I guess it would be reverse Atkins ...

Considering he's a bit underweight .. I'd imagine I'd start him off as if he's on the final stage of Atkins ... high up on the carb ladder ... plenty of good carbs (use Ketostix to ensure he's in ketogenic state) Get him so he starts gaining weight then start scaling back the carbs until his weight gain slows .. then eventually stops - bam he has his target carb count.

Why? Two reasons.
First is that his eating habits as they are now, are horrible. He is picky and doesn't eat foods he hates - then snacks out on all the bad foods whenever he can.
Second, and mainly, is because of attention and focus problems. School system and early development assessment groups have already been micro-monitoring him - he is in queue for neurodevelopmental tests... I'm thinking it can't hurt .. especially since Ketogenic diets have shown to stabilize neurological issues (MS, Epilepsy)

I know myself, since getting on Atkins, have noticed my ability to focus at work DRASTICALLY improve. Clear chain of thought and alert.

sounds like a great idea. starting him out on the highest rung of the carb ladder, keeping his foods whole and natural. i'd stay away from grains as much as possible and focus on meat, veggies and fruits. i bet you'll see a huge improvement in his focus at school. let us know how he does!

I suppose keeping anyone, no matter what age, away from sugar, refined flour and processed foods, plus giving him the good fats, as suggested on the Weston A. Price Foundation site, is a good thing.
But if your child is picky, you have a challenge before you.
I wish you the best of luck though.

you need to get a dr. advice for childern

i don't think you need to consult a doctor to remove processed foods from your child's diet. atkins is a healthy way to eat for both adults and children. it's prefectly safe.

LOL you don't want to go see my Doctor.

The one who told me to watch my carbs when I was pregnant (yay)...
and then told me to feed my 3 day old sugar water while my milk was coming in to make her gain weight (um 'scuse me?)

I agree with Zeph, you do not need a Doctor to tell you to feed your kid real food

wow, sugar water. amazing. i do think i remember my daughter's pediatrician giving me bottles of sugar water too. just what a newborn needs - NOT!! so sad.

It makes no sense to feed your kid differently just because he's underweight. I mean, Gary Taubes in GCBC explains that we see this kind of paradox in the same population all the time: An underweight kid to an overweight mother. According to the conventional dogma, this would imply that the mother is eating the calories that would otherwise put weight on her child. I mean, do you starve your kid? Of course you don't. That goes against everything we know about motherhood, right? That's what Taubes says too. He goes on to explain that these two problems are both the result of the same cause: A disorder of fat metabolism.

Feed your kid the same diet you feed yourself. And don't give him less just because he's smaller or because you think it's just too much for him. Allow him to learn to satisfy his hunger on his own. If you're on the Akins diet, then feed your child the same thing you eat. After all, what's wrong with chicken and veggies, steak and broccoli, bacon and eggs?

Do it. Our kids eat this way and they are calm and well-behaved and healthy and, best of all, not picky. If they eat too many carbs, they start having attention and behavioral issues and illness. In addition to eating Atkins and traditional foods (hopefull you are not planning on giving them Atkins bars), keeping to the Feingold diet principles can really help. The main ones we follow are no apples, no Red dye #40, low pesticide. We have a friend who is using this way of eating to gain weight and stabilize blood sugar.

My son, who was diagnosed ADHD early in elementary school, credits carbs as the foremost cause in his inability to focus and behavior problems. He is now 21 and can now describe his problems. He definitely identifies his attention difficulties as becoming most noticeable after eating sugar. Back in the day, he had a lot of sugar. I remember sending him off to school with 2 pop tarts. My son spent his entire school years being underweight. Now my ADHD son is in college, getting decent grades and is mostly low carb although he will eat his carbs when and if he wants. But he has enough sense to watch it.

I meant to say, that I didn't care if my kids were underweight, heck, I was underweight. But, I would have been healthier on lc.

Maybe a blood test for celiac before you adjust the diet?

Eliminating gluten is probably a good idea. If it IS celiac, it could be the reason the he's not gaining weight.

The stuff I've read says that eating fat and protein helps you retain or build muscle, so it seems like a reasonable way to gain weight. But I've heard of kids who just won't gain weight without eating carbs.

As I've said - his weight is not my primary concern. His wandering thoughts .. inability to focus and stay on task ... and his need to be constantly monitored and retasked ... is my primary concern.

Kid takes after me

Maybe if you can get him to drop 'the bad whites' (sugar, white flour, white pasta, white rice etc) and anything with 'artificial colouring' you could start to see a difference.
But if he is 'picky' it might be a tad difficult to 'police'

okay thats why we have to take a billion supplements a day lol kids bodies are different then adults they're still growing yes cut out processed foods and junk but there maybe a bigger reason why he is underweight like overactive metabolism or something that isn't related to food. I'm just saying maybe you should talk to a Kids DR. before you do it ask what they think??? it's selfish if you just assume its okay... Teens would be fine but not children!!!!