Good CF snacks?

anonymous

New member
Hello,

I'm wondering if anyone has some good ideas on healthy and high calorie (and high fat of course) snacks for my four year old. He's a pretty picky eater, but does well most of the time. What do you give your children that you consider a good snack (salt, fat, protein)? We need some new ideas! Thanks a bunch. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

Carey
 

AbsintheSorrow

New member
A favorite of mine used to be cheese. Good in fat and calcium and junk, I used to just sit and eat slices of cheese. Hmm, I ate a lot of stuff. Used to eat cheetos and chips and ice cream, and peanuts (good in fat and salt), cashews, pistachios, any nuts are pretty good. Though I don't know whether or not a 4 year old would like/be able to eat them. Pizza's good, and most kids like it, so that's a fairly easy one. I remember doctor's always tried to push McDonald's. Fat and salt in one. I've always been a big meat-eater and I know that helps. I salt it a ton, and it's full of protein and good stuff like that. Pork chops, steak, burgers, chicken, ribs, etc. Oh and I used to eat butter a lot. Bread and butter, garlic bread, mashed potatos with butter. Anything my mom could put butter on that I'd eat, she did. And that was a favorite. I don't much know what a 4 year old's diet would look like (closest I come is my boyfriend's 3 year old cousin that I babysit for regularly, and she's healthy), but these are my best guesses.

Along with a sandwich and a pudding or whatever in my lunches when I was in elementary school, my mom used to pack a candy bar. I remember that clearly because one rude lunch lady would always tell me how "unhealthy" my lunch was, no matter how many times I tried to explain to her (as a 3rd grader, mind you, so she probably dismissed everything I said), that "candy bars are healthy for me!" That was quite a tangent, but the point in that one was, candy bars. Whenever I went to the store with my mom, I'd get a candy bar for the car.

I don't know what a 4 year old should be eating, CF or not, and I don't k now what your kid likes, but this is the stuff I've always eaten, and I've never really had a problem with my weight. I look back at pictures now and sometimes I was a little underweight-looking, but I never had G tubes, or anything like that. So I was small, but never unhealthy-small.
 

AbsintheSorrow

New member
PS-- This is random, but Carey, why not register with the board now that you're on all the time? It'd be easier to recognize your posts if you had a user name.
 

Liza

New member
Chicken nuggets, strips, popcorn chicken. Dairy Queen, Wendy's, Sonic, Chick-fil-a. Ice cream, milk shakes, frostees.

It's been a while since my girls were 4yrs old. Like Emily said, cheese. My girls liked string cheese, cheese and crackers (those ones that come in a package with a little red stick) pretzels and cheese. Nuts. Both my girls like peanuts and sunflower seeds. We gave them anything and everything if it had high calories. Kudo bars are good too.

Emily, I just had a flash back to when my girls were in elementary school when you mentioned the lunch lady. That's one thing I always told my girls. Yes, they are going to say that fried foods aren't healthy, drink 2% milk, that the pudding and bars in your lunch are not on the food pyramid. For regular kids that may be true but not CF kids. All the stuff they say is "bad" for you doesn't mean you. And the first teacher to say bring a healthier snack or lunch will get a visit from me. I would tell them to not say anything that they didn't know what they were talking about and to come straight home and tell me. There were only a couple I had to visit. Luckily most remembered my visit from the beginning of the school year. Health class has been the worst. Now they look at the book and say, "not for me".

Back to the topic though...

I always tried to cook breakfast instead of doing the cereal thing. Although that is what they do now. I'd make scrambled eggs with cheese with little hotdogs cut up on the side or bacon. Whole milk always, chocolate milk (mixed with the powder stuff) when they would drink it. Macaroni and cheese with a sliced hotdog. My girls weren't much on the bun. I make macaroni and cheese from scratch. Elbow macaroni, butter, velveeta cheese, and whole milk. Those freezer TV dinners for lunch once in a while. High in calories and they loved the special treat. When I think back I realize my girls ate alot of chicken strips. KFC is high in calories. Dairy queen has a country gravy that goes with the chicken basket, as does Sonic. IF you have Chick-fil-a they are excellent and a 6 or 8 piece is like 400 calories, ok I think that includes the drink and waffle fries.

Well hope some of this helped.

Liza
(mom of two teens w/CF)
 

anonymous

New member
AHHHHH!!! Liza and Emily - thank you!!! This is what I needed! We've just been in a rut. My son is soooo picky and he loves white chocolate chips, so he's been feasting on those for a snack for the last few weeks, but he needs a little more variey now. I need to hit KFC once in a while. I hadn't even thought of nuts. He tried them a while ago and didn't take to them, but he might like them now. I know what you guys mean about people staring/making comments about the foods CF kids need to eat. We were at a restaurant once and I asked for extra butter with my son's meal. This lady carefully watched while I gave my son his enzymes with "Boost Plus", then slathered his meal with butter and salt! I just had to laugh or I would have gotten upset. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"> Thanks for the great ideas. I've printed out both of your posts.

Carey
 

anonymous

New member
Carrey,

Have you tried Ritz Bitz crackers? They are high in fat, salt, protein. My son loves them. We give him this with milk and instant breakfast and it's a good snack in the mid - morning.

Julie
 

anonymous

New member
I always have homade (I make sure to make it with actual butter, and whole milk) muffins, cup cakes, cookies on hand for the boys. The love lunchable, which is just a once in awhile treat cause darn they are expensive!! We also do grilled cheese with 2 slices of cheese.

That is all I can think of at this point this morning. Hope I helped in some small way.
 

anonymous

New member
Thanks to everyone for the wonderful suggestions! I went to the store yesterday and branched out - - my son had sausage with his breakfast this morning (that he LOVED). He had chicken nuggets dipped in ranch dressing for lunch and it was a hit too. I've got to try all of the other good ideas now.....thank you again!

Carey
 

anonymous

New member
PS - Emily, I've had some troubles with registration lately. Anyone else? It's probably either me (I'm so terrible at PC stuff) or my slowly crashing virus infested computer. I'll keep trying. (I think I might have registered a long time ago and that's why it won't accept my info???)

Carey
 

AbsintheSorrow

New member
I registered last year in February. I don't know if it's giving you problems. But if it won't let you use your really old name, try making a new one? I don't know. Hah. I'm computer illiterate.
 

ladybug

New member
Hi!
Some great advice I got from my dietician lately that has finally helped me pack on the pounds is to drink whole milk instead of 2% and I also eat lots of peanut butter with banana slices on top. Very nutritious and calorie and protein packed! Trying to keep up variety while focusing on things that are high in fat has proven to be more of a challenge to me (I prefer lettuce salads and fruits and veggies), but if you sneak the high fat stuff in where you can (such as whole milk in the afternoon WITH a snack or two), it should pay off. Good luck!
 

anonymous

New member
Carey,

A recent favorite of my son's: apples with caramel dip. If you get the real stuff, it's pretty loaded with fat. Yes, using whole milk and peanut butter with anything is perfect. Good suggestion!

Tyler
 

anonymous

New member
Sonia, Tyler, Julie (& anyone else I missed) -

thank you! We've tried many of these ideas and most have actually been a hit (to my surprise....because my son is so PICKY!). One other thing I've been trying lately is mixing whipping cream into baby food. Then, he'll eat it like applesauce. His favorite is baby bananas. I figure with a couple of tablespoons of whole whipping cream, he's getting a lot more calories and at least 10 more grams of fat.

Carey
 

ladybug

New member
Good for you! Sounds like you have some great ideas of your own as well. As I've said before, I think trying to "mix it up" a little and keep meals/snacks interesting is one of the hardest things to do when you're trying to gain weight. It seems like it should be so easy with all the choices and everything, but eventually, you run out of ideas for adding the calories. I've also noticed that with the new health craze of "low carb", it is getting tougher to find new unique products on the market that are fat-packed. It almost seems like adding creams, butters, etc. is what we'll have to do from now on (or at least until this low carb thing fizzles out!) I'm really glad there are forums like this that we can help and suggest on stuff to do. Thanks to everyone who gave ME some good ideas too!

p.s.- another one I read about recently is adding cream (just a couple of tsp) to cereal with whole milk. won't be able to tell the difference and it adds calories/fat.
 

anonymous

New member
http://kidshealth.org/kid/recipes/cf_recipes/about_cf_recipes.html

This is filled with high calorie recipes which kids should love. I am going to try them on my 4 yr old as well.
 

anonymous

New member
Sonia,

Another great idea! I'm going to try "sneaking" in a couple of teaspoons into my son's Cheerioes tomorrow and see what happens! Thank you. OK, don't get me started on the "low carb" thing! LOL! It's just not good for anyone with CF, let alone the rest of us!

This web site looks great too - I'm on my way to check it out.

PS - does anyone use Scandi-Cal? My son tolerated the vanilla a few times...but it's been a long time since we tried it.

Carey
 

ladybug

New member
Hi, Carey.
Do you mean scandi-shakes? I used to do them once in awhile... I wasn't too impressed with the taste though, they were so thick... I often got a bit nauseous after drinking them cause they were so rich. Plus, I didn't like having to mix them for so long (mind you, I was in high school at the time, and we all know how valuable a high-schoolers time is, right?!?) Anyway, if he can tollerate them, it is a great way to add calories. I think another reason I stopped taking them was cause they were kinda expensive at the time and I usually wasted half a shake each time cause I couldn't guzzle it down.

One thing I have found though (I learned this while doing the scandi-shakes) was that if I had some water to use as a chaser, it helped the shake go down. I don't know how that would work for a child, but even now when I can't seem to stomach something thick I have to drink I guzzle it and take a drink of water immediately before I can even smell or taste what I just drank. (I know that was not really your question, but thought I'd add that little pointer in case he ever runs into that problem and you can get him to do a chaser to get it down.... I suppose juice or soda or anything would work.)
<img src="i/expressions/sun.gif" border="0">
 

redeemedchild

New member
<FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff>Okay, forgive my total ignorance and my interupting the thread, but whats the deal with wanting higher fat, calories, salt intake etc?  What part of cf does this benefit?  As some of you know, my brother is newly diagnosed with cf, so I am trying to find out all I can about it, so I ask alot of dumb questions<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif" border="0">God bless,<img src="i/expressions/heart.gif" border="0">pam</FONT>
 
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