When can babies have peanut butter?
Safe — From the start of weaning, around 6 months. Smooth only, spread thinly or thinned into food. Never on its own; no whole nuts before 4 or 5 years
From the start of weaning, usually around 6 months. Peanut is one of the two foods where delayed introduction is now thought to raise allergy risk rather than lower it. Serve it thinned or spread thinly on toast, never as a spoonful or a blob, and keep it in the diet weekly.
The verdict
Yes, from the time you start weaning, which is usually around 6 months. Peanut butter is not a food to hold back, and every authority on this page says so in similar words.
The NHS states that you can give your baby nut butter, such as peanut butter, from the time you start weaning, as long as you spread it onto a food such as toast, and adds the crucial caveat: do not give nut butter on its own as your child could choke on it. Ireland's HSE says it is important to introduce peanuts to your baby in the early stages of weaning, and that this can help to prevent a peanut allergy.
This page is about introducing peanut as an allergen and how to serve it. Whole nuts are a different question with a different answer, and they stay off the menu for years.
The advice that reversed, and when
For roughly two decades, parents in several countries were told to delay peanut, especially in families with a history of allergy. That position has been withdrawn and replaced with close to its opposite.
The NHS now states that evidence has shown that delaying the introduction of peanut and hen's eggs beyond 6 to 12 months may increase the risk of developing an allergy to these foods. ASCIA, whose guidance was updated in 2026, says delayed introduction of egg and peanut has been shown to increase the chance of babies developing an allergy to these foods, and that smooth peanut butter, paste, powder or finely ground peanut should be included in a baby's diet soon after they have started solid foods.
The AAP's allergy specialists describe the history directly: for many years experts thought the best way to fight peanut allergy was to avoid peanut products in the first years of life, and newer research found no benefit to delaying the introduction of allergenic foods. They point to a 2015 trial in infants at high risk, defined as those with severe eczema or egg allergy, in which early peanut introduction with continued regular servings prevented peanut allergy, and to follow-up work showing the protection lasted.
The Canadian Paediatric Society puts it in one line: waiting until after 6 months to try to prevent an allergy is not recommended.
Higher-risk babies
Babies with severe or persistent eczema, or who have already reacted to a food, are the group where the advice is to get a plan rather than to start at home. The AAP says these babies are considered high risk for peanut allergy and that parents should talk with their paediatrician first. The Canadian Paediatric Society says that a baby at high risk, meaning one with eczema or a parent or sibling with an allergic condition, can start after 4 months but not sooner, and to talk to a doctor if unsure. ASCIA's position is that all babies, including those with eczema, another food allergy or a family history, should be given peanut in the first year.
How to serve peanut butter safely
This is where peanut butter earns its reputation, and the rule is consistent everywhere: never a spoonful, never a blob.
The NHS instruction is to only use nut butters as a spread or in other cooking, for example in curries or swirled into porridge, and not to give peanut butter to babies and young children by itself. Its foods-to-avoid list names peanut butter by itself as a choking hazard alongside popcorn, jelly cubes, marshmallows and boiled sweets.
The AAP lists thick chunks of peanut butter or other nut butters among choking hazards, with the parenthetical instruction to be sure to spread thinly instead. HealthLink BC explains why in a sentence worth remembering: a chunk of nut or seed butter can form a plug that can block the child's airway. New Zealand's Ministry of Health classes thick pastes such as nut or seed butter as a choking risk because they can fit to the shape of a child's airway or stick to the side of it, and instructs that smooth thick pastes be used sparingly, spread thinly and evenly onto bread.
The Canadian Paediatric Society adds a refinement: spread sticky foods like nut butters thinly on a cracker or toast rather than bread, because toast and crackers hold a thin layer where soft bread absorbs it into a gummy mass.
Thinning it for a young baby
For a baby who is not yet on finger foods, the practical method every authority describes is dilution. The AAP suggests mixing and thinning out a small amount of peanut butter in cereal, pureed fruit or yogurt, or dissolving peanut butter in breast milk or formula and feeding it by spoon. HealthLink BC recommends smooth peanut, tree nut and seed butters blended with an equal amount of warm water and stirred into iron-fortified infant cereal. The Canadian Paediatric Society suggests mixing a bit of peanut butter with water, breast milk, or a puree the baby has had before.
ASCIA's method for a first introduction is to mix a quarter of a teaspoon of smooth peanut butter or paste into the baby's usual food, then gradually increase, doubling the amount at later meals if there is no reaction, up to a normal serve for their age.
Smooth only, and never whole nuts
Use smooth peanut butter, not crunchy. The pieces in crunchy peanut butter are exactly the hard fragments that guidance excludes.
Whole nuts are a separate and much longer restriction. The NHS says whole nuts should not be given to children under 5 years old because they can choke on them, and that nuts can be given from the start of weaning as long as they are crushed or ground and added to food. The HSE gives the same under-5 rule. The AAP advises avoiding whole peanuts until a child is old enough to be counted on to chew them well, usually at least 4 years and up, and warns that whole or partially chewed peanuts inhaled into the lungs can cause a severe and possibly fatal chemical pneumonia.
Keeping it in the diet
Introducing peanut once is not the protective step. ASCIA's instruction is that once introduced and tolerated, common allergy causing foods should be included in a baby's diet at least once a week in age appropriate servings, because keeping them in the diet reduces the chance of developing an allergy. The AAP names a developmentally appropriate maintenance portion as about 2 teaspoons of peanut butter or other nut butters. HealthLink BC says to continue offering an allergen regularly once tolerated.
Also check the label for salt and sugar. Many peanut butters contain both; the ones the HSE recommends are smooth nut butters with no added sugar or salt.
Where guidance differs
On the direction of travel, nowhere. The UK, Ireland, the US, Canada and Australia all say introduce peanut early and keep it in the diet, and all forbid giving nut butter as a lump.
The differences are at the edges. Canada and the US allow an earlier start, from 4 months, for babies at high risk under medical advice; the UK and Ireland frame introduction around the start of weaning at around 6 months. The whole-nut age is 5 in the UK and Ireland and 4 in the US and Canada. None of that changes what you do with a jar of smooth peanut butter and a finger of toast.
The NHS says you can give your baby nut butter, such as peanut butter, from the time you start weaning, usually around 6 months, as long as you spread it onto a food such as toast, and that you must not give nut butter on its own because your child could choke on it. Peanut butter by itself appears on its list of foods babies and young children should not have. The NHS also states that delaying the introduction of peanut and hen's eggs beyond 6 to 12 months may increase the risk of developing an allergy, and that whole nuts should not be given to children under 5.
Showing guidance from NHS — read the source.
The HSE says it is important to introduce peanuts to your baby in the early stages of weaning, and that this can help to prevent a peanut allergy. It specifies a smooth nut butter with no added sugar or salt, or nuts that have been crushed or ground down. Whole nuts are excluded for children under 5 as a choking risk.
Showing guidance from HSE Ireland — read the source.
The American Academy of Pediatrics says newer research found no benefit to delaying the introduction of allergenic foods, and that ideally peanut-containing products should be introduced as early as 4 to 6 months, with studies suggesting that waiting longer can increase the chance of developing an allergy. It recommends mixing and thinning peanut butter into cereal, pureed fruit or yogurt, or dissolving it in breast milk or formula. Thick chunks of nut butter are listed as a choking hazard, with the instruction to spread thinly instead, and whole peanuts are to be avoided until usually at least 4 years.
Showing guidance from American Academy of Pediatrics — read the source.
The Canadian Paediatric Society says common allergens such as peanut products can be introduced when a baby starts solids at around 6 months, that a baby at high risk can start after 4 months but not sooner, and that waiting until after 6 months to try to prevent an allergy is not recommended. HealthLink BC recommends smooth peanut, tree nut and seed butters blended with an equal amount of warm water and stirred into iron-fortified infant cereal, and warns that a chunk of nut or seed butter can form a plug that can block a child's airway.
Showing guidance from Canadian Paediatric Society — read the source.
Sources
- Foods to avoid giving babies and young children — NHS, accessed
- Foods to avoid during weaning — HSE Ireland, accessed
- When to Introduce Egg, Peanut Butter and Other Common Food Allergens to a Baby — American Academy of Pediatrics, accessed
- Feeding your baby in the first year — Canadian Paediatric Society, accessed
- Preventing choking in babies and young children — HealthLink BC, accessed
- How to introduce solid foods to babies — Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, accessed