Peanut Butter

[DaddyCool]

I eat peanut butter by the tonne. DS (18mths) has had peanut butter in small amounts and is quite keen on it but what exactly are the harmful affects of it?

I know obviously that if you're allergic to it, it can kill you quite quickly but he's obviously not allergic to it. I heard that allergies can develop if too much is eaten at an early age and that, as a parent, if you eat high volumes of it, it raises the likelihood that your kids will be allergic too (yet to be born I mean!)

[Cadbury]

Hi Daddy cool. No idea about the allergy thing I'm afraid. I do know that as soon as I got pg with dd, I went right off it (having been on a jar a week previously) but didn't with ds. I still love it now, and if it wasn't for the fat content, would eat it every day if I could. Are you a crunchie or smooth person?

[amynnixmum]

Ds is now 4 1/2 and the advice hv gave me when i was weaning him is that food made from peanuts is best left until they are 5. Might have changed since then though.

[amynnixmum]

Its got to be crunchy. Love it spread straight onto toast.

[DaddyCool]

I'm a smooth kind of guy.

This is very sad but I get it shipped over from North America by relatives because I think it tastes better over there (JIF or KRAFT)

[skerriesmum]

What?! I hope that's not true, ds is 2 and loves peanut butter, it's a great handy sandwich filling! Good for kids too, lots of protein. If they're not allergic when they first try it then I'm sure they're not going to develop allergies to it later. By that logic they shouldn't have milk, yeast or soy either, common allergens. I hate all this food hype!

[SoupDragon]

[SoupDragon]

If they're not allergic to it when the try it for the second time, they may not be allegic to it. Sadly, allergies can develop at any time though.

[amynnixmum]

I agree with you skerriesmum - when you think of all the things our mum's fed us that we are now told could be harmful its amazing we made it to adulthood.

[DaddyCool]

It's wierd you know. You'll read one place that you shouldn't give them any and then another place that says it's ok to give them PB after one year.

The best is peanut butter spread onto a lightly buttered, toasted bagel. I'm sure SoupDragon will agree...not.

[SoupDragon]

pass the paper bag...

I think a lot of it depends whether you are, in general, an "allergic" family. If there are things like hayfever, pet allergies, eczema etc then common allergins are best avoided for longer.

[hoxtonchick]

my ds is almost 3 & has peanut butter on toast most mornings. loves it. strictly crunchy in this house though (& no added sugar). i eat it too, & am pregnant. we don't have any allergies at all in our family, so i was careful when he first tried it but relaxed after that.

[weightwatchingwaterwitch]

Daddycool, I gave my ds peanut butter at quite a young age, 2 IIRC. I know they say not before 5 because of allergies but there are none in our family and I decided the benefits made it worth trying if he wasn't allergic and liked it. He still has it in sandwiches for lunch most days, he's 7 now. So I'd carry on in your position, definitely.

[DaddyCool]

no added sugar, hoxtonchick! Does that not taste like wallpaper paste! (obviously not if ds eats it every morning).

My brother is violently allergic to bee stings and has very bad (and annoying!) hayfever saying that, DS has had PB 5 or 6 times so going by what SoupDragon says, chances are he's ok.

I agree with skerriesmum with the food thing. North Americans treat this as a staple food and some kids practically live off it.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Ours is no added sugar too - Waitrose organic. Very tasty. Not much added fat, either.

DS1 loves it, particularly on celery. I eat it with cream cheese.

From a health perspective - peanut butter is fairly high fat, but not too bad for you. It does have protein in it, at least. If it's got a lot of added palm oil, sugar or salt, that's not going to help.

I've read you're supposed to avoid it while pregnant, too. As if!

[Jbck]

I've got a lot of allergies & DH has asthma so we had to avoid all peanut things whilst I was pregnant (if I couldn't have it then neither could he!) Advice to us was not to give her peanut related products till she was at least 3. I only like PB on white bread & we really only eat wholemeal nowadays so I think I've had it once in the last 6 months. Love Satay tho' & had it accidentally in pregnancy 'cos I never really thought about the nut aspect D'oh!
PS friends sister developed peanut allergy at 40 & now carries an epi-pen everywhere so it can strike at any time. She had no history of allergies and had eaten peanuts all her life. Poor Soul imagine no nuts or PB.

[yoyo]

I'm sure that I read that Nigella Lawson tried her children with peanut butter sandwiches at her doctor's surgery just in case of a reaction.
I ate tons of it when pregnant with DD1 and she can't stand it, none at all in accordance with recommendations at the time with DD2 and she loves it. DS is 2 and hasn't had it yet.

[Ameriscot2005]

My kids love peanut butter - they used to eat it every day when we lived in the US. Now, it's almost everyday, and the only thing that trumps it is Nutella.

We buy Skippy, because that's what you can get in Costco; I'd rather buy Jif, because we have shares in it. I do believe that British peanut butter is slightly superior, healthwise, to American stuff - it is closer to plain old crushed peanuts, whereas the regular American peanut butter has lots of added sugar etc. You can get wholesome varieties of the normal brands in the States, but they aren't normally exported.

It's quite funny reading about peanut butter on American expat sites. There are those people who will import their Skippy and Jif from the US and there are those who have developed a taste for Sunpat and own brand - never the twain shall meet! But the moral superiority seems to lie with the British stuff, as hard as it is for them to admit, because of the fewer added ingredients.