Cheese for babies

[WindInThePussyWillows]

I just wondered what cheese you started your baby on during weaning, and at what point did you introduce different cheese.

My twins are nearly 8mo and LOVE cheddar, cheese sauce, cheesey pasta, cheese cubes, cheese on cheese..

I'm a fussy cheese eater and will only have Cheddar, but I don't want them to be fussy like me.

Mine eat anything. Good staring point:

• strong cheddar
• goats cheese ( hard and soft)
• hallomi ( needs cooking)

-feta

• Red Leicester

Mine love steak with Gorgonzola sauce!

Thank you so much that's really helpful.
I'm determined to not pass on my fussy habits and encourage them to try a good range of food.

Your steak sounds great!

How small/big do you cut the cheese cubes? DD is 7m and I was thinking of cheese as a finger food...

I gave my DD mozzerella the other day and she seemed to actually eat some of it. She loves white/beige food.

DS hated cheese until he was almost 2yo! Bloody nightmare as it's such a handy food to give them.

Ronconcoke I tend to cut slices and then break off bits to give to them, if I do cubes they are about 1cm by 1cm, I grate it on pasta/potato/veg too!

I only give cheese sporadically to my 1.5 y old as it contains lots of salt. Adding cheese is almost like adding salt to meals. You might easily overdo on daily sodium intake recommended doses.
Also it creates habit of stonger tasting foods with all that salt.

Only hight quality hard matured cheese should be offered- like parmesan, cheddar.
Soft cheeses as feta, brie are not suitable.

Why on earth are soft cheeses not suitable?

Feta is fine. DD loves it. Agree about the salt though.

Why not soft cheese? It's ideal on toast for something they can feed themselves.
My baby enjoyed some Cathedral city mature for his first hard cheese yesterday. He's 7mths. He only had a little bit.

As it goes mine us a right fusspot about cheese and only eats cheddar or similar hard cheeses. She's 2.8 now. But I've always offered her everything. Can't imagine why soft cheeses wouldn't be ok?!

But yes I agree that salt-wise it's something to keep an eye on when they're very little. But 1 year-plus, a few cubes msybe with cherry toms or cucumber makes a great snack.

Why are soft cheeses not suitable? Both mine have been eating soft cheese since 6 months. Neither of them would ever touch purées and went straight to finger foods, I think cubed feta was one of the first things DD2 ate

Apparently they shouldn't have unpasteurised soft cheeses, as they may contain listeria..

Most soft cheese including the ones you mention will be pasteurised, If bought in a supermarket.

Tend to only find unpasteurised in fancy cheese shops, it will always say on the label.

Believe it is same as for pregnant women, issue of listeria.
Also cheese with mold like blue cheese and brie, believe same thing apply.

I've always grated some Parmesan on my DD's pasta since she was a baby. She loves it! It's a good route in to a stronger flavour

Feta is also super salty. Their kindeys are not fully mature and that is one of the reasons why meals should not be salty. It would be better to offer cheese with less sodium content. Keep in mind that recommened sodium daily intake would be significantly lower for 7m old than for an adult.

My DS won't eat anything savoury unless it's cheesy

My lad has good taste.

Cream cheese is a good bet btw, DS loves cream cheese sandwiches for lunch

My SiL is Italian so DGS was chomping on chunks of parmesan from a very young age :)

Absolute rubbish about soft cheese! Most cheese is made with pasteurised milk so there is no risk of listeria. Cheese made with raw milk (which is far superior in flavour imo) poses a very very very small risk but it's tiny.

I also wouldn't worry much about the salt content in most hard cheese unless they vast amounts.

There's salt in loads of food. It's only an issue if your giving them all the other salty items also ie bread

My dd used to love Stilton.
I'm guessing from reading some of the pps that I probably shouldn't have given it to her but she used to steal mine. She's not had it for a while now because it gives her the most disgusting farts.