the quantity in mind while feeding to the babies. It should not be given too much.
6. Ghee:
Ghee is an excellent food for weight gain in babies as well as for adults. Ghee is rich in fats and that acts as a superb food that helps in increasing the infant weight. It can be included in various diets of the baby.
Ghee is very good for the human body and it is one of the ingredients that helps babies to gain weight.
Expose ghee at 8-10 months of age to the diets of the baby. Start with a few drops of ghee in the food initially and then gradually increase the amount. Homemade ghee is well-preferred to use than the outside ghee, as it is healthier.
7. Egg:
Eggs are one of the healthiest food to gain weight in babies. It has a lot of nutritional value. They provide with a high quality of proteins and healthy fats to the baby’s diet. Eggs are essential foods for the growth and development of babies. It should be exposed to babies around 12 months of age. The mothers just need to check that the eggs do not have any allergic effects on babies.
The mother can first check the allergy effect by giving the yolk first, then gradually with the white portion of the egg. One of the best parts of the egg is that it is quite easy to make and can be included in lots of recipe of baby’s food. The eggs can be given in the form of boiled, fried, omelet, etc.
8. Dry Fruits:
Dry fruits have a tremendous effect on the baby’s weight. Dry fruits are high-calories food that provides antioxidants and micro-nutrients.
Dry fruits are high in sugar content that makes them a great food for weight gains in babies. They are too tasty and delicious for babies. There are a lot of varieties of dry fruits like almonds, Kaju, pistachio, walnuts, raisins, etc. that can be given to the babies to gain weight. The dry fruit can be powdered and mixed in almost all the foods and can be given to the babies. It is recommended to include dry fruits at the age of 8 months to your baby ‘s diet list which will increase the baby weight.
9. Yogurt:
Yogurt is another fat and calories-rich food for weight gain in babies. It is an important food to be included in the baby’s diet. Yogurt is a good source of minerals, calcium, vitamins, and healthy fats. Yogurt helps in improving the digestive system and immunity of babies. It is well recommended to introduce yogurt for 8 months old babies.
Lots of varieties of smoothies can be made by using curd in it as a part of baby’s diet food and helps in increasing the weight of the baby.
10. Fruits and Vegetables:
The more you give fruits or vegetables to your babies diets that will have a significant effect on the babies weight gain. The fruits like banana, mango, cheeku, strawberry, custard apple, etc. are some of the great choices of food that can be given as cut fruit or added to some kind of milkshake. Bananas are a really good natural food with high energy carbohydrates in the diet of babies as it is mentioned above.
A lot of variety in green leafy vegetables in your baby diets helps in gaining babies weight. Spinach, Meetis, carrots, pumpkin, potato, beans, etc. are a rich source of vitamins and minerals. Make sure the moms include some kinds of vegetables daily in the baby’s diet, it will lead to better weight gain in babies.
11. Whole Wheat:
The other very best food that gains weight in babies is whole wheat. It has a superb digestion power and with low fat. Whole wheat is rich in fiber, minerals, antioxidants, and proteins. Whole wheat can be given in the form of chapatis, porridge, etc. to the diet of babies. The whole wheat is also a great food that helps in the bowel movement of babies and keeps the condition of constipation in control. The babies can have whole wheat at any period of time, it is better to start at an early stage of development.
12. Paneer:
Paneer is a portion of extremely good food for baby’s weight gain. It is rich in protein and calcium. Paneer is just opposite to the animal protein. Paneer is also rich in phosphorous, calcium and selenium. Anything with cheese can help with weight gain in babies. Paneer can be exposed to babies at around eight months of age. Paneer is easy to make and can be served as a portion of finger food, or mixed with some kind of fruits and vegetables.
Paneer is a great source of digestion and helps build immunity in babies. Try to make homemade paneer and include in the baby diets that will help in gain of weight in babies.
13. Avocado:
Avocado is one of the best content of food for babies weight gain. It is one of the highest calories food for babies weight gain. They are rich in vitamin C, K, B6, E. It also has a high percentage of fats. Avocado is very good food for the underweight babies because it helps with the sudden and fast growth of weight in babies. Avocado is too tasty and delicious for kids. It is a baby-friendly food and it can be carried during any travel with your babies.
14. Potato:
Potato is one of the excellent and best first food for increasing weight in babies. Potatoes are rich in carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins, etc. Potatoes are well known for their carbohydrates content. The baby can be exposed to the potato at 6 months of age. Potato has a soft and gentle consistency and it is quite easy to mash up.
Try to start with a small quantity of potato as in some cases babies experience upset stomach because of this. Potato is a great source of energy for the babies. It keeps them healthy and active during their phase of growth and development.
15. Rice:
Rice is a good source of carbohydrates that helps gain weight in babies. Mothers mostly feed rice for improving the weight in babies. Just 1 cup (165 grams) of cooked rice provides 190 calories, 43 grams of carbs and a very little fat. You can obtain a high amount of calories from this single food. The stomach of babies also gets full of this food. The rice can be easily made with various kinds of protein too.
There are lots of foods that can increase the weight of the babies, but these are the most basic and important foods that help in gaining the baby’s weight. What matters the most is to maintain a healthy weight for your babies rather than be underweight. Maintaining a healthy weight in your babies helps with proper growth and development.
