My granddaughter was allergic to peanuts. She was able to have the Sunbutter and the whole family loved it. I never tried it, but my daughter said it tasted similar to peanut butter, not quite as strong. She never had any trouble finding it, its available at most grocery stores, but I think she mainly shops at Walmart.

In my area, WalMart doesn't carry it. Did a search :o(

That's one I haven't seen in my area, but I'd be willing to try it. I like peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter too.

Shirley

I will have to look for that, but it might not be this far west. Maybe look in the nutrition areas of some grocery stores?

If you can't find it locally, could you ask your grocer to bring it in??? Sometimes I think they need our suggestions of new products!

Publix has it. $5.99.

I'll just stick with regular pb.

I've never heard of it Thanks for the info

thanks..i'm going to sent this to dd..dgs loves his pbj's and they've been warned NO sandwiches, by the school...

My son's allergic to peanuts so I've tried several substitutes and I really like Sunbutter. Unfortunately although I used to be able to get it locally rather reasonably, now I can only find it at Wegman's (a bit of a drive) and it's expensive. Although it's not as expensive as almond butter which is fantastic but even more expensive. At least I can get almond butter locally. Wal-Mart carries a soy butter that's okay (with a lot of jam) but other soy butters I've tried have been just awful. I haven't tried pea butter yet.

As far as the Sunbutter and almond butters, they are very good, but if it weren't for the peanut allergy, I don't think they are so different from peanut butter that I would pay the premium for them.

I may be developing an allergy to sunflower seeds. I had a reaction to plain Lay's potato chips a couple of years ago and then I had an allergic reaction after I fed sunflower seeds to some chipmonks. Not 100% sure that it was sunflower seeds that triggered the reactions. If anyone uses this as a substitute because of allergies, I would watch to make sure you don't develop an allergy to this also.

Clarification, please. Are all kids who are allergic to "nuts" able to eat sunflower butter/seeds and almond butter? Both of my grandkids are in 'allergy' classes. They don't have an allergy, but there are kids in both classes who are apparently severely allergic.

It has put a tremendous burden on those parents whose kids are not allergic, my daughter included, who now have to shop really carefully and read labels for snack and lunch foods, some of which don't clearly state that they are 'made in a facility, yada, yada.'

I made a proposal to my daughter - that she bring the request to the principal that the parents of the allergic children should be required to get together to create a list of acceptable foods. This way each parent wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel and I think they would get more compliance.

Sorry for sort of hijacking the sunflower seed discussion, but as the allergy discussion came up I had to ask - it's sort of a hot button topic around me.

Helene

Helene, it depends on the kids. Some are only allergic to one thing, others to multiple, some avoid categories of food for simplication. Nick is only allergic to peanuts but we avoided anything nut-like when he was younger, to keep him from getting confused. We've branched out as he's gotten older. Truthfully he doesn't like any of the PB substitutes although he will eat sunflower seeds. A lot of nut butters and nuts are cross-contaminated with peanuts so those can be tricky to eat safely.

I have never requested that peanuts be removed from Nick's classroom - I've left it up to the teacher and so far all have elected to remove actual peanuts and peanut butter from the classroom (just the classroom, not the lunch room). This is so that they don't transfer the allergen with their hands around the classroom - I would never expect other parents to be checking for cross-contamination and determing what is safe for my son to actually eat . Nick had daily snack in kindergarten and I sent him his own snacks (and when it was his turn I brought a snack for the entire class). After that I've just worked with the teacher and/or sent in snacks for him when they've had occasional food in the classroom but never would I leave it up to anyone else to choose his food for him. There really isn't a 'safe food' list - manufacturers can change how foods are made and processed at any point.

All peanut products are banned in our schools, province-wide.
I would hate to be a parent!

When we worked the election last year, it was in a school and we were all specifically told not to bring nuts (almonds etc) as snacks.

Paula,

Thanks for the info. This particularly affects my first grade grandson. The nurse spoke to the parents at the beginning of the year telling them that any peanut products, including any products 'made in a facility' were forbidden within the classroom. Apparently they can bring PB into the lunchroom.

It just seems sort of wrong for the parents of the allergic children, as well as dangerous, to let other parents do their research for them. It's sort of as if they're saying "my child has allergies YOU deal with it - it's your problem, not mine". I really think they would make a safer environment for their kid if they come up with some sort of tried and true basic list. And yes, it would be THEIR job to patrol the supermarket and check to see if those products they recommended still meet the requirements.

As of now, my daughter has to either send in pre-packed snacks which already have an ingredient panel printed on it or else, if the child brings in a glad bag with snack, the parents have to send in a copy of the ingredient list. So the teacher now has to do a patrol job in addition to their other work.

Helene

I don't think it's too much to ask the teacher to read a label on something packaged that is brought into the classroom (if I felt the teacher understood food allergies). It only takes a couple of seconds. Anything in a baggie could be cross contaminated so I don't see why ask parents to bring the ingredient list since I wouldn't want my son to eat it anyway.

I do as much as I can and arrange things so that Nick's allergy impacts others as little as possible and teach him to look out for himself but I don't think it's too much to ask for a little help from the school and other parents to keep my son safe and not to make him feel different or left out. He didn't ask for this allergy and trust me, I don't care how bothered other parents feel about avoiding nuts and peanuts in school - it's nothing compared to living with the fact that some stupid food could kill your child or make your child very sick. There are definitely parents out there who go overboard trying to deal with this allergy but even their children deserve a little compassion. Nobody chooses food allergies.

I haven't seen it. Maybe I should try a health foods store. I once went to a health food store, they were giving away cups of natural coffee (?) sweetened with beet sugar and with goat milk. Tasted okay but I wouldn't go searching for goat milk.

Paula,

I hope I didn't give you the impression that I was unsympathetic to a child's allergy. I only meant that it would be helpful if the parents of the allergic children would create some sort of master list -and try to keep it updated - for the rest of the parents as guidance.

It just seems that the responsibility for the allergic child has been shifted to the other parents, rather than the allergic child's parents. You know that some people would be willing to search for appropriate foods and some won't bother, but if they have a brand list, the might be more compliant and make it safer for the allergic child.

It must be terrible to live with the fear that breathing in a food particle could cause severe illness or even death.

In the supermarket today I saw the sunbutter along with almond butters. Are any of those allergen free?

Helene