Daughter Wants to Just Eat Peanut Butter - Alone. Ideas Please!!!!

My kids loved apples with peanut butter. Celery and even Bananas. Sounds odd but hey what ever it gets them to eat healthy do it. She will grow out of it. I love Peanut Butter and Honey sandwiches!

Just let her have it, she likes it, it is nutritious. It will pass. My theory is she needs something it provides at this point in her life. Lil kids go thru these phases-just oranges for weeks, etc. Unless it is junk food, I would not worry about it.

Gosh that is so funny and I have a friend who's daughter did the same when she was little. I remember her being so worried but she eventually grew out of it. They did put Peanut Butter on Banana's and celery and mini-bagels and animal crackers and carrots to help with variety and also fruits & veggies. She will eventually get tired of it-I hope-smile.

Hello S.,
I may be crazy, but I don't really see anything wrong with this (besides the mess). My daughter does the same thing, although she is 2. Peanut butter is a great source of protein and will help fill her up. If you don't want her eating it, I wouldn't buy it, but other then that I would let her enjoy it. I'm assuming she does eat other things besides peanut butter. I figure my daughter is getting the whole grains and carbs from other things (her breakfast cereal, whole grain gold fish, etc) so one meal or snack without the carbs isn't a bad thing. That's just my opinion.
Best of luck!
C.

Slice some apple and let her dip away at a little Peanut Butter in a bowl, or skin some celery (similar to how you skin a potato, but it makes those stringy things go away on the celery) and put the peanut butter in the canal and put raisins on top, we call in ants on a log around here and my kids love it... Good luck with your peanut butter fan, I am a lover of it myself, and have been known to just grab a spoon and eat away... *L*

Hi S.,

Are you giving her peanut butter that is natural without partically hydrogenated oils. I would be careful with the partically hydrogenated oils. Not good for anyone especially little ones.

N. Marie

you could learn how to cook Thai food... joking.. but they use a lot of peanut butter in some of their dishes..
like say noodles for instant.
why not look up some recipes on the net.
Additionally, she might not necessarily be craving the peanut butter perse, in as much as what's in it. like say the some of the minerals found in it.. like phosphorous, folate, etc etc..
At some point, if this keeps up, you might consider asking your doctor about it. Oh course many mainstream doctors will probably brush it off.... and not think twice about it. But I have often read that sometimes when we crave certain foods, it's our bodies way of trying to get specific vitamins and minerals from those food.. we sense it as a craving, but our body uses it to survive. I am by no means attributing ALL cravings or like of specific foods to this, but it's certainly worth looking into..
best of luck!

Hi S.-
Have you tried serving it with other things beside bread products? She may not like bread. My first suggestion would be to start buying trader joes no salt, no sugar peanut butter for one. This way she is not stacking up on the calories and sugar. Even at 3, too much sugar can be bad for the body. THe other thing is to try serving it with fresh carrots, apple slices, or celery. If she refuses to eat the other stuff, tell her she can't have the peanut butter. I will say I have done the same thing with cheese toast- I peel the cheese off and leave the hard, bottom side of the crust. I just like the rest better. If you can make a deal with her- she eats her fruit and veggies, she can have 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, see how that works. The ultimate thing for her to know is that you decided what she gets and that you are the mom. She needs to obey your rules and eat what you provide for her to stay healthy.

Put the peanut butter on celery, apple slices or just on a spoon so you don't have to worry about her licking a plate or other delivery method. My Dad used to call them protein lolipops and send us out in the yard to eat them in case they got dropped... the family dogs were sure to help clean up any messes out there :)

Let her have it, it's not really going to hurt. I remember as a child we use to get a "peanut butter spoon" as a treat. Just a scoop of PB on a spoon and we ate it like ice cream. If she likes dipping it, you could try getting her to dip thinly sliced apples in it too. :)

She could certainly have worse food preferences!! Why don't you let her have the jar and a spoon for lunch, but not give her any at breakfast or dinner? She'll probably move on to something else, once she gets her fill of peanut butter. My 18 year old son used to eat it by the spoonful as a snack. I was happy with that-- more peanut butter meant less frozen burritos and sodas!

my son went through a phase like that for a few weeks. i eventually just let him have a small spoon's worth once a day and said "that's it". i wouldn't put it on bread, celery, apples, anything else. if he wanted just the peanut butter, that's what i gave him, but i dictated how much he got.

he eventually stopped asking for it and doesn't even notice it in the pantry anymore.

i agree. could be a lot worse. :oP

I wouldn't worry too much when my 7 year old boy was little he wanted to do that with butter and with sugar, but he grew out of it. At least peanut butter is good for you, my mom and step dad have a spoonful every morning with their cereal. As long as she is also eating other food then I wouldn't be too worried if she is not eating any other food then I would remove peanut butter from the house for a while until she gets used to also eating other food. Good Luck!

I don't have any recipes, but I just wanted to share that my oldest grandson was a peanut butter fanatic when he was little. I would give him just spoonfuls of peanut butter and he absolutely loved it. It waS by far his very favorite food!

Hi S.,

Your situation sounds all too familiar. I stopped forcing casseroles on my children because they couldn't identify all the ingredients and they preferred each food item to be clearly identifiable.

A few dollops of pb in a cup isn't so bad but if that's all she'll eat, then maybe eliminate it from her diet for a week or two until she learns to try some new things. You can always try almond butter and sunflower butter as alternatives with a higher nutritional value.

Jamie

My son loves PB too and used to do the same thing. Kids at that age have a thing about keeping their food items separate. Maybe put pb in a cup and let her spoon it out for the time being or try putting it on carrots. You can always put honey on the piece of bread and let her eat that separately. I promise you she'll grow out of it. Also, an alternative to pb is sunflower butter or almond butter (available at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods).

Jamie

Tell her she can have PB after she eats her meal like a dessert. Put PB on her plate with apple slices for a snack or desert. It is really tasty. You have to nip in it in the bud now or she will not learn to eat other foods.

You can make peanut butter balls by mixing some peanut butter with some dry milk powder and a little bit of honey then roll the balls in crushed corn flakes. I'm a major "peanut butterraholic" and I see nothing wrong with letting your 3 yr old eat the stuff to her hearts content!

I say give her the PB and a spoon.

Okay, I really want to say that you should giver her her own jar and let her eat until she doesn't want it anymore. Of course, there is the germ issue, so give her the jar and teach her how to scoop some on to her plate/bowl.

Let her eat PB.
S

I agree with letting her eat it alone. Put some on a plate or in a small bowl. Like any food, you can limit the quantities, but I don't see any reason to insist she dip or spread it on something else.

I'm a peanut butter lover, as is my daughter. The thing to worry about is choking. Peanut butter is very sticky and large dollops can get stuck and cause a choking hazard. It's on the top 10 food choking hazard lists for kids.

My solution when my daughter was your age was to dip a large spoon into a bowl of peanut butter so it was fully covered with thinner coat and let her lick away, rather than give her a spoonful to "eat". Takes longer since you have to do it repeatedly until she's sated, but you reduce the choking potential.

There isn't any way you are going to keep her from licking it off the other food other than making her Peanut Butter Cookies. I would just let her eat the Peanut Butter alone. Don't waste the bread/ tortillas.
A spoon may not be as messy, but if she has to eat it with a finger, at least she won't get too much in her mouth and choke, which would be my only concern. It sounds like you have a Peanut Butter eating pro so I wouldn't worry too much, just keep an eye on her.

Hi- Nothing wrong with letting here eat just the peanut butter. PLEASE serve her only the real thing. As other posters have noted what passes for peanut butter (as well as a million other products in American supermarkets) is poison to the human body. Ingredient list is very short, peanuts. Good luck!

Why not just let her eat it? My daughter ate at least 3 tablespoons of straight almond butter today. It is loaded with good fats, protein, fiber and vitamins and minerals. I am a nutritionist and I think it is just fine. They need good healthy fats to support their developing nervous system. I don't think peanut butter is as healthy as other nut butters, however if it is all natural and does not contain sugar or hydrogenated oils and if it is ideally organic then it is a healthy food. I do also give my daughter pecan butter and cashew butter for variety, which she likes but not as much as almond butter.

It can be licked off almost anything it is put on top of,because of the consistency---you could use it IN things like PB cookies.
But, honestly, if she is so obsessed with it, to the detriment of her eating habits, maybe you should just not buy peanut butter for a while. I think that is what I would do.

I agree you should let her have a small spoonful on her plate with a variety of other things just so she has the choices AND her beloved peanutbutter. Be careful not to give her too much all at once since it is very gooey and young kids can gag and choke on it when given too much. It is good for her, but she will need other stuff too so offer other things along with it. Arent kids goofy sometimes? (o:

My kids love peanut butter too. I think most kids do. I just give them a spoon with peanut butter on it. Sometimes I'll mix it with honey. That's all.

I'm more worried about the tortillas and bread. Peanut butter is far healthier than either of those. For now, let her lick away at the jar and give her healthy options like apples, bananas, and celery to pair with it.

I did the same when I was young, and to this day I finish a jar of peanut butter a week without ever looking at a peice of bread. It's great for her growing body. Keep her active, and she'll be great.

My 3 yr old son still scrapes the peanut butter out of his sandwich half of the time. I don't worry about it. Your daughter is getting the protein she needs from it. Just be sure she eats other things at the meal (cheese, fruit etc., etc.) along with her spoon or small bowl of peanut butter. If she refuses to eat other things and insists on only peanut butter, then there may be a problem. Some kids prefer peanut butter on Ritz crackers too for some reason. Perhaps she'll even learn to be neat with the peanut butter since it's on a spoon and it will be way less messy than a sandwich! Try to worry about other things - this issue isn't worth any more worrying.

My first thought was, "That was me as a child!" Know why I wanted peanut butter on a spoon? I'm hypoglycemic and peanut butter always made me feel better when my blood sugar dropped. I figured that out years later when I learned about my condition. Does she get really fussy and/or shaky when she hasn't had food for a while? If so, that may explain her craving.

It may also just be a goofy kid thing. Our son is on a kick now where he'll only eat peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. It happens.