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Strollerderby
My Kids Live On Peanut Butter
Is peanut butter dangerous?
There’s a major peanut butter recall going on, with Skippy peanut butter being recalled in 16 states due to salmonella contamination.
The Skippy recall doesn’t really faze our household. My kids eat hippie peanut butter; the kind you get from mashing up peanuts and maybe adding a little salt. I feel for the Skippy-munching families who are having to toss their peanut butter, though. Try taking my kids’ precious peanut butter away and it gets ugly around here.
Which is awkward, given the prevalence of “nut-free” spaces we visit. Peanut butter has become a kind of forbidden fruit, and I’ve gotten hairy eyeballs from moms just for bringing a PB&J to an outdoor playground.
For my vegetarian family, peanut butter is a staple. PB&J is a fast, cheap and easy answer to lunch, one my kids always greet with a smile. It’s healthy enough to make me happy, and simple enough that my six-yearold can make her own. In a lot of ways, it’s the perfect lunch. When it’s allowed.
Other nut butters don’t quite cut it. We’ve tried SunButter and soy butter and the rest for my daughter’s nut-free school. Nothing beats the peanut when it comes to nut butter.
So. We’re peanut pirates, sailing the high seas of social disapproval and carting our peanut butter sandwiches along wherever they’re not actually forbidden.
We’re lucky not to have any major food allergies, and to be able to indulge in all our nutty snacks. A few of our close friends have peanut-allergic children, and it’s a constant source of stress and fear for them.I can only imagine what they go through.
It’s possible the fears for the rest of us are overblown, though. While peanut allergies have increased dramatically in recent years, they’re still fairly rare. About 25% of kids with a peanut allergy outgrow it. Overall, the rate of allergy is about 1% of the population. Your kid has more to worry about from drowning than from dying of a peanut allergy.
Some doctors now recommend waiting until your child is one or even two years old before letting them try peanut butter. Others say there’s no point in waiting, and that exposure to a lot of different foods early on may help prevent allergies.
What’s a parent to do? In our case, we’re just taking it easy and trying to keep our grubby peanut butter covered fingers off anyone with a peanut allergy.
Photo: spcbrass
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5 Comments
goddess commented on Mar 07 11 at 2:15 pmOh total peanut-holics over here. FI one of my kids was allergic, I’m just not sure how I’d manage myself- I LOVE peanut butter- ate is daily through all 4 pregnancies.
Thank the goddess my kids’ schools may ban peanut products in the rooms where certain kids are allergic, but NOT in the lunchroom. Otherwise, there’s plenty days I’d have to haul them home for lunch! And Jif better keep it’s jars and facilities clean!
LogicalMama commented on Mar 07 11 at 3:07 pmWe’ve got nut and seed allergies here but can eat peanuts (they are a legume) so we confuse people all the time… but peanuts are cool with us!
ChiLaura commented on Mar 07 11 at 4:30 pmMy eldest son has a peanut allergy, though, thank God, not severe. I might be tempted to give you the ol’ hairy eyeball if we saw you at a playground, since if your kids touched something, and then my son did, he’d end up with a nasty case of hives (like I said, not severe). Actually, I’d probably either leave, or politely ask you to make sure that your kids were all washed up before they headed back to the equipment — much better, right? =) Because his allergy is fairly mild, I’m not in panic mode when we go out, but I really, REALLY feel for those parents whose child would seriously stop breathing at touching peanut-contaminated surfaces. That’s got to be rough.
Meagan commented on Mar 07 11 at 6:14 pmHave you tried walnut butter? To me it tastes much closer to peanutbutter than other alternatives I’ve tried.
Linda, the original one commented on Mar 07 11 at 7:16 pm“We’ve tried SunButter and soy butter and the rest for my daughter’s nut-free school.” How would walnut butter be a nut free alternative? Read.
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