Almonds are on the list of foods that you should eat daily for health, but is it something that makes the list of food that is okay for babies? Many times what is recommended for us adults, it is not the same thing as what babies should be having.
Your baby can’t crunch almonds, and you can only grind them up so much until they are powder form, and even then they can’t get it down very easily. There’s a sort of feel to it like nature doesn’t want babies to have almonds, or else they would have made them easier to eat.
Unless your baby has all their teeth, almonds are going to be pretty hard for them to eat. Also, all nuts pose an allergy concern, so it’s just not a good thing to give your baby so early in life. You can wait until they got a full set of chompers, and they’re in their toddler years before introducing them something like almonds. At that time it a great snack to give them in lieu of other crunchy items like chips and other junk food.
Perhaps you’ve thought that almond butter would be a good way to give your baby almonds, without making them have to crunch them up. But the same allergy concerns remain, and it’s still something that we would hold off on until they’re older. We get a full write-up on whether or not you give your baby almond butter so be sure to check it out if you’re still on the fence.
Most of the time health experts recommend eating almonds to help build muscle, and also for the good fat that they contain. However, your baby doesn’t need to build muscle very much, and they should be getting enough good fats from the food you’re feeding them already, so you don’t really need to add almonds to the mix just yet. You also don’t need to worry about substituting anything for the almonds, like almond milk or any other food item. Just stick to giving them a good amount of fruits and vegetables every day, lean meats, rice cereals, and other baby-approved foods and they should be getting all of the vitamins and minerals they need.
There are several charts out there that say when babies should have which foods, and when to introduce certain foods. With nuts it is different, and the range can be anywhere from one to three years. Since your baby doesn’t need almonds, we say you should give it the full time and go with the 36 month rule. That way you stand the best chance of them reacting well to it, and being able to handle it both with their digestion, and if they have shown signs of having allergies to nuts.
One way to pass the goodness of almonds to your baby, without worrying how to feed them or about allergies is to eat almonds and then breastfeed. This is the healthiest thing to do for your baby, and many studies have shown that there are plenty of benefits to breastfeeding a baby for as long as you’re producing milk, and as long as they’ll take it. Moving them on to solid foods, or transitioning them to formula on some specific and arbitrary date is absurd. Be as natural as you can for as long as you can and supplement with other foods but don’t give up breastfeeding altogether, just because someone said you should.
To recap: just give your baby the foods it needs and steer clear of extras like almonds and other nuts until they’re older.