My 5 yr old eats pnt butter. I give him new things but hed rather go hungry. any suggestion?

Question

My 5 yr old eats pnt butter. I give him new things but hed rather go hungry. any suggestion?

Answer 1

Ask him what he would like to go WITH his peanut butter.  PB is a nice and healthy food--good source of protein.  Let him have it.  Just suggest that he try it on different foods, like apples, different types of breads or crackers, celery.  It will be OK.  He's just on a "kick".  He'll get tired of the PB soon enough.

Answer 2

A child will not let themselves starve.

Just keep offering a variety of healthy foods at every meal, some new, some old standards that you know he likes.  

Encourage him to try the new things - just one bite.  You can set up a rule that he doesn't get any treats between meals if he doesn't *politely* try just one bite of any new food that you offer to him.  

And, involve him in the meal preparation, so that he can feel pride & excitement in trying new things.

Answer 3

If your child was 2 or 3 I would say it's not worth it to fight this battle but at 5 its a different story. If he'd rather go hungry then thats what he should do. You are condoning very bad eating habits when you allow a child at this age to eat only one type of food. He will not grow out of this phase if he never tries what else is out there.

If he wants pb for lunch that is fine, my daughter ate nothing but pb&j for lunch from age 4 to age 9. Dinner is another story. He needs to eat what you make. Your kitchen is not Burger King, you don't get it your way. Here is what I did with my step-daughter when she would not eat what I cooked b/c her mom fed her nothing but Mc D's, I would make dinner at the same time every night 5:30 pm, she would sit down with us and I would make her a plate of what we were eating, keeping in mind that a child's stomach is only the size of their fist. If she refused to eat after 10 minutes I would take away her plate and put it in the fridge. When she said she was hungry about 1/2 hr before bed I would tell her that her dinner was in the fridge and I would happily warm it up. If she refused then she went to be with an empty stomach. After 2 nights of being hungry she tried one bite of dinner suddenly she liked it and cleaned her plate. Granted when she is at our house we eat kid friendly foods, mac and cheese, hot dogs, homemade chicken nugges, spaghetti, grilled cheese, pierogies, fish sticks, etc but at least now she is willing to try new foods like artichokes, brussel sprouts etc. That is the rule in our house, any new exotic foods have to be tried, one spoonfull, if you don't like it that's fine but you have to try it once. Also it may help to let your son help with dinner, pour the milk and cheese into mac and cheese, put the buns on the plates for hot dogs, add the salad dressing to the salad, put the silverware on the table. Its easier for a child to try a new food when they have had a hand in making it. A great book for picky eaters of any age is First Meals by Annabel Karmel. It is full of great recipies that are not only nutritious but are fun to make and look fun too. Just remember that he will eat if he is hungry enough so limit before dinner snacks and keep his portions small. As much as I don't like bribery maybe for the first few nights you could tell him that if he eats his dinner he gets peanut butter for desert. If that is not enough to get him to eat then he needs to go to bed hungry. It won't make you a bad parent and it will help him in the future to be a more adventurous well rounded individual.

Answer 4

It's a phase. Mine went thru a macaroni-and-cheese phase. Eventually he grew out of it, but it was bad enough that my mom made sure she fixed mac and cheese when we were coming over for dinner. She was afraid he'd starve (he was very skinny, but had a very high metabolism).

Just continue to gently offer other things to go with the peanut butter. Don't push and don't make it a power struggle. Someone once gave me this great advice:

Choose your battles carefully.

Answer 5

It's a phase.......... give in for now but keep offering new things.  Eventually he'll tire out and try something new.

Answer 6

I have a little cousin like this.  I will tell you what his pediatrician told his mom.  She said that his mom should present to him nutritrious well-rounded meals (with or without p-nut butter). He will eventually come around.  That she should not make special concessions with him bc he needs to know and be presented with what he needs to eat.  If he has no other choices, he will eventually eat.  

As someone else said, he will not starve himself  but he may just be picky.  But this is fairly common.  He should come around NOT you- he needs more than pb.  Don't fight with him, just don't give him pb when its not pb night or lunch or whatever.

Answer 7

give him the peanut butter he will get sick of it eventually!

Answer 8

Dip a banana in PB, dot it with raisins, and roll it in crushed grahm crackers. Let him dip his carrot slices in it. Make a sauce to pour on noodles. Maybe even let him go shopping with you at the store and pick something out.(just don't go down the PB isle:)

Answer 9

Well if peanut butter is all he will eat,let him eat it, it is better than nothing and peanut butter isnt all that bad,it does have alot of protien,try to introduce new things with peanut butter like apples/pb or bananas/pb there are different things,I have a fussy child too,you will get through it.

Answer 10

Our kids were eating too much peanut butter (it isn't super healthy, it's very high in fat and has quite a bit of sugar in it) so we stopped buying it.

Surprisingly enough, they are still alive.

Answer 11

My son used to only eats PB or grilled cheese.  I allowed it for break and lunch but at dinner he ate what was on the table or nothing.  He got what he wanted during the day and I got what i wanted at dinner time.  He now enjoys other foods but PB and grilled cheese is still his favorite.  Don't worry about it he will grow out of it.

Answer 12

try other food with peanut butter like apples,crackers,and bananas.

Answer 13

Is he average as far as his weight?  I have a daughter that is probably about the most picky eater I have ever seen.  She takes peanut butter and jelly every day for lunch.  It used to worry me to death that she didn't like a variety of foods.  She lives on pb&J, macaroni, pasta, grilled cheese, pears, applesauce and Raman noodles.  Your son will eat when he's hungry.  I wouldn't force anything.  I always think of it as "would you want somebody to force you to eat when you're not hungry?   He'll be fine.  Just make sure he eats at the same time as everyone else, but don't force him to eat things he doesn't want.  You might insist that he at least try a bite or two of something new.  He'll grow to like more things, don't worry.

Answer 14

Peanut butter can be eaten with almost anything: spread on or use as dip for fruits and veggies, melt a little in soups or sauces, my cousins love peanut butter spread thin on a lot of sandwiches.

The questions is are you encouraging your son to expect you to cater to his wants. I suggest telling your son that he can have peanut butter any way he wants it at breakfast and lunch, but at supper he must eat whatever everyone else is having. If he refuses to eat supper, then the next day he only gets peanut butter once. So if he won't eat supper, he can have peanut butter for breakfast or lunch the next day, but not both.

It MAY be true that kids won't starve themselves, but you certainly don't want eating to become a battleground, that is the stuff of eating disorders.

You may even want to offer him peanut butter as a dessert after a good supper. Peanut butter bread is one of my husband's favorite foods, and he often likes it after a full meal. It feels like dessert to him.