Nutrition for Children with Congenital Heart Disease

Nancy McDaniel M.D.

Children with congenital heart defects may experience poor weight gain and linear growth due to a variety of reasons. Increased work of breathing increases energy requirements, while often decreasing appetite and overall caloric intake. Children who have demonstrated growth failure due to their underlying cardiac illness may need caloric supplementation to promote achievement of catch-up weight gain and linear growth. Appropriate nutritional management for children with congenital heart defects includes:

  • encouragement of frequent meals and snacks throughout the day
  • encouraging intake of calorically dense foods

Helpful Hints for Boosting Your Child's Intake:

  1. Add extra calories to your child's diet:
    • Make hot cereals with whole milk instead of water
    • Add butter or margarine to cooked cereal, potatoes, bread, rice, and cooked vegetables
    • Add dry instant milk powder to whole milk, casseroles, soups, scrambled eggs, and cereals
    • Add (extra) mayonnaise to sandwiches and meat salads
    • Use jams, jellies, or honey on toast
    • Add dried fruits to cereals, muffins, and cookies
  2. Add extra protein to your child's diet:
    • Adding cheese to casseroles, sandwiches, sauces, and vegetables
    • Adding milk to soups, puddings and cereals
    • Making Instant Breakfast with whole milk for a snack or with meals
    • Spreading peanut butter on crackers, bread, celery and fruits, like apples and bananas
    • Adding eggs/egg whites to casseroles, hamburger and meatloaf
  3. In order to minimize saturated fat intake while still trying to optimize your child's caloric intake, try the following:
    • Low fat yogurt
    • Low fat or skim milk puddings
    • Ice milk, frozen yogurt or sherbert
    • Skim or low fat milk/low fat cheese
    • Graham crackers with peanut butter
    • Low fat milk with Instant Breakfast
  4. Additional general suggestions:
    • Always keep snacks like cheese, buttered popcorn, granola bars, and fruited yogurt handy
    • Be sure not to give your child too much fruit juice - sometimes it will decrease his or her appetite for other foods
    • Establish meal time rules, insisting that your child sit at the dinner table, with the family, for all meals. This will separate meal time from play time and will teach your child good eating habits for the future.