Most babies are healthy if they are breastfed till they are one year old but this doesn’t mean that they may be the right body weight for their age. It is important that you maintain the average body weight of the child as it prevents illnesses. Do not try to increase the child’s body weight over the average either as it could lead to obesity at a later stage. If your child is underweight at the age of one you need not get depressed or upset, there are many things that you can so to increase the child’s body weight.

A key to keeping the child at the average weight and maintaining his health is to breast feed the baby often. Most babies find it difficult to digest food and hence they do not eat what they are offered. In this case you need to breast feed your baby in order to give it all the nourishment that it requires. In order to increase your supply of breast milk you must drink plenty of water and maintain your hydration levels.

Offer the baby plenty of cereals. These are easy to digest and they do not cause any indigestion and hence they are good foods to be given to young children and infants. Giving the child a bowl of cereals once a week is a good way to increase the child’s birth weight.

Feed the child small meals and increase the number of times you feed the child in the day. Let the child experiment by eating his food. Offer the child foods that he can hold in his hand; finger foods are the best way to get your child to feed himself. Do not worry if the child does not eat with a spoon and dips his hand into a bowl to eat cereals too; this is perfectly normal and the child will learn to eat with a spoon at a later stage.

If your child is underweight then you must make him drink water more often. Water is a mode of hydration as well as a mode to flushing out toxins that may cause bloating and low appetite. You must also offer the child a fruit juice 2 to 3 times a day. Orange juice a good option however most children are not very happy about the citrus flavor and refuse to drink the juice. Mashed bananas are a favorite amongst children and hence you must offer the child a banana daily. Do not give the child more than one serving of banana in the day as it may lead to diarrhea and this will defeat the purpose completely.