My Three-year-old Only Wants to Wear a Few Items of Clothing

Yep, for about 2yrs now my youngest son will ONLY wear clothing if it has a train on it. He went through an anti-blue jeans phase this winter too, insisting only on t-shirt pants or warm up type pants. He wore one red train shirt so much that it literally had holes in it! I finally set some rules, you can wear what you want at home, but when we leave the house you wear what I ask you to wear, and you can change back when we get home. I also set a 'once a week' rule on clothes, because he would dig a certain shirt out of the laundry and insist on wearing it.

We don't have it to that extent, but our 3.5 year old is quite picky (now that I mention it, so is our recently-turned-2 daughter).

We have to fight him sometimes to wear certain things. Of course, it's always his monster truck shirts that he wants to wear. Sometimes we have to hide them and tell him that they're all being washed.

I think it's pretty normal for kids this age. He'd dress like Buzz Lightyear every day if we let him - luckily for us, he's too young to understand what the tags on clothes at the store mean.....we can get away with telling him they're not his size.

Have you considered taking him to Target, Kohl's, etc. and letting him pick out a few things (that you both agree upon) for the coming months?

Good luck!

Yup, we are going on summer number 2 of anti-shorts. Only skirts, dresses or capris. And last year she would also only wear things that were pink or purple. This year she is still against shorts, but is enjoying all colors of the rainbow, thank goodness!

Yes. My 3 y.o. has a hideous pair of sweat pants with red circle patches on the knee. He loooooves them. They were part of a bag of clothes I received from freecycle. If you let him he will wear them every day. I just let it go. Luckily he is very neat, so if he spills something on them he will change pants. He does, however, wait at the dryer for them to get done. I SAH with them, so it's not a big deal.

Let him wear what he wants. Kids go thru this sometimes - often they need a special blankie, and he just needs a special shirt. Wash it while he sleeps. He'll get sick of it or it will fall apart. Who cares if he looks a little raggedy? As long as he wears something warm enough when it's cold out, I'd give up arguing about this. It's small potatoes and will run its course.

LOL- my now ten year old daughter was EXACTLY like this when she was three. She had one dress and one dress only that she would wear. It started falling apart and I was desperately trying to keep it together in one piece ! The Director of the child care center where she went quietly took me aside and asked me if I needed some help because they had a selection of lovely clothes I could choose from ! - LOL ! I told her we had a closet full of clothes but she would only wear this one dress. I would wash it when she slept. Eventually - on her own without any major prodding from me - she just moved on to other things. However, she still has that same dress hanging in her closet now - 7 years later - she won't let me throw it away! I'm guessing he'll get over it - especially when he outgrows them. Don't worry about it. My daughter is actually quite fashionable now and has a great sense of style and matching (there was a terribly learning period for awhile - you should have seen the outfits!)

I think they become attached to clothing items like they become attached to their bear or snugglie toy.

When my daughter was 3 she decided she was only going to wear dresses. So all the cute little pants/skirts/shorts she had were never worn. We went on a 2 week trip and I didn't pack a single item of clothing other than dresses-except for one tutu skirt. On this trip, she decided she hated dresses and was only going to wear skirts. She wore the same skirt and ugliest tank top the whole time we were on the trip. So, yes, your son is very typical! :)

My daughter is now 6, but around ages 2-3 she completely became obsessed with certain items of clothing. I recall one purple shirt in particular that I swore I'd burn as soon as she was over it. And also a puppy costume. I just let her wear them as often as she wanted with breaks for washing. Honestly, there are so few times in your life that you can walk around in a puppy costume all day, I figured I'd let her have the joy as a toddler. Every parent I met totally understood and found it cute, rather than (as I feared) thought I was a neglectful mother. :) I say enjoy it. Our only rules were age- and weather-appropriate; other than that, we let her be a purple t-shirted puppy for weeks. Good luck!

Totally normal, just be glad he likes clothes! A friend of mine has a little boy that strips down to his underwear the minute he walks in the door (they told him he would not be allowed to go out the door at all unless he was wearing pants/shorts and a shirt no exceptions). My son is obsessed with long sleeve shirts lately, we live in Texas and he'll wear long sleeves when it's 80+ and humid, not sure what he'll do when we hit 100. My mom teaches pre-school and says she always knows when kids pick their outfits for the day and that there are kids that wear the same things over and over and over she figures most parents are picking their battles and clothing is one that's not worth it. Tell him there are certain days he may wear the outfit and maybe show him on a calendar with stickers or get one of those closet hanging bins with the days of the week and tell him that the days you don't put clothes in he may wear his favorite outfit.

lol!!! As I am reading your post, I'm just cracking up!! my kids are 11, 10 and 8 and they still do that. My 10 year old has a shirt that he just won't take off, as soon as it comes off it goes in the wash and the next thing you know, he has it on AGAIN!!! Very normal for this age, even for my kids' age lol :)
He will soon find something else he likes and switch. Maybe you might want to take him to the store and see if he finds something else he likes.
Enjoy him!!! and take pictures so he can see how that was his uniform!!
:)