Thoughts On Peanut Butter...

[SnuggleBuggles]

I did that till he was pretty much 3 on the dot for most things. Sometimes I will still cut up a hotdog (ds is almost 5). :) I have friends that feed their 18mo baby carrots. Makes me crazy!

I really didn't worry about pb as a choking hazard though. Some is less sticky, imo. I think of Jif as really sticky and mouth filling but I don't have the same experience with the fresh made pb at the natural food store or Whole Foods.

Beth

[Moneypenny]

DD is 2.5 and we haven't introduced it yet, even though our ped okayed it at 1 year, we have no family history of allergies, and I've been eating nuts and nut butter since I was pregnant and am still nursing her. I have a pb sandwich for my lunch today, in fact! I'm not sure why we are waiting until 3 to give it to her outright, but that's the decision we made so I'm sticking to it, lol!

Susan
mama to my cutie pie, Avery
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[Piglet]

We introduced PB pretty early by current guidelines (right around 1 year for DS1 and about 15 months for DS2). Fortunately we have no family history of allergies on either side. The interesting thing is that I was born in Russia and peanuts were scarce when I was a kid. My mom told me that I didn't have peanuts until I was 4 (when we moved to Canada) and probably didn't try PB until closer to age 5-6. I couldn't stand peanut butter until I was in college, although I LOVE peanuts. Now I like it fine. I am not sure if that had something to do with the late introduction. I am torn on when to intro peanuts this time around. On the one hand, it went fine for both kids on the older guidelines, but on the other hand now that I know more, I can make better decisions!? I just don't know! I will say that it gets harder as you have more kids, because we have 2 little PB&J lovers in the house right now. It would be hard to keep their snacks away from the baby.

[writermama]

Since you have a food allergy, even though it isn't a peanut allergy, I would be cautious. I'd make an appointment with a pediatric allergist, read a bunch beforehand, and go discuss when to introduce and how with the doc.

I don't have food allergies, but I do have a potentially life-threatening bee sting allergy, so my kids inherit my "allergic genes" and may be more likely to develop food allergy problems.

With DD #1, I wanted to wait until she was 3, but DH got it into his head that he just didn't want to wait that long, so we had her tested (scratch test) when she was 2 and a half. The allergist tested for all of the usual suspects (including tree nuts, seafood, etc.) and she showed no sensitivities. He offered us the choice of doing a challenge in the office or just going home -- since the tests gave us no indication we needed to worry, we decided to just go home. After all that fuss, DD wasn't impressed with peanut butter. She likes it now, but I don't keep any in the house (to keep it away from DD#2). She really LOVES cashew butter, though.

I don't think delaying a food makes a child more or less likely to like it, so I wouldn't rush into it for that reason if you're not otherwise ready. I know my mom tried to get me to eat bean sprouts for my entire childhood and I only developed a taste for them recently. And if peanut butter isn't a hit when you do try it, there are other options that may work including: almond butter, cashew butter, sesame butter, sunflower butter, and soy. Hummos is also protein-rich and spreadable.

As far as what is causing the rise in food allergies, I'm not convinced that increased caution by parents (i.e. delaying introduction) is a likely cause.

Allergies and other autoimmune disorders might be caused by something as simple as "too early" or "too late" an introduction to the substance, but that really seems too simplistic (in my mildly informed opinion). Children's bodies today carry a heavier load of environmental pollutants than kids of the past, and any or many of these might contribute. I've heard the "too clean" theories that say kids immune systems overreact to allergens because they don't get dirty enough, or exposed to enough diseases, or the artificial immunity conferred by shots leaves immune systems over primed to fight off diseases so they go after allergens (out of boredom, perhaps?). Nobody knows.

There are parts of the world where they eat peanuts more than we do and parts of the world where they almost never eat peanuts -- neither seem to have this problem. As an armchair theorist, my money is on the theory that a rise of something else is irritating immune systems and that allergies and other autoimmune illnesses are the result, but that's just my guess.

Sorry for the rant. I worry about this a lot. To me, caution in the face of so many unknowns makes sense, but your mommy instincts may be different. Go with them, whatever they may be.

[Radosti]

I too was born in Russia and didn't move here until 13 years old. I had all sorts of nuts growing up, but I don't think I had peanuts until I was older because they were hard to find. I did fine with almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts and such. I tried peanut butter for the first time when I was 13 and my first thought was "Why would someone take perfectly good peanuts and make this nasty paste out of them???" It was sticky and gross.

I tried it again in college and whether it was a late night coupled with a lack of any other food around, I liked it. However, I can only eat it with Smuckers Strawberry or Raspberry Preserves. DH, who is American, and until he met me had ever only eaten it with grape jelly, will now only eat it with Smuckers Raspberry preserves.

I eat PB so often and DS still nurses that I had decided he had been exposed to it in my BM quite a bit. He seems to have been doing fine with it.