6 Foods To Increase Your Baby’s Weight (2024)

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The most challenging task for a mother is to decide food for her little one. Toddlers are not capable of consuming hard foods. Due to these preconditions, the task becomes more challenging as most of their diet will have to be in liquid form. The immunity of your baby is also associated with weight gain. Which is why there has to be a constant weight gain for the baby to boost and trigger their immune system. If you’re at a loss as to how to achieve this, here are 6 foods that are well capable to increase your baby’s weight!

1. Healthy Breast Milk

Breast milk is the only way to gain weight for babies below the age of 6 months (1). There is no other food source similar to breast milk in terms of nutrition. It is termed as the healthiest, nutritious, and most balanced food for babies. There will be no constipation or upset stomach problems because breast milk is very easy to digest.

However, it is recommended to add almonds, lentils, and chickpeas in the mother’s diet so as to increase the quality of milk in lactating mothers. After the age of 6 months, you can let your baby have semi-solid and solid food along with the breast milk.

2. Bananas

Bananas are an excellent source of potassium, dietary fibre, and carbohydrates (2). More than 100 calories can be obtained from a single banana. Babies enjoy having bananas and they are readily available. It also makes an ideal food item for your baby while traveling for they are quick energy providers and can easily be mashed and then fed to the baby.

3. Desi Ghee/ Clarified Butter

The highly nutritious desi ghee is the clarified form of butter. It is well known for its rich fat content and high nutritional value. It is an ideal food source that can help babies gain weight very easily. It can be introduced to your baby’s diet once they reach the age of 8 months.

In the initial phase, start by using few drops of desi ghee in porridge or lentils. After some time, the quantity can be increased according to the requirement. Mothers are advised to be very moderate while adding desi ghee to their baby’s diet due to its high-fat content.

4. Whole Cream Yogurt

One of the healthiest options for your little one to gain weight is whole cream yogurt. It is loaded with calcium, vitamins, and minerals. Whole cream yogurt provides the right amount of fat and healthy calories to help babies gain weight. It is also very easy to digest and is known to be a remedy for diarrhea and gastric problems (3).

Many doctors advise not to feed cow’s milk to babies. However, yogurt is a fermented food item and can be added to the baby’s diet after the age of 7-8 months. We recommend not to buy flavoured yogurt from the market as they contain high levels of sugar.

5. Pulses

Pulses or daal are full of healthy calories and proteins that help your baby gain weight easily. After the age of 6 months, you can add moong daal soup to the diet of your baby. Daal in the form of soup becomes easy to digest.

Moong daal and urad daal are among the most nutritious daals. They are a rich source of proteins, calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, and healthy fatty acids. They also have a low-fat and high-fibre content. Daal can be introduced in many forms like khichdi, soup, and halwa to the diet of babies.

6. Potatoes

Potatoes are one of the highest sources of carbohydrates, which helps in quick weight gain. Being the most important component of Indian cuisine, it can be introduced to your baby’s diet at a very early stage.

A baby’s weight plays a significant role in keeping the little one healthy and active. It should be remembered that being thin is not necessarily unhealthy, and being fat is not necessarily healthy either. For the development of the brain and hormones from a primary stage, it is necessary for the baby to have a healthy diet that is nutritionally dense. Best of luck!