4 year old takin protein?

[O.T]

my nephew has really bad eating habits, he is skinny I was wondering if it was ok if he took protein shakes, because he actually liked my chocolate one.. would that do him any harm or any good?

he is 4 years old

[*Narkissos*]

It wouldn't do him any harm persay.. once you do not attempt to make this his sole source of calories. At 4.. he needs a lot of calories.. and a decent amount of them from fat(for developmental reasons)... If you supplement his diet with the protein powder, you may want to add a healthy fat and some fruit (the concept of not mixing carbs and fat doesn't apply here) to make it a complete meal suitable to someone in that age-range.

A protein powder is not the sole solution to this problem tho... He needs to be taught to eat better.

[nsa]

I would get hime to drink more whole milk (which contains carbs, proteins, fats, vitamins & minerals), adding EFA's and protein won't hurt. The EFA's are more important than most other nutrients at this stage of development. Fats are used during this stage to generate myelin sheaths around neurons (to increase impulse speed) and other extremely important physiological functions.

[AnabolicBoy1981]

Yeah have him drink more milk. Organic of course. Not soy though.
Kids like chocolat milk, course you don't want to give him a sweet tooth, but he's skinny right? You could even add half a scoop of chocolate protien to his milk to make it chocalte to avoid ecess sugar and giving him a sweet tooth.
Your gonna have to play around with it, kids are picky as hell sometimes.

[peace_frog]

I wouldnt worry to much about protein for the youth. Sometime take a look at the contents of SIMILAC baby formula. Milk, WHEY protein(concentrate and others) fats, etc. So a half scoop in his regular milk in the morning, or put it in milk and pour it over his cereal or oatmeal would go a long way in getting some extra protein while still eating the right foods. Kids more often than not pick up eating habits from their parents( not always, because kids are picky, but kids are a product of their environment) he/she may not like eveything you eat, but while seeing you enjoy such things as healthy foods, they will develope a want for what mommy and daddy eat. So expierement until you find what your child likes for heathy foods, and stick with those things mostly, while slowly introducing other such foods. You'll be surprised by what you can get your child to eat with a little creativity and expeirementing.