Am I the only who hasn't offered peanut butter?

My girls will be two in October and I have yet to give them peanut butter. Although, Natalie had a few bites of a peanut butter cookie a few months ago. My best friend's daughter has a peanut allergy and I know several others that do as well. It seems to be getting more common. I am so chicken, because I am petrified of a reaction. Now they have had oat nut bread for months, but no other nuts. I was told by my pediatrician to give them anything, but yet I still haven't offered peanut butter. Need to try, but afraid, especially since you can have it several times before having a reaction. Am I the only one?

TIA!

 

I hadn't... but did end up trying at 15 months... but they got loose stools immediately and then I didn't offer again. I then proceeded to offer milk which was worse... our month 15 wasn't any fun, and I'm trying to get back to normal... once I do, I think I will try peanut butter again. I haven't read up on it much, but I also don't want to not offer something and have the lack of it in their diet cause anything either.

I'll be interested what others say.

p.s. my sil thought I "surely would have already offered it" ... at 15 months... ugh! yet another think I didn't live up to her expectations!

 

I haven't yet either. I was just thinking about it a couple of days ago, but scared myself off again. I would love to offer it to them but I am scared of them having a reaction to it.

 

Our ped said "the current guideline" was to wait till age 3, but I wound up giving it to them at about 20 months. Our weekend routine involved going out for coffee & muffins, and it was just too inconvenient to keep worrying about nuts. If we had any reason to think they had food allergies, we would have waited longer, but we didn't.

FWIW -- they didn't like it and still don't. But at least we don't have to shy away from all packaged snack products (all of which "may contain peanut traces").

 

I think I waited until almost 18 months to offer peanut butter, but as someone else said, I had no reason to suspect they would have any allergies from it. Now it's part of their normal diet & they even ask for it sometimes! Good thing too b/c baby #3 sure loves peanut butter

 

We will be two in October and we haven't tried it yet. Unfortunately I got my DH very paranoid about the whole nut thing by worrying about one of the boys who may have possibly had a skin reaction to peanuts at 5 months. We live 45 minutes from the nearest hospital that I would trust with an allergic emergency so I don't feel comfortable doing it here. DH wants me to park them in the emergency waiting room to feed them peanuts (I figure we'd come home with a nasty case of swine flu )
My plan is to do it in the next month. We'll have an overnight at a friend's who lives 2 min. from the hospital. We'll do it with a bottle of Benadryl in one had and the car keys in the other.
I will be so relieved when this is all over and we at least know one way or the other.

 

I haven't given them peanut butter yet either. I keep saying I'm going to but haven't yet (they'll be 2 in February). I think one of them had a bite of a cookie when MIL was keeping them one weekend (MIL didn't give it to her, DH's grandmother did... that's a whole other post...). We have no history of allergies in either of our families so I don't think we have anything to worry about, just haven't tried it yet.

 

I didn't voluntarily give them peanut butter until 25 months. Last Christmas, I discovered my stepmom feeding DD a Reeses peanut butter cup and DS got into someone's stocking and stuck some cashews in his mouth. Neither had a reaction then. (They were 18 months.)

The first time I gave it to them, I let them eat the crust from a pb sandwich I made myself. A few days later, I let them take one bite from a pb sandwich. After seeing them have no reaction to those exposures, I now feel comfortable giving them pb sandwiches, cookies, etc.

 

I think my kids were 13 months, we have no food allergies in either side of our families, so I wasn't really concerned. They absolutely love peanut butter toast, and peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches.

 

I waited until 3 and did a skin test first. DH has several food allergies. They are fine with peanuts, as it turns out, but both are allergic to fresh peaches and DD2 cannot eat walnuts or pecans.

 

We have no food allergies in our family either, but neither do several of my friends whose children have peanut allergies. Peanut allergies are on the rise and I would love to know why. My 4 year old nephew had been eating peanut butter since he was 2, with no problem. Then recently he complained his tongue was itchy after eating a pb sandwich. My sister-in-law has since given it to him and he hasn't complained. Weird, you just never know.

I'll try the skin test first, with Benadryl in hand. I haven't been completely avoiding nuts and peanuts, just haven't given them the real thing directly.

 

same here.

i've heard it theorized (out in the ether) that it may be because we're delaying the introduction of nuts, etc so long. :unknw: but who knows - doctors pretend but i don't really believe they know either. :spy:

 

No peanuts here either and they will be 2 in October. My pedi told me to wait. They do eat Almond butter so I'm assuming they are ok with tree nuts. It's funny, I was worried about tree nuts since my brother has an allergy but he is ok with peanuts.

 

I did try peanut butter after they turned one. I had Benadryl and an Epi-Pen ready and they were both fine. It was after the 4th time that Ellie had a reaction. Red blotches around her face. She does have some food allergies. She is allergic to dairy, peanuts, eggs and certain fish. She can have almond butter, though. I'm hoping she can outgrown all of these allergies, but I'm not getting my hopes up for peanuts. I heard that is hard to grow out of. Allergies are no fun! I think the dairy allergy has to be the worst. She's missing out on all the fun stuff.

 

We don't have any food allergies here. I did not give my twins peanut butter until they were 2 years old. That is the new guideline our ped has.

 

This is what I've heard as well. Some of the newest research (confirmed by my pedi) actually suggests that delaying peanuts not only doesn't help prevent allergies but may also cause them to be more likely. Obviously, everything is still being researched and everyone needs to listen to their doctor. Just thought I'd throw that out there as a thought. Some researchers are starting to say delaying is bad actually. Of course, some still say delaying is good, and some are actually saying to delay longer, so it's a lot to wade through.

We have no history of food allergies aside from a shellfish allergy in my brother. We gave everything but PB and fish starting at 9 months, and gave PB at 13 months. The babies have had fish starting at 12 months, but we are holding off on shellfish until 2.

 

I've read this as well. Some studies corroborate this by pointing to Israel where supposedly the most common teething biscuit is made of peanuts, and they have a much lower incidence of peanut allergies than the US does.

So I'm paranoid either way. :crazy:

I'm sure my guys were exposed to peanuts while I was breastfeeding; I ate peanut butter almost every meal because it was filling, quick, and didn't spoil if left out! So I expect I had some on my hands while holding them. And they've had a few licks of ice cream that had peanut butter cups in it.

I've given them sunflower butter on toast, but I will probably be giving them a bit of real peanut butter in the next week or so. With my keys in my hand! :lol:

 

I haven't given it to them either. DS is allergic to wheat & corn, so I'm nervous about the peanut thing. Think I'll wait until 2 yrs at least.