Dairy products at what age?

[huppa]

Hi, I´m new to mumsnet and hope someone can give me some advice. I´m living in Germany and the advice here seems to be no dairy products before 12 months. However, I have the Annabel Karmel´s book and she says dairy products are o.k. at 6 months. As my dd is now 7 months I´m not sure which advice to follow. Any views gratefully received.

Most of the books and things over here in UK say 6 months, although fromage frais often says 4 months on the tubs. I waited until 6 months (ish) and DD was fine.

I think the only 12 month thing with dairy products in the UK is that cows milk should not be the main drink before 12 months.

I had always understood that cows' milk as a drink should be avoided pre 1 year but fromage frai etc OK. However presumably this is treated in some way - have you considered that maybe there is some difference in the products which accounts for the different advice? I know that in Germany some of the milk like desserts are not the same as here. Having said that my sister brought up her babies in Germany and they all had dairy products before a year and seem to have survived the experience!
I have a son with asthma and was interested to read this week some research suggesting lack of full fat milk at a very early age correlated with increased asthma.

The reason it shouldn't be the main drink is not because milk is different to yoghurt, but that before one milk is probably the main source of nutrition or at least a v important one, and it doesn't have the vitamins, minerals and digestibility of breast or formula milk, so a child might go short of nutrition. I gave ds yoghurt and cheese etc from at least six months - which I think is the official advice. He's fine. Danone do yoghurts made of formula milk which I gave him from around 4months.

Thanks for the advice. I´d already pretty much decided that cheese and yoghurt were probably o.k. It was just the look of horror on the look of German friends when I suggested yoghurt as a snack that made me think again. Thought I better just get a second opinion - you know how it is.

another reason to delay that I have heard of is allergies, as I understand it, the later milk is introduced the less likely an allergic reaction, but often milk products such as cheese and yoghurt are less likely to cause an allergic reaction anyway than straight milk. If your child is already drinking formula, they are already drinking a dairy product, so no reason to delay cheese etc. My ds is 7 months, and I have just started slowly introducing bits and pieces of dairy, and he loves them, no problems.

I've started to introduce dairy to my dd who is almost 7 months. So far we've had cheese sauce made with either formula or cows milk and petite filous (?spelling) and she's loved it. She's also had the odd lick of ice cream off the end of my finger - the look on her face was a picture!

Hi Huppa, I am also in Germany and was surprised when my midwife suggested that I should wait till 12mths to introduce dairy. My ds will be 6mths on 24/7. I've been loosley following the GF Weaning guidelines so far which say 6mths. I've only been registerd on mumsnet recently and don't know what the protocol is for swapping personal e-mail addresses, but I could really do with some non-german english speaking mum contact, what about you?

Aussiesim - click on "contact another talker" at the top of the screen and it'll tell you everything you need to know.

I also waited till 6 months and ds was fine. But I weaned him at 4 months so had already done 2 months of fruit and veggie purees. I suppose it therefore depends on when you wean.