Nut butters for babies: tree nuts, safe serving and allergy signs

Babies can have smooth tree nut butters and pastes, such as almond, cashew or hazelnut, from around 6 months, once they've started solids. ASCIA's guide to introducing solid foods, updated in January 2026, lists tree nuts "such as cashew, walnut" among the common allergy-causing foods, and says to introduce them in the first year (by 12 months). Offer one new allergy food at a meal, and once a nut is tolerated, keep it in your baby's diet at least once a week.

Texture matters as much as timing. Whole and chopped nuts are a choking hazard for young children, so nuts go in as smooth butter, paste or finely ground nuts. This guide covers what Australian, UK and US guidance says, how to introduce each nut, how to prepare it at each age, nut milks, and what to do if your baby reacts. Peanut, which is a legume rather than a tree nut, has its own guide: peanuts for babies.

When can babies have tree nuts?

ASCIA's advice is to start solids when your baby is ready, usually around 6 months and not before 4 months. It asks for well-cooked egg and peanut soon after solids start, and the other common allergy foods, including tree nuts, during the first year. ASCIA says delaying these foods has been shown to raise the chance of a food allergy, and suggests starting with the ones your family usually eats.

The NHS list of foods to avoid says you can give your baby nuts from the time you start weaning, usually around 6 months, as long as they're crushed or ground and added to food, and nut butter as long as it's spread on a food such as toast. The NHS guide to food allergies in babies lists nuts among the foods to introduce one at a time and says these foods should become part of your baby's usual diet.

In the US, the AAP's allergen guide lists nut products among the allergy foods to add once your baby has managed a few first foods, and gives "nut butters such as cashew" as an example. The CDC's guide to introducing solids lists nut butters as a potentially allergenic food to introduce when you introduce other foods.

What if my baby has eczema or another allergy?

• ASCIA (Australia): all babies should have the common allergy foods in the first year, including those with eczema, another food allergy or a parent or sibling with allergies.
• NHS (UK): if there's a history of food allergies or other allergies in your family, talk to your GP or child-health nurse before introducing any type of nut. The NHS gives the same advice if your baby already has eczema or a food allergy.
• AAP (US): if your baby has severe, persistent eczema or has had an immediate allergic reaction to a food, talk with your paediatrician first about how and when to introduce allergy foods.

Which nuts count as tree nuts?

ASCIA's peanut, tree nut and seed allergy FAQ lists almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pistachios and walnuts. Coconut is technically a seed, and peanut is a legume, like peas and lentils.

A few points from ASCIA that affect how you introduce them:

• Treat each nut as a new allergy food. Tree nuts come from several different plant families, and ASCIA says allergy to nut-like foods can't be reliably predicted without testing.
• Some nuts are related. Cashew and pistachio contain similar proteins, so a child allergic to one may react to the other.
• Peanut is different. The proteins in peanut are very different from those in tree nuts, so people with peanut allergy aren't always allergic to tree nuts.

You don't have to introduce every nut. Australia's National Allergy Council, in its Nip allergies in the Bub guide to introducing allergy foods, says that not eating a food at least once a week after introducing it may lead to an allergy, so offer the foods you can keep giving. If your family doesn't eat a particular nut, you may choose not to introduce it, and the Australian council suggests discussing this with your doctor or an allergy dietitian.

How do I introduce each nut and keep it going?

ASCIA's steps for allergy foods work the same way for tree nuts:

1. Pick a good time. Offer the new nut when your baby is well and you can watch them for a couple of hours. Australia's National Allergy Council suggests offering it soon after your baby wakes, not just before a sleep. ASCIA says reactions usually happen within minutes to two hours.
2. Start with about 1/4 teaspoon of smooth nut butter, paste or finely ground nut mixed into your baby's usual food, such as vegetable purée.
3. Build up. If there's no reaction, give about 1/2 teaspoon next time, then keep doubling up to a normal serve for their age.
4. One new allergy food per meal. If your baby reacts, you'll know which food caused it. For the same reason, start with single-nut butters before mixed nut spreads.
5. Keep it in the diet at least once a week. Australia's National Allergy Council suggests about 1 teaspoon of the food at least once a week to start with, increasing as your baby grows.

The AAP gives 2 teaspoons of nut butters such as cashew as an example of a routine portion once a food is introduced. The NHS and AAP both say one new food at a time; the AAP suggests waiting at least a day before the next new food, and the CDC suggests 3 to 5 days between new foods. ASCIA also says never to rub nut butter on your baby's skin to "test" for allergy.

If you're introducing several nuts, a simple rotation helps keep them all going: for example, almond in porridge on Monday, cashew stirred into yoghurt on Wednesday and hazelnut on toast fingers on Friday. The full allergen plan is in introducing allergens.

What's worth noting: the nut, the form you used, roughly how much your baby ate and anything you saw over the next two hours. A weekly tick for each nut makes it easier to keep them all in the diet, and a photo of any rash with the time it started helps a doctor.

How do I prepare nut butter at each age?

ASCIA's choking advice is to use smooth nut butters or pastes, powder or finely ground nuts, such as almond meal, when introducing nuts to babies. The AAP suggests thinning a small amount of peanut butter in cereal, puréed fruit or yoghurt, or dissolving it in breast milk or formula, and the same approach works for other smooth nut butters. The NHS says nut butter can be spread on a food such as toast but shouldn't be given on its own, because your child could choke on it.

Check the label. ASCIA advises avoiding foods with added salt or sugar, so look for a nut butter that's just nuts. Sweetened chocolate hazelnut spreads contain added sugar, so they aren't a good way to introduce hazelnut. For how textures move on generally, see food textures by age.

Why are whole nuts and chunky nut butter a choking risk?

Every source treats whole nuts as a choking hazard, but the age limits differ:

• Australia's National Allergy Council: children under 5 should have peanuts and tree nuts only as a smooth nut butter or paste, or as nuts ground into a powder or flour.
• NHS and the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne in Australia: never give whole nuts to children under 5.
• Australian Government's Pregnancy, Birth and Baby: children under 3 shouldn't have hard foods that can cause choking, such as whole nuts.
• NIAID guidelines (US): whole nuts shouldn't be given to children under 5, and peanut butter from a spoon or in lumps or dollops shouldn't be given to children under 4.
• AAP (US): don't feed whole peanuts or tree nuts to babies or young children. It adds that inhaled whole or partly chewed nuts can cause a severe chemical pneumonia.
• CDC choking hazards list (US): whole or chopped nuts and seeds, and chunks or spoonfuls of nut and seed butters.

Crunchy nut butter contains pieces of nut, so it counts as chopped nuts. This guide uses the stricter age: smooth butters and ground nuts only until 5.

Stay with your baby, sitting upright, every time they eat. If your baby can't breathe, cough or cry, shout for help and call your local emergency number (000 in Australia, 999 in the UK, 911 in the US). The NHS first-aid steps for a choking baby are up to 5 back blows, then up to 5 chest thrusts, repeated until help arrives; if your baby becomes unresponsive, start CPR and follow the call-taker's instructions. Choking vs gagging walks through each step. The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne recommends that anyone caring for children does a first-aid course that includes infant CPR.

Can babies drink almond milk or other nut milks?

Not as a drink in the first year. Breast milk or formula stays your baby's main drink until 12 months.

• Australia: the Australian Government's Pregnancy, Birth and Baby guide to drinks lists plant-based milks, including oat, coconut, rice and almond, among the drinks not recommended for babies under 12 months. Its solids guide says small amounts of fortified plant-based milk can be added to foods such as porridge. Victoria's Better Health Channel in Australia calls almond and similar milks nutritionally incomplete; after 12 months it lists full-fat fortified soy, or calcium-enriched rice and oat drinks, under the guidance of a nurse, doctor or dietitian, and doesn't list almond.
• UK: the NHS guide to drinks and cups says children can have unsweetened, calcium-fortified milk alternatives, such as almond drinks, from age 1.
• US: the AAP's healthy beverage guide says children under 12 months shouldn't drink plant-based milk, and that from 1 to 5 years plant milks other than soy aren't recommended in place of dairy milk. The AAP's drinks guide says most plant milks may lack protein, vitamin D and calcium.

If a plant milk will be your toddler's main milk, see moving to cow's milk and talk to your GP, child-health nurse or a dietitian.

What should I do if my baby reacts to a nut?

ASCIA lists these signs of a reaction to peanut, tree nuts or seeds:

ASCIA classes lip swelling as a mild to moderate sign, while the NHS urgent-help guide lists swollen lips among the reasons to call an ambulance, so this guide treats sudden lip swelling as an emergency. A mild reaction doesn't always come before anaphylaxis, so keep watching.

For anaphylaxis, follow the ASCIA first aid plan for anaphylaxis: hold your baby flat, give an adrenaline device if prescribed (if in doubt, give it), call your local emergency number (000 in Australia, 999 in the UK, 911 in the US), and start CPR if your baby is unresponsive and not breathing normally.

For hives, face or eye swelling, or vomiting with normal breathing, stop giving that nut, stay with your baby, watch closely for signs of anaphylaxis and get medical help today. ASCIA says to get specialist advice before offering that food again, and to keep introducing the other allergy foods your baby hasn't had yet.

Redness or hives only around the mouth, with no other signs, is not usually an allergic reaction, according to ASCIA, and it suggests offering the food again. Food touching the skin can cause redness, so a spoon placed straight into the mouth helps.

When should I get help?

Call your local emergency number (000 in Australia, 999 in the UK, 911 in the US) now if your baby:

• has difficult or noisy breathing, a wheeze or a persistent cough
• has sudden swelling of the lips, tongue or throat
• has a hoarse voice or cry, or becomes pale, floppy or drowsy, or collapses
• is choking and can't breathe, cough or cry

Get medical help today if your baby:

• has hives or welts beyond the mouth area, or swelling of the face or eyes, with normal breathing (stop the food and watch closely for anaphylaxis signs)
• vomits after eating a nut
• needed back blows or chest thrusts, even if they now seem well

Talk to your GP or child-health nurse if:

• your baby has severe or hard-to-control eczema, or a food allergy, and hasn't had tree nuts yet
• your baby is allergic to one nut and you'd like a plan for the others
• you're planning a plant milk as your toddler's main drink (call a health advice line (Pregnancy, Birth and Baby on 1800 882 436 in Australia, NHS 111 in the UK, your pediatrician's after-hours line in the US) after hours with questions)