At 15months, can DD now have peanut butter?

[hollyhobbie]

Am I still meant to be avoiding peanuts because of allergy risks? Or is it that at 15months peanuts now represent a choking hazard, in which case peanut butter would be ok?
TBH, I'm pretty sure she can't be allergic, I ate peanut butter throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding and I think she's occasionally had scraps of toast from DH that would have been near peanut butter?

I would just avoid it tbh.

There are plenty of other things she can have instead of peanut butter. Its not worth the risk IMO - the reaction to peanuts is usually quite severe. How much you had it in pg or b/feeding doesnt mean she wont be allergic to it.

My DD is allergic btw.

I didn't give DS peanut butter till last week .. he's 5.5 .. I didn't avoid it on purpose but really its not such a staple in our diet

DD still hasn't had at 2 .. and that's on purpose

I wouldn't introduce till older than 3 (if I was thinking about it I think)

It's not worth it - peanuts are not an essential food. Put something else on her toast. You can develop an allergy at any time - so not being allergic now isn't an indication of anything much.

Thank you all for your advice!
Peanut butter is an essential food for me.
There was a post on here a while ago about fingerfoods and someone suggested celery and peanut butter, which is what started me thinking about it in the first place.

I find celery quite a difficult food to eat because of the stringy bits .. you have to really make sure you de-string celery sticks before giving them to little ones

again not worth the faff

give them cucumber and carrot sticks and hummous instead

life is too short to de-string celery for a toddler

My dd had peanut butter from around 1 year as there are few food allergies/history of allergic diseases in the family. If you have none of the above it is considered ok to use peanut/other nut butters from the age of 6 months. It is only with a family history that you are advised to wait until 3 years before giving nuts/nut products. Whole nuts should be avoided until the age of 5 due to the possibility of choking on them:

From Babycentre:

The government's COT report (Committee on the Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment) recommends that women who have a family history of allergic disease (or who have a partner who does) may wish to avoid peanuts and peanut products while pregnant and breastfeeding to reduce the risk of their baby developing a peanut allergy. Allergic diseases include asthma, eczema, hay fever and food allergies. It also recommends that babies from families with a history of allergic disease stay on a peanut-free diet until the age of three years.

If you have a family history of allergic disease, you may also choose to exclude all nuts from your baby's diet, not just peanuts. The reason for this is that, if a child is allergic to peanuts, they may be allergic to some other nuts. This is because the proteins found in peanuts and other nuts have a very similar structure.

If you have no family history of allergic disease, these recommendations do not apply and peanuts can be included in both your own and your baby's diet. In fact, peanut butter can be a useful weaning food. It is highly nutritious, and a good source of protein, particularly for vegetarian and vegan babies.

If you are using nuts in your baby's or toddler's diet, do make sure they are ground or processed into small pieces, so that your baby can't choke on them. (Children under five should not be given any whole nuts because of the risk of choking.)

If you do not have a history of allergy in the family, you can give your baby ground nuts and nut spreads, including peanut butter, from six months.

Wow, Seona1973, thanks so much for that.

DD loves celery BTW, and I don't de-string it for her (lazy mum )

We don't have allergies in the family and both DH and I come from countries were peanut allergy is unheard of, I was so sure that DS was not going to have something like that, ever. Still I waited, he had a peanut accidentally at 25m, he didn't even swallow it and he came up with a reaction. Not worth the risk IMO, most likely your child will be fine, but it's a russian roulette... we were shot, and life has never been the same since then.

A family history is any parent, grandparent or auntie and uncle of the child having any allergies, or asthma, eczema or hayfever.

I don't know a single family who wouldn't have one of those among that group of people.