Peanut butter - yay or nay?

[emeraldgirl1]

Neither DH nor I are allergic - in fact we are peanut butter addicts - but my dad and sister are both allergic to peanuts (not scarily so, but puffy lips, scratchy eyes etc). No peanut allergy on DH's side at all.

Should we avoid peanut butter with DD (7.5m) or try a little bit and see how it goes?

Not sure what the advice is these days, it's all unclear! Some people seem to say better to have peanuts to avoid allergies later, some say avoid them for the first year.

Obviously peanut butter is quite high in salt (I think?) so couldn't give much of it anyway... but DD is proving to love quite strong flavours (strong cheese, fig, mango etc) so was thinking she might enjoy a bit of peanut butter to muck about with.

I believe the guidance is wait until they're a year old if there is a family history of allery to nuts. Which is rather vague! As it doesn't stimulate how 'close' to the child that family member has to be.

My thinking is that if they're going to be allergic they're just as likely to have a reaction at 1 year of age as they are at 7 months of age. So I would probably try it, but then I'm not a very cautious person & my ds has had loads of different foods.

He had peanut butter at 6 months & liked it (I'm an addict too; in fact might have to go & have spoonful after typing this!), but we don't have a history of allergies.

www.food.gov.uk/policy-advice/allergyintol/peanutspregnancy#.UmLpIvmTiSo

The only thing I have heard that ma be useful is that a reaction tends to show up the second time you give an allergenic food, not necessarily the first time.

Will try and find a proper evidence based link for you.

have a look at this and maybe you can get in touch for advice
FWIW both my DS 18 and DH have tree nut allergies and DS was allergic to peanuts for a while, but DD 16 has never shown any signs of allergies at all.