About a year ago, we found out our youngest has a severe peanut allergy.
My son was 10 months old and tried peanut butter in his applesauce for the first time. After a few minutes, his eye begun to swell and then his other eye. He was breathing fine and still playing, but we called the emergency pediatrician phone number. They did a video call with us to look at him and had us give him Benadryl. The swelling went down and he was ok.
At one, our son was given an allergy blood test and this is when we found out about his severe peanut allergy. He was given an Epipen and we were told to avoid all peanut products. We gave away or threw out everything containing peanuts.
In our quest to make our house safe for our son, we decided to all give up peanut products. It was fairly easy because of the peanut-free products on the market.
I compiled a list of the peanut-free foods we have found for our home.
*This is not medical advice. Make sure to always check the labels before giving your child or consuming any food items.*
*Make sure your child does not have an allergy to any of the other ingredients before purchasing and trying them.*
1. WowButter
This soy-based product is a wonderful peanut butter replacement. Our daughter loves to eat her Wowbutter and jelly sandwiches. It has the consistency of creamy peanut butter and the taste Id the same. My daughter loves regular peanut butter and said she doesn’t notice a difference. She’s happy to eat a food that will not harm her brother.
2. Sunflower Seed Butter
Similar to WowButter, Sunflower Seed Butter makes a great peanut butter substitute. Sunbutter is company who makes sunflower seed butter, which is nut free and gluten free as well.
3. Apple Butter
One of my favorite peanut butter alternatives is Apple Butter. It tastes delicious on a sandwich with jelly or as a dip for crackers. You can also use apple butter as an alternative in recipes for eggs, butter, and oil.
4. Fluff
A Fluff and Jelly sandwich could be a great alternative to peanut butter and jelly. Fluff is made with corn syrup, sugar syrup, vanilla flavor, and egg whites, but I have made it at home by melting marshmallows and butter. Just don’t leave it sitting in your pan too long because it will harden and is near impossible to scrape off your pan.
5. Olive Oil
Peanut oil is not used as often anymore because of the many alternatives available. You can use olive oil for most of your oil needs and it has a great taste. Some other peanut oil substitutes include canola oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil, and vegetable oil. Please check labels for any oil you are going to be using to be sure there are no allergens.
6. All-purpose Flour Or White Flour
I have come across recipes containing peanut flour. After some trial and error, all-purpose flour is a perfectly good alternative in recipes for peanut flour. The only difference is your recipe will not have the nutty flavor, but you don’t need it when you have a peanut allergy.
7. MadeGood Granola Bars
I love granola bars and I have stood in the granola bar grocery store aisle checking all of the labels only to find the majority of them contain peanuts or are processed in a facility which contains peanuts. MadeGood is dedicated to keeping common allergens out of their products with nut-free and gluten-free products.
8. MadeGood Cookies
I’ve seen countless news articles about cookie brands claiming to have dedicated peanut-free manufacturing lines or facilities and people getting sick or dying from those brands. MadeGood makes cookies and other snack foods and they do not make any products with those allergens.
There you have it! A list of peanut-free alternatives and brands to keep our son safe at home!
It is so important to keep our home safe because even though we have an Epipen, I’d prefer not to use it.
Looking for some lunch ideas for school, check out our Well-Balanced & Kid-Approved School Lunch Ideas post.
What are some alternatives you have found that work great for your family?
Let us know below in the comments!
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