Pediasure ?

[blessedby3]

My doc said Pediasure may be a good option for DD6 who is not a great eater at all. I didnt think to ask him if he had samples while in the office for her checkup, thinking I would buy a single serve bottle and she if she will even drink it.
After going to the store, it appears they only sell it in a 6 pack and it is about 11 bucks. I hate to spend $11 if she is gonna hate it.
Can anyone tell me if your little ones like the taste or not? She only drinks white whole milk (doesnt like chocolate or strawberry) so is the regular flavor good?
I could never get her to like Pedialite when she would be sick so I wasnt sure if the Pediasure had a bad taste or not.

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

It doesn't taste great. If she won't drink chocolate milk or strawberry milk then that is going to be tough. Get a single vanilla milk and see if she likes that. Some places sell single boxes of the organic horizon vanilla milk. If she doesn't like that which tastes good she won't like pediasure. Carnation instant breakfast tastes better and would be less expensive to try....has lots of calories.

 

[Camshell]

I have a kid that is a problem feeder. One thing we did was add an egg yolk (must separate from the white) to his regular white milk and mix really well. You can't taste the yolk at all. The milk just ends up tasting more creamy. He's very picky and didn't have an issue with this. It was a great way to get extra calories and nutrition into him. By the way he didn't know we did this to his milk. If he had he would have refused to drink it.

 

[jameyh]

Hi I have a picky eater too, he likes the pedia sure as long as its really cold. I've also found carnation instant breakfast powder that has about the same calories but you mix it with milk. At my local store it cost about $6 for a canister that has 14-20 servings, depending on how much you add to the milk. I saved some of the pedia sure bottles and put about 4Tb of powder then add milk and shake. Much better if made night before because powder dissolves.

 

[justhat]

We did this with my son when he was younger as he just didn't eat much. Well, it got him to drink more (he loves chocolate milk so he drank chocolate pedicure without issue), but did nothing in terms of helping him actually choose to eat a nutritionally balanced meal. I really regret it now, because yeah, it gave him some extra calories, but it took years to undo his resistance to healthy foods.

 

[angelmom27]

I was suggested by a nutritionist to give my son pediasure. He loved it. A bit too much he stopped eating. He was a good eater too. Still is. After that I refused to ever give my kids that stuff. If we need to add supplements to a picky eater fruit and veggie smoothies or juices are best.

 

[kiramay]

Hi I have a picky eater too, he likes the pedia sure as long as its really cold. I've also found carnation instant breakfast powder that has about the same calories but you mix it with milk. At my local store it cost about $6 for a canister that has 14-20 servings, depending on how much you add to the milk. I saved some of the pedia sure bottles and put about 4Tb of powder then add milk and shake. Much better if made night before because powder dissolves.

We supplement with Carnation Instant Breakfast mixed with whole milk. I buy a box of 30 packets at Sam's Club for about $10. Way cheaper than Pedisure, and ds8b says it tastes better too.

 

[blessedby3]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. DD does like fruits, veggies, granola, yogurts...its just she doesnt get too much protein and doesnt gain much weight. She is 3rd percent for her age in weight. She only gained a pound in the last year. She isnt junking it up or anything, just doesnt eat much of what she does eat. She will eat chicken and eggs.
Maybe I will try the carnation in her milk. She had severe reflux as a baby and eating was not pleasant for her. I think she has just gotten used to not eating much since the reflux started at 2 weeks of age.

 

[HollenAngi]

There is a product called boost breeze that is more like a juice but gives you the extra calories and nutrients. My son loves the berry flavor. We have tried the pediasure with no success. The vanilla flavor is not very good.

 

[SGMCO]

I hate it when Drs. make the parents worry about kids when they are comparing % to kids who may be 100% but could be getting there nutrition from Fast food or junk food. Some kids may be overweight but they are all thrown into the %. Some kids are not big eaters, some like to graze. I'd say do your best as a parent and try to get your kids to eat as healthy as you can. Be a good example of eating healthy foods. My DS was always in the 5% and they wanted him to eat high fatty foods like milk shakes to gain weight, but he is now almost 18 and healthy slim and tall, is willing to try any type of food, loves vegetables and fruit.

 

[tms295psu]

Call Abbott (makes similac and pediasure) they will mail you coupons and samples.

My son had severe reflux that led to near total food aversion. Finally getting him on the chart of percentiles. We feared a feeding tube for months, never got one. But pediasure helps keep his growth steady on days he won't eat much.

 

[kimnmiah]

Will she eat Greek yogurt. If you look at the Greek yogurts they have up to 15 gms of protein. More protein than pediasure. I'm a nurse and not a big fan of supplement drinks until last resort. How about smoothies or milkshakes? Mix yogurt or ice cream with peanut butter and a banana. Way more nutritious than pediasure IMO. I have a rather picky 3 yo and we sustains on Greek yogurt. Lots of kid friendly flavors and chobani make a line just for kids.

 

[KaLyn]

Will she eat Greek yogurt. If you look at the Greek yogurts they have up to 15 gms of protein. More protein than pediasure. I'm a nurse and not a big fan of supplement drinks until last resort. How about smoothies or milkshakes? Mix yogurt or ice cream with peanut butter and a banana. Way more nutritious than pediasure IMO. I have a rather picky 3 yo and we sustains on Greek yogurt. Lots of kid friendly flavors and chobani make a line just for kids.

This!

 

[bumbershoot]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. DD does like fruits, veggies, granola, yogurts...its just she doesnt get too much protein and doesnt gain much weight. She is 3rd percent for her age in weight. She only gained a pound in the last year. She isnt junking it up or anything, just doesnt eat much of what she does eat. She will eat chicken and eggs.

I feel like the pediatrician has really done a number on you. First, remember that most doctors, IF relatively new, have taken MAYBE two entire classes on nutrition (unless they had a huge interest in it and took more electives). And those were general nutrition courses, not pediatric. If the doc graduated a couple decades ago you're lucky if s/he took one course.

I'm a vegetarian, and with veggies, granola, fruits, and yogurts I gained PLENTY of weight, LOL. See my ticker of my struggle to lose all the weight I gained with those things! The items themselves are actually quite healthy, assuming of course you mean REAL yogurt, not brands like Yoplait (read the ingredients!) etc.

From Baylor University:

Healthy 1-to-3-year-old children need 0.55 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day, which means the average 29-pound toddler needs 16 grams of protein each day. The RDAs for older children are 0.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight for 4-to-6-year-olds; 0.45 grams for 7-to-14-year olds

Going by the CDC's chart, a 3%ile 6 year old is about 35 lbs. That's 17.5 g protein per day.

Are you SURE she needs the supplement?


Percentiles are based on all children. There *have to be* lows and highs on a curve like that. Therefore there have to be kids that make up the lows and highs. If the lows were higher and the highs were lower, there would still be lows and highs. Some kids are big, some kids are little. My kid has always been around 70%ile; doesn't mean he's any more or less healthy than your peanut of a girl. He takes ballet with some very small girls, who are the same basic age and who are just as capable of dancing for an hour as he is!


I managed to avoid the food nonsense with health care providers, but I watched from afar as my cousin was tortured by her "best in the area" pediatrician. They finally got him to shush about her son's weight when they took my advice and brought a picture of the boy's father as a child. It was only my cousin and her mom going to the appointments, and the doc was comparing her boy's skinny and tall frame to mom and grandma's shorter, rounder frames. Once he saw that the boy's dad was tall, skinny, and lanky as anything as a child, he backed off. Only to start in on OTHER things he had absolutely no qualifications in. They finally fired him, but it really damaged my cousin's confidence in herself and trust that her son knew what was right for him to eat.


I really hope my thoughts help and don't hurt. I have done stuff online since well before DS arrived, and I've seen this kind of post so many times, and most of the time the parents are worrying for nothing. They just have a peanut of a child who is otherwise growing and developing just fine. Doctors, however, like to focus on those charts and that ONE way of measuring "growth", which is just so short-sighted.

 

[justhat]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. DD does like fruits, veggies, granola, yogurts...its just she doesnt get too much protein and doesnt gain much weight. She is 3rd percent for her age in weight. She only gained a pound in the last year. She isnt junking it up or anything, just doesnt eat much of what she does eat. She will eat chicken and eggs.
Maybe I will try the carnation in her milk. She had severe reflux as a baby and eating was not pleasant for her. I think she has just gotten used to not eating much since the reflux started at 2 weeks of age.

My youngest wasn't even on the charts for weight until she turned 3, and even now she's still less than 3rd percentile. Height wise she's around 50th percentile, so not short. She also had bad reflux and food allergies as an infant, was on Prevacid and I had to cut out dairy and nuts from my diet while breastfeeding, and then she couldn't eat them when she was old enough for solids.

But what you're describing, my son was like that. Then once we started the Pediasure, he basically gave up his foods and just consumed that. So to get him to eat we let him have whatever he'd eat from his meals, which led to dropping the healthy stuff. Took a long time to get him back to normal, and fwiw, he's 7yo now and perfectly normal for height and weight.

And my oldest was always dropping percentiles for weight but not in height (she was like 80th in height, 20th weight) so the ped said to give her snacks and let her eat full fat foods like ice cream, just to get weight on her. So we did. And she slowly gravitated to eating only plain pasta, white rice, oatmeal, and strawberries by age 3. Yeah she put some weight on, but nothing to rave about and at what expense to her body.

My youngest, otoh, the ped monitored her weight and growth but we discussed it and I told her my thoughts based on my older kids (we moved when the 3rd kid was 6 months old, so new per than when we went through this with my son) and she agreed and said as long as she ate a varied diet, was getting her nutrition in, the quantity didn't matter. Some kids are just meant to be thinner than others. Some kids are meant to eat less. So that kid, almost 4yo, is still super skinny, but she eats anything and everything we give her. One night this week we picked up sandwiches for dinner after my oldest's late soccer practice and she asked for tuna salad with tomatoes, cheese, and spinach. She opened the sandwich, ate all the tomato slices, spinach leaves, and then maybe a teaspoon of the tuna and cheese, none of the bread. But I'm fine with that because while it isn't packing on the weight, she's getting the vitamins she needs and the protein, while minimal at dinner, comes from cheese, almond butter (she can have nuts now) and yogurt at lunch, beans, meats, hummus, etc. at lunch and/or dinner throughout the week. Our new ped has said not to focus on what they eat each day/meal, but see how it balances out over the course of a week and odds are they're fine.

 

[cjbcam]

My second oldest DD was/is very tiny. My pediatrician made us go to a nutritionist and we were also told to give high fatty foods. Now she is eight and still really small (short and skinny) but I have basically given up on that and just make her eat healthy. She is not developmentally slow or anything she is active and eats ok now. But when she was smaller and I didn't think she was getting what she needed to develop I gave her pediasure. Do what you think is right.

 

[OhanaBreadPudding]

My son has a weak jaw and eating is very hard for us. I tried pediasure and he would never take it. He will only drink "real milk" haha, so I can never ever sneak anything into his milk and he is not a big drinker either.

He really likes Chobani Champions Greek yogurt. He eats one a day. He likes the chocolate chip flavor. It has a good amount of protein (he'll be 3 next month).

I add chia seeds to his yogurt and almost anything else. He eats eggs, so I'll sprinkle some on. Again, he's 3 so he doesn't notice or care because I call them black sprinkles.

Look into Chia seeds. They are really awesome. They barely add a texture and add no taste. They are a super food with fiber and protein.

My son will eat grilled cheese and pb&j, so I make it on Oat Nut bread. It has 4g of protein in each slice.

He took a bite of a chicken mcnugget yesterday and actually chewed and swallowed it. I could have cried. I know he'll keep getting better, but no one can understand how hard it is to have a child that won't/can't eat. It's just so hard. So I feel for you if you are worried. It's amazing how little they actually need, but its impossible for it to sit well with me.