What age can/should you introduce nuts to the diet

[linniewithsparklingxmasbaubles]

The title says it all realy
dd1 is 26mnts

According to my toddler recipe books, if there is no history of allergies, you could have introduced nuts at about 12 months (peanut butters and so on). You shouldn't give whole nuts to children under 5 due to the risk of choking.

No there is no history of allergies and I continued eating nuts during pregnancy....oh yum I have an excuse to have peanut butter in the house again.

Bang goes my diet

ds is coming up to 20 months and has had ground almonds, pine-nuts and hazelnut butter without any problems. No history of allergies in the family. I'm not sure if peanuts should be given this young though (I'm sure I read somewhere a while ago that they have more allergen potential than other nuts) - so I'll probably wait a while to introduce those. Though I'd be interested to know if anyone has given peanut butter so young without problems?

Speaking as someone with a nut allergy that suddenly developed out of the blue three years ago, I would be wary of introducing nuts for as long as possible.

There are hidden nuts in many everyday items that you can't avoid anyway (shampoo, vegetable oil, toothpaste, most margarines, even the wax that is put on fruit such as apples, etc). Sesame seeds should also be avoided as they contain the same allergen and even walking can be a hazard - we walk in the local woods but have to avoid certain areas because some wild flowers, such as lupins, etc also have the allergen.

So you can't necessarily avoid everything - unless you're going to become a nut allergy expert.

P.S. There is also no history of allergies in our families on either side - I have discovered that a 'history' is not a factor in nut allergies.

not wishing to be dismissive of the history factor not being important, but I gave peanut butter to both mine at 12 months and never checked for nuts in any thing not overtly nuttly as MIL tells me that nut allergy is unheard of in Chinese families.

May have been silly but it seemed to make sense to me.

hey suzywong, i agree. i understand being concerned about potential nut allergies, but it's unheard of among asians.i wonder why. is there a genetic predisposition towards nut allergies?

I think there must be, my MIL thougth I was bonkers when I refused peanuts when pg with ds1.

Did you know Asians don't get cradle cap either?

ooh i didn't know that!! no wonder my dd never got any! but my bil's daughter did get cradle cap, her mum's portugese.

peanuts are different to other nuts in that they are "ground nuts" grow in/on ground unlike other nuts which usually grow on trees. so come from a different family of plant. Some peanut allergy people can have other nuts. Personally I'm avoiding peanuts as my dd (4mths bf) has sensitive rashy skin and the thought of anaphylaxis is a bit scary. Nephew has peanut allergy and lots of others as well, his Mum is a walking list of allergies. As your dd is 26 mths she probably has had traces of peanuts in foods ie chocolate, biscuits so will be safe to have.

i must admit my daughter has eaten all forms of nuts since probably two years old(whole ones but broken up)but had nut butters from a year old, she adores all nuts, especially cashews and pecans although pine nuts are also a firm favorite , her father is meditteranean and they eat lots of nuts so its anormal diet for her.

No history of allergies in our families and we discovered DS1 had nut allergy (the whole dang lot) at 18 mths ... simply through licking a fork with coffee cake on it (must've been walnuts). Apparently current recommendation is avoiding all nuts til 3 years.

The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology recommends that nuts (except peanuts) should not be introduced before 2 - 3 years.

Peanuts should only be introduced after 3 years. Please see kellymom.com under the section "solids" which gives a very detailed chart of when to introduce which foods.

On a slight tangent - re nut allergies later in life ...

joashiningstar - do you know how it is that nut allergies develop in later life? Can it be avoided by reducing exposure to nuts? And is it possible to develop anaphylactic reactions later in life?

I have a (non-anaphylactic, but very unpleasant) walnut and pecan allergy, so am being very careful with all nuts with my now 2.4 year old dd. But I also know someone who developed an allergy to walnuts as a teenager, having been fine eating them as a child. I actually au-paired for her family and they used walnut oil as a salad dressing, so I had to have my own nut-free version. But their daughter used to eat this, and now has the same allergy as me.