Okay, I am wondering when my fellow mumsnetters let their children have unpasterised cheese, pate and rare meat

[Overrun]

I am not aware of any guidelines, although I do have some vaque memory of being told that they can have seafood when they are 3. My natural caution wars with my love of food, and my desire for them to be adventoruous in their tastes.

A good example is, we like our beef rare, and the dcs (2 and 4) eat it that way too. Are we endangering them?

The reason why I have suddenly thought of this, is dt2 has just grabbed and obviously enjoyed some brie. I let him do it, but was wondering if I should. It turns out that it was pasterised any way btw. Is it the case, that soft cheeses are pasterised now?

Anyway, thats enough questions, I think

My DT(in fact all of my DC) have had food with alcohol in from the beginning as I used to blend down whatever I was cooking. The only nod I made towards them was omitting salt.

Mine love raw cake mix (almost as much as I do!)

HAVE TREID REGULARLY]
IT TASTES LIKE PEELED OFF HUMAN SKIN

DD adores seafood, she's 2 and it doesn't bother me.

DB is getting her hooked on soft cheese aswell, he lovess it.

my kdis la liked smoked salmon
waont touch it now

Seafood at 3?

My mum gave ds prawn curry when he was 8 months old.

She also dealt with the resulting nappies...

Prawn curry tomorrow night then - yippee! And what about nuts....I thought we were just supposed to hold off because of chocking risk - is that right?

I have been more careful about nuts, because of allergies. Mine like prawn rissoto (sp) which is good, because so do I

Letting them lick out the bowl - t's the best bit of making cakes (like you Mars we fight over it) I've also given them thjings like carbonara with the egg just cooked by the heat of pasta and frozen sauces with raw egg in. I do think the salmonella risk is overstated somewhat.

And thinking about it I'm the same as Mars - the only cooking concession I've made since having kids is salt, and now I prefer my food without much added

Prufrock and Mars, I am with you on this, we now eat much less salty food, and that has got to be a good thing

dc have had smoked salmon since they were 6 months old and eaten rare meat since they were 1.

my dd 3 lurves brussels pate and has eaten it since she was eating finger foods..she loves it on crumpets or toast

Overrun ~ just flicked thru and no-one mentioned the rare meat! My dd is 11 and has been eating very rare roast beef and rare steaks for years and she wouldn't have it any other way!

Thanks princesscc, my dh used to be fed the blood when he was young, we don't go that far. But they do seem to like it, so hopefully we are not introducing too many nasties into their little systems

I too like my beef mooing! As long as the meat is seared on the outside so it changes colour it is perfectly safe to eat still pink in the middle, harmful bacteria will only be on the surface (this does not go for mince though, so rare hamburgers are not a good idea!) and will be killed by the high temp. Of course this only goes for beef, not chicken or pork!

Smoking meat and fish also kills most harmful bacteria if I remember correctly, and the salt also helps kill any bacteria, so that is pretty safe for little ones to eat too (apart from the salt )

I had nothing but unpasteurised goats' milk and cheeses straight from the goat in the garden until I was about two, it never did me any harm!

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DS is 18 months and eats raw milk, soft & blue cheese and rare meat. He's ok

Haven't tried pate yet but I'm sure he'll love it. Must get some at the weekend...

With cheese that is mould ripened (brie, camembert etc) it makes absolutley no odds whether the milk it was made with was pasturized. It can still contain listeria etc - in fact if listeria is in there it is likely to be in stronger concentration than it would be in a cheese made with unpasturised milk.
That's why you can'y eat those cheeses when preggers.
Still, I wouldn't have a prob serving them to little ones.

No seafood? Does that include fish? Mine have just had haddock for dinner.

I think there might be a bit of confusion between shellfish and seafood?

And remember, no more than 2 portions of oily fish per week for girls & women (unless no more babies are planned)

Greeny, I meant prawns, mussels etc
Pruni, climbingrosie,mamama,SweetyDarling and Mercy. Its always a pleasure to be in the company of like minded individuals

By the time they are on solids, they are probably sucking onthe dog's foot when you're not looking, so a little cheese is hardly the end of the world!!

The advice regarding shellfish (not all fish!!) is because of possible allergic reactions rather than exposure to harmful micro-organisms, so if you've fed your lo shellfish/prawns etc. since they were babies and they are still fine don't worry! you aren't doing them any harm. Same with nuts, some guidelines say not for under 3s, some say not for under 5s, this is because of possible allergic reactions, but if there is no family history of nut allergies it's probably ok to introduce them at younger age, apart from the choking hazard of course.

well i alwaysask myself how ofte have i got ill from eating any of the mentioned foods and it is not once so figure the chances of dd or ds getting ill are slim!!

Oily fish in any quantities is fine, just not tuna, shark (!) or marlin. You can eat as much mackerel and as many sardines as you can fit in.
My kids eat everything.