When should I feed my baby with dairy products?

Dairy products such as yogurt, cow's milk, and cheese bring many benefits to children's health. Depending on the type of food and the child's age, you should feed your child appropriately.

When can I feed my baby yogurt, cheese and cow's milk? Is my baby allergic to milk? Can I replace formula with cow's milk? Can I use dairy foods to wean my baby? These are the top concerns of mothers when feeding their babies with dairy foods. Please join aFamilyToday Health to follow the following shares to get answers to the above questions.

When should you start offering dairy products?

Cow's milk / whole milk

Cow's milk is not recommended for infants under 12 months as it can lead to iron deficiency, dehydration, and allergies. You can start offering whole milk after your baby is 1 year old. The high fat content in whole milk helps your baby develop brain. When your baby is 2 years old, you can give him low-fat milk. Cow's milk contains calcium and is rich in vitamin D, both of which are essential for the development of bones and teeth.

Yogurt

You can start to feed your baby yogurt at 8 months, as long as no one has allergies in the family. Yogurt provides a full range of nutrients (protein, fat, calcium, potassium ...) and is easy to digest. In addition, yogurt is also very rich in vitamin D. You should feed your baby plain yogurt instead of low-fat yogurt, so that your baby has the necessary amount of fat.

Have your baby use naturally sweetened yogurt instead of artificial sweeteners. If your baby is lactose intolerant or allergic to milk, eczema or asthma, you need to wait a long time or check with your pediatrician.

Once you confirm that your baby is not allergic to yogurt, you can try the following combinations to make yogurt even more enjoyable:

Yogurt with fruit or vegetable

Yogurt with banana

Yogurt with apples

Sweet potatoes mixed with yogurt

Carrots are boiled and pureed with yogurt

Yogurt smoothie.

Cheese

If you breastfeed or formula and are not allergic to milk, you can offer cheese after 8 months of age. Shred or puree cheese and spread it on bread, vegetables or meat. You can also feed your baby sweet potatoes with cheese.

The child's diet should include dairy products to meet the body's caloric needs. However, you should not overfeed your baby.

How much dairy products should my baby eat?

In the beginning, feed your baby in small amounts, then gradually increase it.

Whole milk - no more than 700ml: give it to your baby for the first 2 years of life

Yogurt - about 250ml: it takes a while for your baby to like this food, but don't stop feeding him when he refuses to eat it.

Cheese - 15g: watch when your baby eats to avoid choking.

If your baby is having trouble drinking whole milk, you can offer them yogurt and cheese. However, you should not replace breastmilk or formula with cow's milk.

Why shouldn't breast milk / formula be replaced with cow's milk?

You should not replace breastmilk / formula with cow's milk or give cow's milk to babies under 1 year old for the following reasons:

Cow's milk is not full of essential nutrients such as iron, zinc and vitamin E like breast milk and formula.

Cow's milk is low in iron. Therefore, babies are susceptible to iron deficiency anemia, especially if they drink cow's milk from 4 to 6 months old.

The high content of nutrients like protein and casein causes babies to urinate a lot, leading to dehydration.

Babies are susceptible to a milk allergy in the first year.

However, you can mix the cereal with cow's milk or use cow's milk for cooking. When you cook food with milk, the proteins are broken down. Therefore, cow's milk is safe for babies over 8 months old.

When your baby is 1 year old, you can give your baby cow's milk along with other solid foods such as vegetables, fruits and pickled foods.

Milk allergy

If you have a family history of milk allergy or lactose intolerance syndrome , you should not breastfeed your baby of any kind until the baby is 1 year old.

If you don't have a history of dairy allergy, you can try waiting three days after introducing dairy foods and not giving your baby new foods for those three days. This way, you will know if your baby has a milk allergy.

Some common allergy symptoms are:

Itchy red patches appear

Swelling of lips or eyes

Vomiting for two hours after eating a new food

If you experience any of the above symptoms, stop giving new foods to your baby and check with your doctor right away.

Things to remember

Here are some helpful tips you need to know before giving dairy products to your baby:

Consult your doctor before feeding your baby.

Children allergic to dairy products tend to have a food allergy like soy.

Offer your baby only one new food at a time, so you can identify which foods cause allergies.

Lactose intolerance in young children. However, if the baby is lactose intolerant, yogurt can still be good for the baby because the microorganisms in the yogurt help break down lactose, so it is easier to digest.

If your baby doesn't have any unpleasant symptoms after eating dairy foods, let them eat. As your baby gets a little older, there are many other recipes you can try to get your baby's attention.