Help! I can only get my 3 year old son to eat oatmeal each and everyday….Not sure what to make of it?

Unfortunately your doctor is probably right. If it was just going on for a month or two I wouldn’t be concerned – but if it is over a year, well…. and don’t worry he will not starve. It won’t be DAYS of him not eating. Trust me. His body will make him eat. The other thing is that when someone is VERY hungry anything they eat will taste wonderful so it’s the best way to introduce new foods.

You could also try cutting up little pieces of peanut butter toast and putting them on a plate near him when he is playing. That way you aren’t making him eating a “big deal”. Kids are stubborn. If you let him know it’s a big deal he will probably hold out longer. Count the number of pieces of toast and leave him be. Say nothing about them other than – oh here is a snack. Then leave him be to play. I would bet if you wait long enough and are patient you will notice pieces missing.

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There was a case on the “Untold Stories of the ER” show where the parents brought their little boy into the ER. He had scurvy because all he ate was oatmeal. Make sure that your son at least gets a good vitamin every day to start with. Then I think I would start with letting him have his oatmeal for breakfast and lunch and give him what the rest of the family is eating for dinner.

Your doctor was almost right.

Your son will not starve. Not quite. But he is genuinely finding other foods challenging, and so just offering other foods ‘cold turkey’ will not only be very slow going, but he will reach mind-altering levels of hunger and it will be quite traumatic. The short answer is to offer him a choice between the challenging food by itself and the challenging food mixed with oatmeal. If he’s hungry, he won’t say “neither”, he’ll choose oatmeal with things added.

Of course, try to find out ways to make it a little easier for him. That includes social things such as sitting down with him to eat. Things that you say to him to try to minimize his feelings of dread before eating something which he finds challenging. The usual things such as letting him shop for, prepare, grow etc the food. Finding out what appeals to him such as showing him the food in a book or arranging it into shapes, making up funny songs about the food, making up funny names for it e.g. call pumpkin jack-o-lantern.

BUT, the most important thing with your son will be getting him started on each food. For that reason, I recommend mixing some of the challenging foods with the foods that you know he will eat. Use sauces that he likes to get him to try the challenging foods. Basically, transition him by mixing in some of the challenging foods and trying all the different approaches to see what works for him. He’s not putting on, or even having a ‘food strike’, he’s genuinely scared, otherwise you would have been successful in your efforts over the past year.

Source(s): Please note that the concept of “the child won’t starve” is based upon the assumption that the food is developmentally appropriate. That includes physically appropriate and mentally appropriate. So you see that the assumption is not met in the case of your son, therefore “he won’t starve, so offer him other foods and let him decide” is not really appropriate here.

You need to work on his fear levels. You can also use books for that. A good book to get is “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr Seuss, which shows that you can’t know if you like a food if you don’t try it. Try to get your son to like the book, then substitute the food that you want him to try into the story (where it says green eggs and ham, replace it with the name of the food you want him to try). In the end of the story, the main character does try the food and likes it. Tell the story and see if he tries the food at the end of the story.

He is just being a typical fussy eater. This does not make you a bad parent.

He will have picked up on your anxiety and will be getting anxious and stressed over food and will just be trying to keep some control over it all. I imagine mealtimes aren’t much fun.

You can just stop giving him oatmeal. He won’t starve himself but it will increase anxiety levels and will be pretty awful for everyone and would increase food anxieties.Personally I wouldn’t do that.

Instead I would try and go gently. He likes oatmeal so why not use that as a starting point eg all the family sit down with oatmeal in a really relaxed and happy family breakfast but everyone else adds some dried fruiit to theirs in front of him and leave some dried fruit within his reach and you all enjoy it but you don’t fuss or make a big deal of it. Do that a few times and he’ll probably want to add some fruit to his oatmeal. Don’t make a big deal if he does or if he doesn’t. Let him go at his own pace and stay in control. Do similar with other things he’ll eat. Let him see you eat extra things in a safe and unchallenging environment.

If you don’t already, everyone should sit down together for meals. They need to be relaxed affairs where your son thinks it doesn’t matter what he does or doesn’t eat.

Get him helping to prepare meals. The mess doesn’t matter and let him see you pop a bit of food he just helped make in your mouth and say yum yum. Make a fuss of what a good job he did and how yummy what he made was. But let him ask to try some because it has to be on his terms.

Help him grow some salad or cress and let him see how where food comes from and properly get involved.

Can I ask why you’re putting energy into trying to get him to eat rubbish like macdonalds though? Surely you’re better off trying to get him to eat nutritional healthy food?

Anyway, just relax and show him food isn’t stressful and go at his pace, slow and gradual.

I know it sounds harsh but your doctor is right. He is not getting enough of what he needs out of oatmeal. My son goes through phases where he finds a food he really likes and that’s all he wants to eat for a couple of weeks. He was obsessed with sausage last month and would ask for it at every meal. I simply told him we had no sausage and would then offer him 2 other options (aside from supper which was a set meal). He would sometimes get upset and would refuse both options and I would just say ok that’s fine, do you want to color (or some other activity)? If he said no he was hungry then I would say, ok then you can have _______ or _______, that’s it! If he chooses to eat one of them then that is fine, if not, then he can do another activity until he is even hungrier and I will then offer him his options again.

Now granted this is much easier now, because he knows he will not be winning the sausage war (or whatever other food he is obsessed with at the time) so it doesn’t take long for him to eat what he is offered. In the beginning I would continue offering options until he found something that appealed to him. Luckily my kid is a fruit and veggie freak so that means I can cut them up and have them readily available so he can just get a little platter and pick and choose. I KNOW how you are feeling and it breaks your heart to see your child crying for food, but the simple fact is that he will not starve himself. He will see how far he can push you and he WILL try to have his way, but just keep thinking to yourself that it is for his own good! You don’t want him to be lacking nutrients and you don’t want him to grow up as a picky eater.

It was a long road with my son and he had his fair share of wins, but we are at a point now where he knows what is offered for supper is what he is eating (He likes any kind of food but if he had aversions I wouldn’t serve them to him). If he doesn’t want to eat at the time then that is fine, but when he does ask for food, his dinner plate will be waiting for him. It was by no means an easy task to get to this point, it was about a year of me usually giving in to him eventually (which just made it worse) and I finally had to be firm and let him know this was not a restaurant and he needs to eat what is prepared.

Good luck mama 🙂

Your child will not starve himself.

But as long as you continue to give him mostly junk food and oatmeal (and I’m going to guess that this isn’t plain oatmeal, but the sweetened, flavored kinds?) he has no reason to try anything else.

Remember this basic mantra: YOUR job is to prepare meals, and offer your child a reasonable assortment of healthy foods at reasonable intervals. HIS job is to eat if he is hungry, or not eat if he isn’t. No matter how stubborn he is, I promise that he won’t refuse to eat for days.

So — at meal times, you make meals. Oatmeal for breakfast is fine sometimes if YOU enjoy it. Other days you might offer other cereals (hot and dry), yogurt, fruit, eggs, pancakes, etc. (Or maybe avoid all oatmeal for a few weeks so that if he asks for it, you can truthfully say “We don’t have any.”)

Lunch and dinner — same deal. Prepare the foods you make for yourself and the rest of the family. Meats. Poultry. Fruits. Veggies. Sandwiches. Pasta. Salads.

But sure that there are enough choices at each meal that he should be able to find SOMETHING he’s willing to try if he’s hungry enough. (i.e., don’t slap a plate of fried liver in front of him and insist he sit there until he chokes it down .. unless of course he enjoys liver.)

If he’s hungry, he’ll find something to eat. If not, he won’t. If he has a tantrum or demands chips, he leaves the table.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

He won’t starve.

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Your doctor is correct. A healthy child will not starve themselves. YOUR job is to provide your son with healthy food and to model healthy eating habits. HIS job is to decide what and how much he will eat. Stop obsessing over it. If he is aware that this causes you great stress and you make a big deal out of it, he will continue because it’s a battle of wills that he has won. Offer your son the same meals as you offer the rest of the family. If he chooses not to eat it, oh well, offer him some dessert (by dessert, I mean fruit, yogurt, applesauce, etc.). If he chooses not to eat that, oh well. He’s done.

Really, just stop making oatmeal and stop offering crap.

Source(s): Mom of 3 year old and 5 year old

When I was little, I only ate mashed potatoe. I was about 2/3 and my mum just kept trying ‘fun foods’.

She found that making food fun made me try it. For example making shapes out of bread and dipping it into a soft boiled egg.

Make shapes and textures fun.

Also, let him try cooking with you. Cook sweet food like cakes and make pictures on the top. After making cake, he will probably try it.

It doesn’t matter if the food is healthy at first, just make it fun. Once he is happy to try things you can move onto a healthy diet.

Source(s): My parents experiences.20

When my son was 13 months old, he decided he only wanted to drink milk. And it had to be in his bottle.

The pediatrician told us the same thing. Cut it out of his routine. He’s scream, cry and probably won’t eat anything at first… But when he goes hungry, we won’t let himself starve.

It was indeed true. I felt horrible at first, but the screams got better and better after a while and after 3 days, I never heard about it again.

So, I suggest that you follow his advice.

my little cousin was worse than that. All he ever ate till he was 6 was bologna, cheese, and chicken mcnuggets. And he still wont eat turkey!! thanksgiving is so wierd with him around lol.