Help Feed My Son

Hi T.
I completely understand what you are going through. May I suggest, from experience, just feed him what he likes to eat. It is important that he does eat. Gradually, introduce other items and if he likes them he will eat if not he wont. Sooner or later you will find something new he likes and then you can alternate between PB&J’s and that. Don't worry, he will eat other things in time, just try to be patient. As he gets older he will enjoy other things but for now, I’d just let him eat what he likes.

My daughter is also a picky eater, and she hasn't grown out of it yet. What we have done for her is make a rule about trying what is made for supper before letting her have something else. She needs to take three bites of food before she can either get down or have another type of food (ex. PB&J sandwich). We have found that this works for her. Sometimes she realizes that she likes the food and she'll finish her plate, but even if she doesn't she at least had something else to eat. Good luck to you!

HI I have a 2 1/2 year picky eater Also...Your son will eat when he is hungry, you mentioned you do not want to fix him P&J ? why not if that's what he will eat..get low sugar jelly ..wheat bread ..Peanut Butter is an excellent source of protein..My son eats way too much Fruit..but How can I tell him No you can't have another Orange!!?? I will give him an apple cut up with Peanut Butter ( again Protien) but rest assured he will eat if there is nothing else and he is hungry ,...don't make an issue out of it and he will eat..Now... I am using Spiderman and Superman as a method to get him to drink MIlK and eat ..We tell him "SPIDERMAN DRINKS MILK so he can grow Big and strong so u should too! when you do this play the role and make a ROUGH GRRRRR face! It works! but your son will not starve to death!! Oh another good one i was doing was giving him those Protein bars..like the ZONE there are some good ones out there low in sugar ..but they are packed with Vitamins and Protien..He thinks he is eating a Cany bar and I know he is getting Vitamins Minerals and Protien!! SNeaky !
don't get me wrong it's not everyday that I would do that ..u can't live on those But you get the idea!
W/B Let me know what u think.
by the way I have 2 grown children also Jessica is 20 and Rachelle 17 ! Been there and I am still there!
M. :)

As a parent it is our job to put the "right" food in front of them, but it is their choice on whether they'll eat and how much. When my daughter turned a year, she would hardly eat anything and I feared weaning her off her formula, in fear she wouldn't be getting the right amount of nurtients. But, she quickly picked up the pace and ate her food just fine.

I think PB & J a lot isn't a problem, at least he is getting his protein and a bit of fruit.:) I would just be sure to offer other things and if all else fails, bring out the PB & J... He'll eventually grown out of this food craving and will then probably only want macaroni...lol!

Good Luck,
D.

I have a 13 year old and the best advice my mother gave me when he was your sons age and he started being a picky eater was not to give in. She said to me " He will eat when whe is hungery he wont starve". She was right. We also started him at meal time with a couple of carrot sticks, green beans or any othere veggie. He had to eat that firt before he got something he liked. Eventually, he starting likeing things that he never liked before. He could be testing you also. If he cries and whines enough you will give in. Be strong and it will work out.

I would say let him eat the PBJ's. He will probably grow tired of it and then move to something different.
Being t hat my youngest son has a form of Autism, he has taught me alot about the taste pallet of some kids. He is a healthy 6 yo and weighs around 55 lbs, tall, built like a line backer lol..but has a very limited diet...either because of the way it feels in his mouth, looks, or tastes.

Pepperoni pizza
Cheese
cheese sandwiches
bananas
nutri grain breakfast bars
gummy bears or worms
chicken nuggets (I sneak in veggie nuggets and he doesnt know !)
and home made cheese burgers.

If it is anything else than what I listed, he would rather starve. And I have at times "made" him take a bite of something new...he will actually gag on it, so for the most part, I leave it up to him. As long as his Dr says he's ok, I leave it :)

Hope this helps!
water...wont drink anything else.

T.:
Make food fun. Make it into shapes. Or into creaters. I know it sounds silly but it might just work. I am a Pampered Chef consultant and we do have a cookbook for kids. I have a copy here if you would like some of the recipes let me know.

You can email directly at ____@____.com

Sincerely,

A.

My son only wanted PB sandwiches for like 4 months (no jelly though) so I tried to get him to eat other foods by integrating peanut butter since I knew he liked it. Apples w/peanut butter, celery w/pb, peanut butter pancakes etc. Maybe your son prefers simple flavors - try giving him the mac without the cheese or the spagetti noodles w/o the sauce. My kids will only eat pasta if it is totally plain. As another mom said, tell him he can have his pb and j after he has 2-3 bites of something else - this works w/my 21 month old daughter when we want her to try something new. I would not recommend letting him "starve" it out at this age b/c it will leave him cranky and he will not sleep well. My friend tried doing this b/c the only thing she could get her son to eat was fries and it got so bad that he started losing weight and getting lethargic and STILL would not eat because he is VERY strong willed. Her ped. said to give him the fries and keep trying new foods. Sounds crazy I know. At least your son chose a semi-healthy food to get hooked on. If all else fails, grab some whole wheat bread, go light on the jelly and let the kid eat pb and j. I have never seen an adult who would only eat peanut butter n jelly, so I am sure he will grow out of it eventually :-)

Give him PB and J every night if that's what he'll eat. It's actually a pretty healthy food - and he'll eventually get tired of it. Just offer some other stuff with it. He'll be fine!

I used to have a very picky eater as well. He was actually under weight for his height and had fallen into the 5th percentile, but now he eats what I want him to eat. What the Dr's don't and won't tell you is that children do NOT intentionally starve themselves, only adults do. Children will eat when they are hungry. If you allow him to eat whatever he wants he may not get the nutritional value that he needs. Don't go out of your way to give him something different, that is one of the worst mistakes that you can make. It is giving into what he wants eventually because you get tired of wasting food that he has no intention of eating. I made that mistake a long time ago, and it doesn't do anyone or your son any favors in the long run. Whatever you are eating he needs to eat, or he will go hungry, but not to the point of starving himself. If he misses dinner the night before make bacon and eggs for breakfast the next morning, and you may be able to get him to try it. Or another thing that you can try is to give him only one thing until he does eat it, and I am not just talking about one thing for lunch and another thing for dinner. If he doesn't eat his breakfast only offer him what you made for breakfast. He will eat eventually. It just takes perserverence on your part to get him to eat healthy. If you are eating healthy it is setting an example of the foods that he will eat in the long run, and what he will want to eat.

I understand your frustration with that. I would suggest that you give you son a liquid multivitamin first of all. Then if he loves PB&G change the bread to wholewheat and add a banana instead of jelly. I would change the jelly to sugar-free jelly because regular has too much sugar. Get creative with it!!! Make sure he is getting 1% Chocolate milk. LOts of fruits and vegs for snack and I would add proteins hakes smoothee. Whey or soy protein with milk and banana with 1tsp of peanut butter. Your child just needs you to balance his food before the PB&G. Don't fight with it work around it!! good luck

T.,

I recommend you don't go down this road. Make ONE thing for him to eat, not: "You don't want this? Here, let me make you something else. Oh, you don't want this either, well, how 'bout I make you this instead...etc." If he doesn't want what you've made for him, then he doesn't eat.

He will eat when he gets hungry enough.

You can make a variety of foods throughout the week so he has the opportunity to try new things, but don't allow him to decide that there is only one thing he's going to eat. Just because he wants PB&J all the time because he likes it, doesn't mean it's healthy for him to only eat that.

From here forward, I recommend NO PB&J--at all, for as long as it takes--a week, a month, a year, to get him eating a variety of foods.

There is an L.A. mom I met recently who has indulged her son since he was a toddler with his "picky" eating and she still does it. The kid is 9 years old (will be 10 in a few weeks) and refuses to eat anything but white bread, carrots, and drink milk. No fruit, no other vegetables. No meat (he insists he's a vegetarian). The kid looks like hell--gaunt and pale. And compared to the other kids, he's undersize for his age. When I first met him, I thought he was seven or eight years old. She gives him vitamins, but he's tired and surly all the time.

We met at a mutual friend's house for dinner so their kids could play and we could have some girl time (my son is much older). It was the most frustrating thing to watch this boy manipulate his mother by insisting on bread only and telling her that if she didn't give it to him, he wouldn't eat at all. I turned around to the kid and said, "If you were my son, you'd eat what I tell you to, or you'd be one hungry little boy."

The mother was completely beside herself and kept asking me what she should do because she knows it's not healthy for him, but she's more afraid of him not eating at all. I said that although it might be inconvenient for the rest of her family (she has a husband and a younger daughter who eats whatever the mother makes), she should stop buying bread and milk and just not keep it in the house until her son starts eating other foods.

By the way, the mother told me her son's school called social services because she was only sending milk money and a bag of bread with him for lunch (because the boy insists he only eats carrots at night). The mother has also taken him to a nutritionist, but that lady said until the mother can get him to eat other foods, she can't do anything to help get him back to being healthy. The mother is considering having her son admitted into the hospital for forced tubal feeding, but she really doesn't have the money for it. Personally, I don't think that will help anything, because it doesn't solve the problem.

Anyway, I know this is a very long response, but I wanted you to see what can happen in the future if you don't stop it now. It will be a lot harder to deal with when your son gets older.

Good luck.

Hi, My daughter has always been a picky eater too. She is 3yrs old now. I was really worried about her being picky because she has always been small for her age. She is in the 5th percentile for her age. So last year, I asked her doctor. She said that alot of toddlers don't eat that well and so eating is not as important as is she drinking. As long as she was getting enough fliuds she was Okay. I don't make her something different when we eat and when she is hungery she eats better, if she not hungery she doesn't eat. I have started giving her an incentive to try new food. I tell her if she trys something she will get m&m's. She tried broccoli and cheese for the first time last week and found she liked. I only give about 3-4 m&m's and I praise her alot when she trys something new.

Also a heathy snack suggestion my daughter loves is peanut butter on apple slices.

I hope this helps some.

R.

Hello T. My name is M. and i know exactly what you are going through, My son is the same way. VERY PICKY... But i will tell you this that His peditrician has told me neumerous times that "They are too young to starve them selves They DONT KNOW HOW. When he is hungary enough he will eat... Hope that helps

Hi T.. Do you have a WIC department in your town? They can help with this a lot better than some of us. They are a free orginization and they are very helpful.
My son has been going through the "not eating" phase. My WIC told me that sometimes, they act like they are never hungrey. Its because their growing and their little tummies are expanding and contracting and, in layman terms, their bellies just aren't sure what to do. lol.
You can try to find some new rescipes. There are many kid related food sites on the internet. Healthy Kids is one. I think you should check out a few of them. Also, you can continue to do what you are doing. Just try an assortment of things. When he gets hungry, trust me, he'll eat.
If this is still worring you, check with your son's pediatrician. He might have a few helpful hints. I hope this helps. You can write me if you want to bounce some ideas off me, or if you want to share some info that might be helpful to us both. Good luck and Best Wishes, T.

My 5 yr. old daughter is a picky eater too. It seems to be getting better as she gets older, so hopefully your might grow out of it too. What worked for me was buying to "Zoo Pals" paper plates, and when it came to veggies cheese, ranch dressing, even katchup works. But if that doesn't work, the pb&j are fine. The peanut butter is healthy, and it's better than him going hungry like you said. But most importantly relaxe!!!! Sometimes kids just do it to get your goat. He may still be little, but you should never underestimate him. It's surprising how much smarter little are than we give them credit for.

Hi there, I don't think it's a matter of what you can make for your son, but getting your son to eat what you make. I had a similar problem with my younger son, he was just not happy with anything I would make for dinner. I would try to reason with him and still would loose the battle. Finally I out my foot down and stressed to him that he either eat what I made or get no dessert. It was hard at first because of course that meant going to bed without dinner. Eventually he realized that I wasn't going to bend. I know some mothers don't agree with what I did but it worked for me. Also, when you make dinner, you might try to incorporate something he does like. Plus PB&J's are really not that bad, he'll get his protein and carbs, not to mention he'll probably get sick of it after a while. My kids loved to eat top ramen morning, noon and night! Hang in there, he'll come through eventually! Good luck!

maybe try telling him that if he eats a small amout of food that you made then he can have what he wants after he eats what you made. that way he is at least trying a bite of new food at every meal, and still eating enough to keep him healthy.