Allergen note
Plain olives rarely cause allergic reactions and are not related to nuts, but stuffed olives can contain anchovy (fish), cheese (milk) or almonds, so read the label. Olives are cured in salty brine, so before 12 months offer only an occasional small taste of rinsed, lower-sodium olives, and keep them an occasional food after that.
How to serve
From about 6 months, offer a little pitted olive finely chopped into food, or mashed and spread onto soft toast. From 9–12 months, offer lengthwise quarters to practice picking up; for toddlers, one or two quartered olives in a meal is plenty.
Preparation
Choose pitted, lower-sodium olives and rinse or soak them in fresh water for 10–15 minutes to remove some brine. Canned black olives are milder and softer, green ones firmer, and wrinkled dry-cured ones much saltier, so use those sparingly. Check each olive for stray pits, then chop, flatten or quarter it, or blend olives into a spread or sauce.
Texture and choking risk
Whole olives are round and slippery, and pits are a serious choking hazard, so don't serve whole olives to children under 5. Check for pits even in pitted olives, chop, flatten or quarter them lengthwise, skip almond-stuffed olives, which hide hard nut pieces, and always supervise.
Sources: cdc.gov · cdc.gov · healthychildren.org · healthychildren.org · nhs.uk · nhs.uk
Starting ages are typical guidance for healthy, full-term babies who show signs of readiness. Your paediatrician may advise differently, especially where there is a family history of allergy.
Track first tastes and reactions
Log when your child first tries olives, note any reaction and see it in the allergen tracker.
More Fats & oils
🫒 Butter
Butter is a dairy food and has nothing to do with nut butters. It is mostly milk fat but contains small…
🫒 Flavored butter
Butter is a dairy food, not a nut product, but it contains small amounts of milk protein, so it can cause a…
🫒 Olive oil
Olive oil comes from a fruit, not a nut, and it is not a common allergen; true reactions are rare. From 12…
🫒 Vegetable oil
Highly refined vegetable oils (usually soybean, canola, sunflower or corn) contain almost no protein, so…