Cheese for a 7mo

[knittynoodle]

I give my DS who is 7mo a few dishes which contain a bit of cheese. Broccoli and cauliflower cheese, and once, Dairylea on toast (very very thinly spread, just to give the bread some moisture. I most often use mashed bananas as a spread)

MIL is adamant that children shouldnt have cheese at all and I give him too much. Hes probably had it 3 times since i started weaning [hhmm]

Some advice would be great as I got my recipes from the Anabel Karmel book so I though they were all nutritionally accurate but MIL works in a nursery and they dont give the children cheese (but they do give them humus which I thought wasnt that great due to sesame being a known allegen)

Help! Cheese or no cheese?

Cheese! I'm not sure where your MIL has got that from.

Cheese is fine, as is hummous, and nuts (just not whole due to the choking risk). Basically they can have anything other than honey and keep an eye on salt/sugar obviously. DS is about 90% cheese at the moment he is 8mo.
For other toast spreads try peanut butter, mashed avocado, fruit spread, tuna with mayo/cream cheese.
HTH

I gave DD cheese all the time from 6 months! She loves it. Obviously watch the salt content but dairy is good for them!

I hope your MIL never tells my DD (7 months) that, she may well poke her eyes out as its a fave of hers!! [hgrin]

My hv said the more mature it is the more salty it is. I felt that as you used less mature cheese to get a tasty sauce it wasn't that big a deal.

I have a book on infant nutrition (sorry can't see it, lights switched off and sleeping baby on knee or would give you the title!) that recommends giving the more mature cheese as the flavour comes from broken down proteins, not from salt! (thinking about it, this would make sense. I can't imagine the cheese manufacturers adding extra salt during the maturing process ). My dss both love cheese.

Excellent idea for a survey rodformyownback and brilliant name!

My 9mo DS would go on hunger strike if I took his cheese away.

My father has just emailed me to voice his concern at my giving DD (8MO) cheese! He thinks it will clog her little arteries! Does he not realise that cheese is made from milk - he can't object to her having milk, surely!

Silly daddy

Mild cheese is fine, mature isn't due to salt content.

That's weird. My baby's nursery sometimes gives them mild cheddar on crackers with a veg on top. Cheese is good. Ofcourse!

My ds has cheese every day, I am also a nursery worker. From 6 months they can have pretty much everything unless there are allergies (being sensible about choking risks obviously).

My 8 mo DS loves cheese. We use ordinary medium cheddar in recipes and given to him in sticks that he can hold and chew on.
We also spread full fat philly on toast and he loves that too. I sometimes add a bit of philly to his food to make it creamier when cooked.
Another idea - if you are using puree or mashed up food, smear a bit of it on toast (with or without philly - I find with usually works best) and that can help if DS wants to hold his food.

Ok my hv is obviously talking rubbish..she told me mature isn't ok! Don't know why I listen to her because most of the info she gives me is complete crap!