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When can my baby eat cheese?

You can introduce bits of pasteurized cheese to most babies who can chew or gum well as early as 6 months. Cut the cheese into finger-tip sized pieces to avoid choking. Cottage cheese is also an option.

Cheese made with unpasteurized milk is off-limits to babies because it's more likely to be contaminated with listeria monocytogenes, a form of bacteria that can cause fatal food-borne illness, especially in infants, pregnant women, and the elderly.

You may wonder why it's okay for babies to eat cheese, but drinking cow's milk isn't recommended until age 12 months. Bear in mind that when your baby begins eating solid food – usually around 6 months – breast milk or formula still makes up most of his diet. And solids gradually become a larger part of it during the rest of that first year.

Babies tend to eat small amounts of cheese. (Unlike milk, it's a food, not a drink!) But if you offer cow's milk, your baby could easily gulp down quite a bit of it, and too much calcium from cow's milk may slow down iron absorption. In contrast, it's very unlikely your baby will eat enough cheese to make him iron deficient.

And here's another issue: Cow's milk is not nutritionally equal to breast milk or formula. So, you don't want your baby drinking cow's milk in the first year, when he needs the nutrition of mother's milk or formula.

In the first year of life, iron-rich solids are a relatively small part of a baby's diet, and breast milk or formula play a large nutritional role. So replacing breast milk or formula with cow's milk isn't a good idea. But by age 1, your baby is likely to be eating plenty of iron-rich solids, and cow's milk can be a larger part of his diet.

If your baby has been diagnosed with a milk allergy or intolerance or shows signs of an allergy of any kind – such as eczema – hold off on milk-based foods until you’ve checked with your baby's doctor.

If your family has a history of food allergies or asthma, it's may be safe to introduce cheese at 6 months as well, but check with your doctor first.

As with any new food, watch for signs of a food allergy: swelling of the tongue, lips, and face; skin rash; wheezing; abdominal cramping; vomiting; and diarrhea. Allergy symptoms can be mild or severe.After introducing any new food, have your baby try it a couple of times and wait at least three days before moving on to the next new food. That way you can monitor for any reaction and know what's causing it.

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