When is it okay to introduce your kids to nuts?

[MrsThierryHenry]

Bearing in mind the new studies showing that eating nuts is generally okay during pregnancy, I'm wondering whether it's okay to give my DS (11months) a little smooth peanut butter once in a blue moon. He can't choke on it in this form, but I don't know whether it will help or hinder his ability to enjoy nuts for the rest of his life.

Bloody hell, don't we complicate things in this country?!

I don't know but I'm bumping for you as people look at me like I'm mad when I won't let DD (2.1) have nuts.

I ate peanut butter all the way through my pregnancies, The cafe had it waiting for me in the morning

My DS 12 is allergic to peanuts , although his last rast test was clear. He is still allergic to all treenut and several seeds, and quite a few other things. So I would be wary of the new research.

DD has no allergies we know of .

i gave ds peanut butter at about 9m but we have no history of nut allergies in our family.

I'm sure the last lot of research I knew about was something ridiculous like 3 years or something.
This was when I had dd anyway.

I give my ds the odd bit of nut stuff here and there and no problems so far. He's 14 months and probably started around 10 months ish.

Thanks all, I'll give it some thought. My DH and I are both atopic so maybe it's best to steer clear for a while, although I'll start eating peanuts again from time to time.

If you both are atopic avoid at least until he is 3 yrs old.

The new studies have just shown preliminary results, which are not conclusive yet. The study has not been carried out for long enough to determine that late introduction was the problem.

For what is worth, both exH and I come from a countries where the advise to avoid nuts is unexistant and severe allergies are very rare. I ate a couple of snickers bars during pregnancy (someway I was sure that due to our genetical background DS would not be in the high risk group). I was wrong, he developed his first reaction to peanuts being 2 yrs old (I was very very careful with nuts as he had some other allergies). He is now so sensitive to them that he reacts by skin contact.

Obviously, there are many other children who can be weaned on peanut butter but if you have a family history of allergies I would wait at least until DS is older. The gut of a baby is not really prepared to brake efficiently nut protein.

I think with all things parenting it's your call. We waited until ds1 was 3 and he had an anaphylactic reaction on the spot. We have no known history of nut allergy in the family. I think in retrospect he had probably been exposed to traces before then as he came home from day care on a few occasions covered in hives after 'parties', I put it down to the face paint and asked them not to use it on him but knowing what I do now it was more likely to be marzipan (almonds) or something similar. I am glad we didn't give him nuts earlier, the reaction was scary enough in a 3 year old but any younger and I would have freaked completely.

I recently read an article in New Scientist that asserted that it is impossible to totally avoid nut traces these days, with factory contamination etc. and that might explain why even children whose parents have assiduously avoided nuts until late can still develop problems. It went on to suggest that in some of these cases perhaps the opposite (nut exposure early and often) would actually be beneficial. I'm a little atopic too so have been avoiding with dd (11 months) and did during pregnancy (except for that HUGE peanut butter blowout I had towards the end when I couldn't bear it any longer !), so this made me rethink, but I'm still quite wary.

Unfortunately I think the scientific jury is still well out on this one so we're kind of on our own.