Learn everything you need to know about Bamba peanut puffs and its role in early allergen introduction studies.
Many parents consider offering Bamba to their babies, especially now that the new USDA 2020 Dietary Guidelines (DGA) recommend that families “introduce infants to allergenic foods,” including peanut.
In this article, you’ll learn about using Bamba for early peanut introduction:
- Bamba is a peanut puff snack created in Israel
- Bamba was not designed for babies, but became popular with Israeli families after soldiers brought it home
- Bamba played a role in early allergen introduction studies
- Bamba is not a healthy first food for baby, because it contains salt and saturated fat
- Bamba isn't the only option to introduce allergens for your baby
- Healthier options with more allergens, such as Ready. Set. Food! are easier to use and all-natural
What is early allergen introduction?
Early allergen introduction involves:
- Introducing foods associated with the most common food allergies, including peanut, egg, and milk, as early as 4-6 months of age
- Continuing to feed baby these foods multiple times a week, for several months
One way of introducing peanut that many parents have heard about is a peanut puff snack called Bamba. But what exactly is Bamba, and is it a good choice for introducing peanut to your baby? Here’s everything you need to know before feeding your baby Bamba.
What is Bamba? The Origin Story
Bamba is a peanut puff snack, made in Israel from peanuts, corn, palm oil and salt. It’s easily Israel’s most popular snack, and it has become a staple in Israeli culture.
When people see Bamba on store shelves, they usually notice the baby on the bag first. Osem, the company that makes Bamba, claims that it chose the name because it sounds like baby talk. It’s said that the marketers at Osem were hoping to make Bamba one of baby’s first words in Hebrew, right after they learned to say ima (mom) and aba (dad).
But Bamba wasn’t actually designed for babies and young children.
Bamba was first introduced in Israel in 1964. The first version of the snack was a cheese puff, but that version wasn’t very successful. One year later, Osem started making four other flavors of Bamba, including the now-famous peanut version. Only the peanut version survived past 1965.
Around 1967, Bamba peanut puffs started becoming a popular snack with Israeli soldiers. The soldiers loved Bamba so much that, once they returned home, they brought bags of Bamba home to their families. Thanks to this, Bamba’s popularity in Israel skyrocketed, especially among Israeli families with children.
Bamba: Dr. Gideon Lack and Early Allergen Introduction
Bamba played a role in research about introducing babies to peanuts. Here’s an overview of those studies:
The 2008 Peanut Allergy Study
In 2008, Dr. Gideon Lack ran a study that examined rates of peanut allergies in Jewish schoolchildren living in Israel and the UK. He also studied how early sets of infants in each of these countries were introduced to peanut, as well as how much peanut these infants ate per month.
He found that the Israeli schoolchildren were 10 times less likely to have a peanut allergy than the children in the UK. He also found that the Israeli babies started eating peanut much earlier, much more often, and in much larger amounts than the babies in the UK.
This was mainly because Bamba is a staple snack in Israel, from a very young age. Many Israeli parents start feeding their babies Bamba soon after they start solids, and give it to their children regularly.
The LEAP Study (2015)
These findings inspired later research on introducing peanut early. Dr. Lack spearheaded the LEAP study (results released in 2015). In the LEAP study, more than 600 children between 4 and 11 months of age at high risk for peanut allergy either consumed peanut at least 3 times per week or avoided peanut until age 5.
In this study, the families who were asked to feed their baby peanut used either Bamba or smooth peanut butter to introduce babies to peanut early and often. The babies who were fed peanut early and often were much more likely to safely eat peanut later in life, compared to the babies who avoided peanut.
Several sets of new medical guidelines for introducing peanut to babies are based on the LEAP study.
What Parents Need to Know About Bamba
Even though it has indirectly inspired landmark food allergy research, Bamba isn’t the best choice for introducing peanut to your baby. Here's why you should explore other options for introducing allergens, beyond Bamba.
Bamba is not a healthy food, and was not designed for babies.
Bamba was not designed for babies. It isn’t safe for babies to consume, because it isn’t made to dissolve easily in baby’s mouth. Rather, it’s made for adults and older children.
In addition to this, Bamba is an unhealthy snack food that includes ingredients such as palm oil and a significant amount of salt.
Bamba is more than one-thirds fat (by grams). And since palm oil is the third ingredient, it contains saturated fat.
Notably, palm oil production is highly controversial, as it’s often devastating for the environment. Many palm oil producers destroy large areas of tropical rainforest for their oil plantations. This deforestation releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and threatens the habitats of many endangered plants and animals.
Bamba also contains large amounts of salt. This doesn't meet the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations to "offer simple foods made for babies." Bamba contains 28 mg sodium per 7-gram serving. This is much more sodium than is present in puffs that were specifically designed for babies. For example, Ready. Set. Food! Organic Puffs contain only 5-10 mg sodium per 7-gram serving.
Bamba doesn’t help you follow peanut introduction guidelines.
Since Bamba is a finger food that’s not designed for babies, it doesn't work well in the prime window for introducing peanuts to babies.
New guidance from leading medical organizations including the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI) recommend: "peanut and egg should be introduced around [4-6] months of life." During this critical window of time, introducing babies to these common allergen foods helps set them up for a future of food freedom, where they’re free to safely eat these foods throughout their lives. However, many babies are not ready for solid foods at this early age.
Bamba isn’t safe to introduce to babies in the 4-6 month old window, as it’s only safe for older children and adults well-accustomed to finger foods. It’s not suitable for babies in the 4-6 month old range who are just starting solid foods – let alone babies in this age range who aren’t yet ready for solids.
Bamba only contains one allergen – peanut.
Bamba only contains one common food allergen – peanut. Peanuts are only responsible for only 22% of childhood food allergies.
Bamba does not contain egg or cow's milk, the other two most common childhood food allergens. And it doesn’t contain any of the other top childhood food allergens, either.
Cow's milk allergies are even more common in young children than peanut allergies, and egg allergies are about as common as peanut allergies. Milk and egg allergies also tend to have the greatest impact on a child's quality of life, because milk and eggs are ingredients in so many meals, snacks, and desserts that kids typically enjoy.
And medical guidelines recommend that you introduce several allergens – not just peanut – to your baby.
The most recent USDA Dietary Guidelines recommend that “potentially allergenic foods (e.g., peanuts, egg, cow milk products, tree nuts, wheat… and soy) should be introduced” within baby’s first year of life. Together, cow’s milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, wheat, and soy, along with sesame, account for around 90% of childhood food allergies.
The Ready. Set. Food! system introduces 9 top allergens – peanut, egg, milk, three types of tree nuts, wheat, soy, and sesame – in line with medical guidelines.
Preparing Bamba requires frustrating guesswork.
You'll have to calculate and measure out the right amounts of Bamba to match the peanut dosage used in the landmark studies.This process is time-consuming and frustrating, because one gram of Bamba doesn't equal one gram of peanut.
And you'll need to prepare enough correct Bamba doses multiple times per week, over several months, to follow the approach used in the LEAP study. What if you give a baby too little – or too much – peanut all at once when measuring out Bamba?
Also, Bamba only contains peanut. If you want to cover the other common childhood food allergens, you'll have to prepare snacks that contain those allergens as well. This will take even more guesswork and time.
Ready. Set. Food! products contain the recommended amounts of allergens babies need, in pre-measured amounts.
Bamba might seem cheaper than other options, but it is costly in other ways.
On average, based on prices in September 2023, a 3.5 oz bag of Bamba costs $3.29. Each 3.5 oz bag contains 14 full daily servings of Bamba for baby (plus some extra).
Given all this, to sustain peanut exposure for 6 months (180 days), you’d have to buy 13 bags of Bamba. This will cost you $42.77 for 6 months, on average. That might seem less expensive than other options, but the price is misleading.
You’d also need to buy snacks covering egg, milk, wheat, soy, tree nuts and sesame on top of the Bamba, since Bamba only contains peanut. And as mentioned above, you’d also have to spend valuable time measuring out the right doses of all those types of snacks. Plus, with the fat and excessive salt in Bamba, you might build unhealthy eating habits for your baby. So, the overall cost of Bamba is higher than you might expect.
Ready. Set. Food! is an organic, healthier option that contains all the allergens babies need, in a ready-to-feed format.
Ready. Set. Food! is a much better option for introducing allergens.
The Ready. Set. Food! system is a healthy, safe way to introduce allergens – and it’s a much better option than Bamba. Here’s why:
- Ready. Set. Food! introduces 9 top allergens – peanut, egg, milk, three types of tree nuts (almond, cashew, and walnut), wheat, soy, and sesame, in line with medical guidelines.
- The amounts of allergens in Ready. Set. Food! products are pre-measured to match the recommended amounts of allergens babies need, so it’s easy to keep feeding baby all of these foods with no guesswork.
- Our Stage 1 and Stage 2 Organic Mix-ins safely dissolve into a bottle of breastmilk or formula. So, you can start introducing peanut, egg, and milk to any baby as early as 4 months, consistent with medical guidelines, even if your baby is not ready for solids.
- The Ready. Set. Food! system grows with your baby:
- Start with Stage 1 and Stage 2 Organic Mix-Ins to gradually introduce any baby to peanut, egg, and milk as early as 4-6 months of age
- Then, add in wheat, soy, sesame and three types of tree nuts with Stage 3 Organic Mix-Ins once your baby has started solids and has been introduced to peanut, egg, and milk.
- Once your 8+ month old little one is picking up and chewing foods with different textures, you can continue feeding those 9 top allergens with Ready. Set. Food! Organic Puffs – the only puffs that contain 9 top allergens.
- And for toddlers 12+ months and older who can chew through lots of solids with back teeth, our Organic Oat and Fruit Bars are another yummy way to maintain exposure to 8 top allergens.
- Ready. Set. Food! contains only real, all-natural food and organic, non-GMO ingredients.
- Ready. Set. Food! Organic Mix-Ins and Organic Baby Oatmeal contain no salt. And our Organic Puffs are extremely low in sodium – they contain less than half of the sodium that Bamba contains.
Looking for a healthier, easier-to-use way to introduce allergens, that's recommended by 1,000+ pediatricians and allergists? Learn how Ready. Set. Food! works for every family, even if your baby isn't yet ready for solids.
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All health-related content on this website is for informational purposes only and does not create a doctor-patient relationship. Always seek the advice of your own pediatrician in connection with any questions regarding your baby’s health.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
See the FDA Peanut Allergy Qualified Health Claim at the bottom of our homepage.
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All health-related content on this website is for informational purposes only and does not create a doctor-patient relationship. Always seek the advice of your own pediatrician in connection with any questions regarding your baby’s health.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If your infant has severe eczema, check with your infant’s healthcare provider before feeding foods containing ground peanuts.