substitutes for peanut butter

[melsy]

I know its probably been asked , but Im surprised there arn't more on the market here in this country, what with allergies and pregnancy. Usa seems to have loads. Anyone found anything apart from hummmous , one is getting a bit fed up with it!!!! Dh and dd had loads on toast this morning and it was hard not to just shove it in!!! I cant though as have serious excema in family.

are you off all nuts then melsy? if not, you can get cashew nut butter?

I seem to have managed to live a life without peanut butter and not even given it another thought (are you American?).

There's jam, marmalade, pate, philadelphia, other cheese spreads, taramousalata etc.

or even taramosalata (my spelling has gone to pot!)

tahini?

cottage cheese

mushroom pate
smoked makcerel pate..can make these two by whizzing up with cottage cheese in fact can make lots of spreads in that way

tapenade

Theres no nut allergys in our family so Ive been eating other ones. OOh I was wondering about cashew butter wondering were I can find it?

No not American fox, just familiar with some of their products. I eat most of those on your list too fox, but its the smell here in the morning that gets me!!!

what's this? I have been shovelling peanut butter in willynilly! Oh no, I have eczema in my family!

yes love tapenade YUM YUM , tahini YUCH only as sauce with lemon juice etc !! Its just that savoury sweet thing with pb though isnt it in the morning.

Holland and Barrett do it, Melsy.

Cashew butter is lovely, although not crunchy like peanut butter. Try Holland and Barrett or any other health food shop. They have hazel and other sorts too. I decided to avoid peanuts too and miss it so I can sympathise.

Me too! I miss peanut butter so much and was in a breakfast crisis until I discoverd cream cheese. I used to eat it sometimes, but now I can't get enough of the stuff. And all good protein too. But, still there's nothing like hot buttered toast with peanut butter. And Reese's peanut butter cups!

Can't even look forward to eating peanuts again after I have baby, will have to wait until I finish breastfeeding, but then...am I going to have a peanut butter party!!!

Not sure why you've given up specifically peanut butter. The general advice is that if you have an allergy avoid nuts whilst pregnant. I know plenty of people that don't subscribe to that theory though. I have loads of allergies, grass, animal hair, dust mite etc and avoided all nuts. Just curious why specifically peanuts?

Nutella

That is made from Hazelnuts.

The only risk is allergy. And I'm not even sure how substantiated that risk is.

Hmm, a websearch seems to indicate that this is reasonably substantiated, or at least popular. But just for peanuts, not other nuts. \link{http://www.babycentre.co.uk/expert/536445.html\Cite}.

I had NO idea about this. Ate p butter all the way through pregnancy with dd and am currently doing it with this one too. You learn something new everyday don't you?

I lived on PB throughout both pregnancies. I'm Canadian, giving up PB would be like giving up tea or marmite or whatever gross thing you all are hooked on.

NQC - that was fascinating. I do have a recently discovered allergy to brazil nuts therefore can't eat anything but had thought this was general advice given to all pregnant women.

To be honest the amount known about allergies and why they occur is not enough to be conclusive. Since discovering my nut allergy and suffering anaphylaxtic shock I am extremely nervous about the whole thing and would dread passing it onto my children. I looked up what they said on their website
\link{http://www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/health_professionals/print_midwives_visitors.html\anayphalxis advice} and they're definitely saying ALL nuts (remember that peanuts are not strictly speaking part of the nut family - they're closer to peas than to nuts) but remember also that they are talking to people who have food allergies.

I'm really torn about this one. On the one hand my own experience leads me to believe that pregnant women with a history of allergies in their familly eating nuts through their pregnancy are plain stupid. Whilst on the other I fully accept that ultimately you can develop an allergy to pretty much anything. My youngest daughter looks like she's developing an allergy to tomatos. I haven't given up tomatos during this pregnancy. .

Personally given the strength of reaction to nuts that a child could have I've decided to err on the side of caution. heck what's nine months in the scale of things. But can understand why some mums feel that I might be being stupid.

I think I did mention wills that it was due to excema and not allergies in the family. I was just told the concern was with peanuts for some reason and also sesame seeds. Im not really sure why excema and nuts are linked , havent researched why that could be a trigger , as there are many foods that can trigger it. As yet we dont seem to have any serious food allergies. I have been eating other nuts,(pistachios, cashews etc), as they are quite a big part of my diet and did with dd. She did have nasty excema though on her face for her 1st year , but I feel that may have been a genetic predisposition and not my part in eating other nuts.

Agreed, completely. Especially to the genetic predisposition. Have just read something on the bbc and it concurs with NQC's avoid peanuts. It also goes on about certain fish and that its ok to have the occassional glass of what (although it doesn't list what occassional is). However to get back to your original question. I started on creme cheese. Am missing my seasme seed bagels with peanut butter terribly but am getting by with creme cheese. I had heard that there is a replacement nut free peanut like butter but I've looked in every single supermarket for the last few years and have never seen one. If it weren't for my own brazil nut allergy I'd move onto the cashew stuff.

What about crunchy nut cornflakes? I've been craving them but have so far resisted! Would you guys avoid them?

Weird isnt it how we can have random allergies and brazil nuts are one of those amazing power foods. So does that mean you dont eat ANY nuts at all wills??? Its really a mare with the nuts as SO much has either got some in or made in a factory with them.

The cashew butters not bad , its just not got the sweetness that peanut butter does. I might try a little honey on it to !! Ive got hold of some boursin for a nice stinky start to the day !!

Now Im gonna sound crazily nuancy compo, but I find those cereals just to super super sweet for morning food !!!