My two and a half year old son is part of an oral desensitization experimental protocol for peanut allergies. He is up to 250 mg of peanut flour a day. It is only about 1/4 teaspoon but tastes really bad. As the dose goes up we are having increasing difficulty getting him to down it. We have tried ice cream, pudding, etc., the result being he no longer particularly likes those things. I was thinking of making honey sliders (mixed with a teaspoon or so of warmed honey). Anyone have any other suggestions that might work, hopefully over the long haul. We have another 18 months of increasingly large doses, topping off at 2 gm.
Honey has its own really strong taste, which he might not like. What about chocolate syrup? Or a shake?
Have you considered using savory instead of sweet? Bacon is supposed to be universally enjoyed. Or sprinkle it on a slice of bread and then butter and salt the bread.
Why does it have to be peanut flour? Why not a small piece of an actual decent tasting peanut? Is there something special about this peanut flour, or is just crummy peanuts ground in a pharmaceutical lab?
Unfortunately, it has to be peanut flour. He is part of a medical experiment. The flour is weighed out and provided. It cannot be altered, such as cooking. Personally, I think they should be handing out Reese’s pieces.
I’m kind of surprised it tastes so bad. Maybe it just needs to be mixed with a larger quantity of something else.
Does he eat chicken nuggets? A pinch in his barbecue sauce or honey mustard or whatever might taste okay.
Biscoff cookie spread (it’s like peanut butter in consistency, but is made of ground up Biscoff cookies) could handle a peanutty boost. You could make a sandwich or use as a cookie filling with chocolate wafers.
Mix the powder with brown sugar and cinnamon for him to dip French toast in, or sprinkle the mix on oatmeal.
Does he have to expose his mouth to the flour or swallow it?
There’s 2 different goals here. If he just has to ingest it, then that’s easy : put the flour into couple of tiny gelatin capsules and have him wash them down with something.
Like these.
I’m guessing you can’t mix it in a spoonful of peanut butter, eh?
I’d suggest calling your study coordinator and ask if he/she has any suggestions from other participants.
No, it famously tastes bad. The parents of almost every subject in the experiment reports the same problem, particularly when the volumes increase. No one yet has a palatable solution. Not the leaders of the study, or the parents of the subjects. They give us a few extra doses every month, so I have tasted it, and it does taste really unpleasant. This is uncooked peanut flour. Raw peanuts are gross.
The capsule would be a good idea, but is not in the experimental protocol, so I cannot do it. Also, at 2 1/2 I am not at all sure he would be able to swallow them.
I assume the problem is bitterness, most kids will be fine with salty, sweet and sour to some extent. Sweet is usually the best way to mask bitter, ‘a spoonful of sugar’ and all that.
How well does it dissolve? Can you stir it into something like juice or soda and put it in a sippy cup so he doesn’t see anythings amiss? Might be a daily ‘treat’ for him to get a cup of soda.
It does not dissolve at all, but rather disperses. We are constantly promising him Slurpee’s if he will take it. Does not love Slurpee’s enough.
One of the peanut flour manufacturing companies recommends mixing with yogurt for research such as this.
Suggest that you, not the subject, taste some from different sources. As I recall from my youth in peanut country the flour could go ‘rancid’, they called it, rather quickly. Should you have a bad batch I don’t know what you do next.
moldy peanuts can have aflatoxin (sp?), which is carcinogenic. Rancid oils are supposed to be bad for you, too. Raw peanuts aren’t great, but they aren’t horrible. I think you should urge the head of the study to look into why the stuff tastes so terrible.
Mix it with sugar, butter, regular flour and make a no-egg cookie dough he could eat raw? Melt a teaspoon of butter (like, in a small mug, microwave a couple seconds) add a teaspoon of brown sugar and cream that together, add the peanut flour and then sprinkles of regular flour until it’s cookie batter consistency. Could add chocolate, too.
Sometimes, rather than fixing the problem, the kiddo just needs to know you sympathize and can relate to his problem, and that he’s not the only person who has ever been subjected to this. Is there some medicine you take every day (or could, like a multivitamin or vitamin C or something benign) and let him see you take it and make a “yucky” face and then go on about your day?
Not everything in life is pleasant. Thus far in life, I bet that every time something is unpleasant, you’ve jumped in to at least try to make it more pleasant, because that’s what good parents do. But not everything *can *be made pleasant. Modeling for him how you handle the yucky parts of life may be what he needs.
I will definitely try the yogurt idea. He does not like yogurt, but likes peanut flour way less. This child is 2 1/2. He is not going to respond to the suggestion that he “man up.” He usually takes it fine, although he never enjoys it. While I am sure that skipping a day here and there would be fine, it is not in the experimental protocol, and therefore cannot be done. This is a actually a very important study. When he started he was extremely allergic to peanuts. Hopefully, when this is finished he will not have to worry about peanut products contaminating his food. I am fairly sure that he will never think that peanuts are tasty and will never want to eat one on purpose.
Have you tried jam? Comes in lots of flavours so you can change it up, and it’s pretty thick if you get the right kind.
Okay, I have absolutely no idea what effect this will have on the flavor of the product in question, but these “miracle berries” really do drastically alter the flavor of whatever you eat next, so it could be worth a try.
You don’t have to get them from any particular place and they are also available as a tablet, but here is a link to order fresh ones:
Or tablets: