Try These Puffs to Incorporate Nuts Into Your Child's Diet Early

A pediatric food allergy is a maze of rules and restrictions, not to mention constant fear, that most parents want to avoid — including Altanta parents JJ and Catherine Jaxon. The couple co-founded their company, Mission MightyMe, after they found out their eldest daughter was allergic to most nuts. They wanted their other children to tolerate nuts, but they also wanted to help other kids and parents. The Jaxons knew there had to be a better and easier way for parents to introduce nuts early, so that their little ones wouldn’t face the same struggle they had.

Mission MightyMe is a food company for little ones that introduces nuts early. The Jaxons partnered with Dr. Gideon Lack, a pediatric allergist whose LEAP Study showed that up to 86% of peanut allergies could be prevented by starting peanut foods in infancy.

But there was the question of safety. Nuts and nut butters are a choking hazard for babies, so they developed three levels. First, babies start on quick-dissolve puffs that can be softened with water, breast milk, or formula, or crumbled into purees for infants starting solids. At 6 to 24 months, littles can simply nosh and snack on the puffs. And from 2 to 5 years, they’re a great cereal in milk, trail mix addition, or yogurt topping. There are both peanut puffs and tree nut butter puffs, with a simple, reliable, and tasty flavor, zero added sugar, and really simple, short ingredient lists.

These puffs are cute and fun to eat. I like the little star and heart shapes, and so did my son. We eat them on the floor on a picnic blanket, when we have our imaginary picnics. He likes to pick them up with chopsticks for fun, but when we first started eating such puffs, grasping such tiny items was great pincher practice for fine motor coordination.

I ate a lot of peanut butter and tree nuts while pregnant, out of an abundance of hope that in utero, this would help stem any allergies in my child (there isn’t yet sufficient medical evidence to recommend this practice as supportive of preventing allergies). Consult this Early Allergen Guide, which is loaded with helpful tips on how to start potential allergen introduction — and the first year of your little one’s life is the time to start.

You can buy Mission MightyMe on their site and on Amazon.

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