You Can Prevent Peanut Allergies With a 99 Cent Snack
Small amounts of peanut protein can prevent peanut allergies, according to a 2015 historical study that showed this approach reduced the risk of developing peanut allergies by 80 percent in susceptible children . Now you can buy expensive peanut powders for your child, but know what works at least as well? A 99-cent snack called Bamba.
Bamba is a crunchy peanut snack that melts in your mouth. Imagine Cheez Doodles, but with peanut powder instead of cheese powder. It is one of the most popular snacks in Israel, and children eat it all the time there – like Cheerios are ubiquitous on chair feeding trays here in the States.
There is no surefire recipe for preventing peanut allergy, but the NIH recommends a three-tiered approach to reduce your risk:
- Babies at high risk of developing peanut allergy (who have severe eczema or egg allergy) should start eating peanut foods at 4-6 months, but must have a doctor’s approval to do so. (For example, your doctor may recommend a skin test first.)
- Low-risk infants who have mild to moderate eczema should start eating foods containing peanuts around 6 months of age.
- Babies without eczema or food allergies can eat peanuts at any time.
If you are a parent and remember being told to postpone the introduction of peanuts, this is no longer the recommended approach. (As always, check with your child’s doctor if you have questions.)
So in a test that showed that giving peanuts helped children, guess what they used? Bamba is served with meals three times a week. As Trader Joe’s junkie, I’m pleased to report that the snack is now on sale at TJ’s. (Discerning eateries have been known to prey on them in ethnic food stores.)
It’s a bargain 99 cents, not only because Cheez Doodles cost two or three dollars, but also because the two companies charge a lot more for peanut powder bags intended to be added to baby food.
HelloPeanut sells its bags of peanuts for $ 25 a box for $ 32 a month as a “maintenance” dose. (For that price, you could buy yourself a full Bamba bag every day and share a few with your child. And still save money.) SpoonfulOne does something similar with a blend of 16 different foods, peeled and ground to less than one gram of potentially allergy-preventing dust for $ 70 a month with a subscription.
Close ones. Just take Bamba.
Update 04/16/2018: We’ve added a paragraph on current guidelines for when to introduce peanuts. Bamba is a great snack for babies who are not at high risk of developing peanut allergies. It is also a cheaper alternative to the services we mentioned. This is not a self-treatment for high-risk children.