The Fat and the Skinny of it.

I actually try to overfeed my children.
In a world where the concern is overweight, low energy children and type 2 diabetes, I have a skinny child.

He has always been skinny. He was born a good size, 7 lbs and 4 ounces, but has been on the low end of the spectrum since.
He's never been classified as underweight, just in the low percentile, so doctors don't really help. No one really has a list of high fat but healthy foods. Your child is either underweight, and gets a prescribed ensure type drink and instructions...or, you don't have a problem. Not one they can help you with, at least.
So, my kids have more than a passing aquaintance with bacon and egg breakfasts.

Now, this isn't the kind of skinny in which he eats and eats and doesn't gain weight. He picks over food, he only has a few choices he'll eat, and only a couple of those he'll take more than a bite of.
I find myself offering him food all day long, which backfires because he's never really hungry.
And you know, you can't give something to one child without giving some to the other. My chubby daughter's favorite food is now bacon.

At night I give him Carnation Instant Breakfast in a sippy cup. I used to give it in the morning, but that made his appetite disappear. But, we still call it his Boy Coffee, from the days when we would all sit together on the couch in the morning, grownups drinking coffee (the real kind) and Tyler with his "coffee," usually heated.

My mom says he's perfect. And I have a tendency to agree.
It doesn't make me stop worrying about his weight or stop trying to feed him high calorie food. I'm constantly on the lookout for food with high fat AND high nutrition.
It's not a case of just loving your kid for who they are, fat, skinny, purple, whatever, I'm worried about his intake.
It's a fact, that when you are thin, your body is burning your calories faster that you are consuming them... otherwise, you would store those extra calories and put on weight. Him not putting on weight isn't simply for aesthetics, he's obviously not taking in enough calories for his active body to maintain a healthy weight. simple as that.
So, like any other concerned parent, I freak out, read a lot, and try a lot of different things looking for a solution.
For right now, until I find that solution, I'll just slip him some more bacon.