My 17 m.o. Will Only Eat PB&J...

T., no worries. Your little boy will not starve. As humans, we have instincts to protect us from starving. My toddler who is three has a limited diet. Although not everyone I talk to shares the same opinion, I let him eat what he'll eat. I find it difficult to always expend the energy over him eating what I prepared for dinner vs peanut butter and honey. I still have hope that he will branch out as he gets older. I still try to encourage him to eat and try new foods all the time. I just decide what battle I want to have that day. :) Hope that helps.

My son, like yours, has always been in the 5th percentile and is super skinny. Don't worry too much, but I've found that making sure he gets a vitamin/mineral supplement makes me feel better. You've already gotten some awesome advice about the food. I can only say that my son is also a PB&J-aholic, so we've told him that he can only have one of those sandwiches a day. The rest of the time, we fix him a plate of whatever we're eating, and if he refuses, then he refuses. It might sound cruel, but we've found that when he's REALLY hungry, he's more likely to eat whatever we offer. I read somewhere that children this age tend to favor beige-colored foods (hence the love of breads), so we also offer chicken and can sometimes get away with mixing things in with the chicken. He seems to like them also. He's been this way for about a year now...so I'm hoping it stops before too long! Good luck!!

No worries, it is just a phase, we went on vacation when my daughter was 10 months and all she ate was french fries for like too weeks, they get over it. Pretty soon it will be something else, just try to get him to drink milk at least.
good luck

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I had and everynow and again still have the same problem with my 2 year old... when I eventually gave in and just started making her pb&J all the time I started buying all natural paenut butter with just paenuts as the ingredients, whole grain bread and 100% fruit spred jelly and also found out she like bananas on it just as well as jelly its still not an great sub for a balanced meal but at leat I got a little protien and good carbs in her. Hope this helps

My daughter did the same thing at that age- I would make her whatever i made for the family but make sure there was something on the plate that I knew she would eat- over time she started trying the other foods.. it will pass- just don't make a big deal out of it.. I know its frustrating though.. I also gave my daughter a daily toddler vitamin to try and compensate for her funny food habits.. hope this helps!

Hi T.. I'm with the other moms who say not to worry at this point. One thing that you may try that worked for my almost 2 year old is giving options. At lunchtime I ask him what he wants...'Do you want PBJ? No. Cheese sandwich? No. Eggs & Cheese? No. Bean Burrito? Mmmm hmmm!' I haven't had a problem since. Before, I guess PB&J (well, bean burritos in our case) was all he had on his mind - he didn't know what else to have...once he knew that there were other options he would eat whatever sounded good that day. I hope that can help you.

i remember when my son did that. I think it is just a phase though because he is not like that anymore. It was a ggod couple of months before he stopped though. my child is also below the scale with the growth and weight chart. i would reccommend putting hand help eay to eat items with the pbj...like cut fruit. try getting organic fruit preserves instead of the basic jelly. or mushing up fruit and putting it witht he pbj instead of jelly. Using wheat bread...and pure oraganic peanut butter. then the pbj becomes alot healthier and you do not feel so guilty giving it to him. My son likes fresh bananas with his pb sandwich. I think kids know its easy they will get it fast for their hungry tummies and they know it tastes good.
ne way thats my advice.(i work in nutrition) let me know how it goes. k
R. hansana

T., I hope I don't sound like a harsh dictator, and if you vehemently disagree with me, by all means, don't even consider my advice, but I would definitely stop making him peanut butter and jelly. In my house growing up, if we didn't eat what was on the table, we were a little on the empty side until the next meal. It never hurt my brother or me, but we learned to eat the good stuff! I'm sure we'd have been much worse off - nutritionally and behaviorally - had my mom catered to our every want, reducing herself to a short-order cook. My children have never starved themselves, at any age, and according to our pediatrician, healthy children don't. They simply make their own choices as to what they will and will not eat, and deal with the consequences - positive or negative - of those choices. It works well for us. I wish you and your son the best!

~ R.

Sometimes kids go thru phases where they only want one thing. So, this is typical - sorry. Maybe if he sees you eating something he might like to try yours. I know for my 18 month daughter, she will do ok eating on her own, but if she doesn't want to eat something she usually will eat some if I give it to her off my fork or spoon. Or you can try the train/airplane/car/horse going into the mouth - sometimes works (sorta). Other than that, I guess you'd better stock up on peanut butter! ;)