Once your baby shifts to solid food, you could be thinking about including nuts in their diet. Nuts for babies can benefit their overall health by offering several essential nutrients and healthy fats. Besides, adding a few nuts to a preparation could enhance its texture and flavor. Nuts are one of the best-known natural food items that most people consume to boost their health and immunity. But, being a potential allergen, you may have a few safety concerns about giving nuts to your baby. Explore the health benefits and side effects of nuts for babies, along with the right age and ways to introduce nuts to your little one.
Is It Safe To Feed Nuts To Babies?
Nuts may usually be safe for babies when fed in age-appropriate ways. However, considering their allergenic nature, experts advise consulting a pediatrician before introducing nuts to babies. It is preeminent if the baby has other food allergies or has a family history of allergies (1). Some of the nuts you may give to babies are cashews, walnuts, almonds, hazelnut, pistachio, pecans, and peanuts.
When Should You Introduce Nuts To Babies?
In contrast to their previous recommendation, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends introducing potentially allergenic foods to babies between four and six months of age (2). According to experts, early introduction of possibly allergenic foods may help prevent food allergies (3). If you are unsure about feeding nuts to your babies from an early age, discuss your doubts with your healthcare provider.
Age-appropriate Ways To Introduce Nuts To Babies
Once you get the pediatrician’s approval, introduce nuts in age-appropriate ways. For young babies who have just started eating solids, choose feeding nuts as nut powder added to breast milk or formula or nuts flour used to make cakes or pancakes. Alternatively, you can feed nut puffs dissolved in different liquid foods, such as puree or breast milk. Once the baby adjusts to the nut’s taste and digestibility, you can feed them smooth nut butter spread over a bread slice or cracker. Avoid feeding nut butter globs, chopped nuts, and chunky nut butter since they are potential choking hazards (4).
Nutritional Benefits Of Nuts For Babies
Nuts contain nutrients that can facilitate the baby’s growth, development, and sustenance. Here are some benefits of adding different types of nuts to your baby’s diet.
- Nuts are energy-dense foods. One-fourth cup of almonds offers about 208kcal, while cashew and walnuts give 182kcal and 166kcal of energy, respectively (5). Optimum energy intake is essential to meet the rapid development needs of babies and toddlers.
- Nuts contain vital nutrients. Almonds, walnuts, and cashew contain healthy fats and nutrients, such as vitamin E, calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, and folate. These could support a baby’s physiological functions, such as brain and eye development, nerve transmission, and enzyme function (6) (7).
- Nuts offer healthy plant protein and fiber. Optimum protein intake is essential for the baby’s growth, hormone production, enzyme function, and cellular repair. Similarly, dietary fiber consumption is vital for healthy bowel movement and robust gut health. Research has shown that good gut health is essential for an effective immune system (8).
- Nuts have bioactive compounds such as carotenoids, polyphenols, flavonoids, and phenolic compounds. These phytochemicals possess antioxidant effects, which may improve one’s long-term health. Resveratrol is one such compound in pistachio that may hold immunomodulatory properties (9) (10). Besides, some nuts contain phytosterols that lower cholesterol and maintain heart health (11).
Precautions To Take While Feeding Nuts To Babies
Below are some necessary precautions to ensure nuts’ safe consumption in babies.
- Introduce nuts in age-appropriate ways in small amounts, such as one-fourth of a teaspoon to half a teaspoon, mixed in other foods that the baby consumes already.
- Maintain a “three-day wait” rule when introducing nuts to babies. Ensure you feed no new food during this period.
- Keep a close watch on signs and symptoms of discomfort or allergic reaction. If the baby looks uncomfortable after ingesting nuts, discontinue feeding immediately. After a week or more, reintroduce nuts to the baby’s diet. If the discomfort reappears or persists, consult a pediatrician.
- Gradually increase the quantity as the baby adjusts to the nuts’ taste and digestibility.
- Allergy to nuts is common so feed nuts to babies after consulting a pediatrician, especially if your baby is allergic to other foods or has a family history of tree nut allergies. Almond, cashew, hazelnut, pecan, pistachio, and walnut tend to cause allergies more commonly (12).
- Allergic reactions to tree nuts vary in severity from one baby to another. Some of the tree nut allergy symptoms you may notice during an allergy episode are hives, abdominal discomfort, nausea, nasal congestion or runny nose, difficulty swallowing, and itchy mouth and throat. In severe cases, shortness of breath could occur, leading to a potentially life-threatening condition called anaphylaxis (13).
- If your baby is allergic to a tree nut, they are highly likely to be allergic to other foods called nuts, such as peanuts, which are legumes. In such cases, you must avoid feeding all types of nuts to the baby (13). Additionally, you also need to avoid other nut products, such as nut oils, nut milk-based food products, and foods that may get cross-contaminated with nuts during processing and manufacturing processes.
- If the baby doesn’t have a nut allergy, you may try several exciting ways to add nuts to your baby’s or toddler’s diet. For instance, you can add the nuts powder to your baby’s soup or porridge or make nuts flour bread.
- You can add finely chopped nuts to yogurt or salads for toddlers. Avoid feeding whole nuts to children younger than five years of age (14).
- Nut milk, such as almond milk, is another option that you may try as part of different baby-friendly recipes for your baby.
Healthy And Tasty Nut Recipes For Babies
Here are some tasty and easy-to-prepare nut recipes that you can feed to your baby with relative ease.
1. Steamed apple and walnut mash (6 months)
You will need:
½ apple (de-skinned and steamed) ½ tsp walnut (steamed) Breast milk or formula (optional)
How to prepare:
2. Almond and strawberry oatmeal (8 months)
You will need:
1½ cup water ½ cup steel-cut oats ¼ cup strawberry (pureed) 1tsp almond powder ½ tsp jaggery powder
How to prepare:
3. Peanut butter and jam sandwich (10 months)
You will need:
2 bread slices (corners removed) 1tbsp pineapple jam (or any other jam of your choice) 1tbsp smooth peanut butter
How to prepare:
4. Mango and banana nutty smoothie bowl (12 months)
You will need:
1 cup almond milk ½ cup frozen mango ½ cup frozen banana 1tsp cashew and walnut powder
How to prepare:
