Can Babies Eat Peanuts? How to Introduce It Safely

• Pick a time when your baby is healthy, awake, and a little hungry, and when you can watch them for about two hours after.
• Make a safe form: smooth peanut butter thinned with warm water, breast milk, or formula, or peanut powder stirred into a familiar food like oatmeal, yogurt, or pureed fruit.
• Offer a small taste on the tip of a spoon and let your baby try it.
• If all is well after a few minutes, you can offer a bit more.
• Watch for about two hours. Possible signs include hives, redness, swelling, or vomiting. Any trouble breathing, swelling of the tongue or throat, repeated vomiting, or going pale or floppy is an emergency, call emergency services.

For the very first taste, a small amount is enough, and you do not need to hit any exact gram target. Once your baby has tolerated peanut, keeping it in the diet a few times a week helps maintain tolerance. If you want a specific amount or schedule, especially for a higher-risk baby, ask your pediatrician.

Dissolvable peanut puffs (like Bamba) melt in the mouth and are an easy first form for many families. Peanut powder stirs cleanly into foods your baby already likes, which makes the amount easy to control. Smooth peanut butter works too, as long as you thin it. Never give whole peanuts or thick sticky globs of peanut butter, since both are choking hazards.

Talk with your pediatrician before introducing peanut if your baby has severe eczema, a known egg allergy, or another known food allergy, as these babies are at higher risk for peanut allergy. Your pediatrician may recommend testing or introducing peanut in a monitored setting. This is a quick conversation, not a reason to skip peanut altogether.

One successful taste is a start, not the finish line. Offering peanut regularly, a few times a week, helps your baby's body stay used to it. Rotate the forms you already know are safe (thinned peanut butter, peanut powder in a favorite food, or dissolvable puffs) so it stays easy on busy days.

For most babies, around 6 months once they have started solids and handled a few first foods. Introducing peanut early and keeping it in the diet is associated with a much lower risk of peanut allergy.

Never give whole peanuts or thick spoonfuls of peanut butter. Thin smooth peanut butter with a little warm water, breast milk, or formula, or mix peanut powder into a food your baby already eats.

Once introduced without a reaction, keeping peanut in the diet regularly (a few times a week) is part of what helps maintain tolerance. Ask your pediatrician about the right routine for your baby.

Watch for about two hours. Possible signs include hives, redness, swelling, or vomiting. Any trouble breathing, swelling of the tongue or throat, repeated vomiting, or going pale or floppy is an emergency: call emergency services.

A thick glob of peanut butter is a choking hazard, so skip the spoonful and the sticky smear on toast for now. Thin smooth peanut butter with warm water, breast milk, or formula until it is easy to swallow, or stir peanut powder into a food your baby already eats.

It is easier to read your baby's reaction when they are well, so waiting until a fever, cold, or tummy bug has passed is reasonable. There is no need to delay for weeks, just pick a calm day when your baby is feeling like themselves.