Fermented milk products often become the first adult food in a baby's life.
Often, cottage cheese is among the first products that are used for complementary foods. As many pediatricians advise, starting complementary foods with fermented milk products is convenient, because they resemble the baby's usual milk or formula.
Often, the baby is first given yogurt, and after a while, when he gets used to the new product, cottage cheese is added to the yogurt.
But what kind of cottage cheese can be given to a baby, and which - not? Should you trust store products? And if you give - how much? Understanding.
What kind of cottage cheese can be given to babies
When a small child is just getting acquainted with cottage cheese, it is better to give it in the most pasty consistency. Purchased baby curds are usually just like that - slightly denser than yogurt. Most kids get acquainted with crumbly cottage cheese later - by 2-3 years.
The consistency of the curd is selected by the parents for the child individually, there can be no single recommendation.
If the baby chews badly, he needs pasty cottage cheese. If he chews well or grows in rural areas, for example, where all the cottage cheese is crumbly, then, accordingly, he will immediately eat "adult" cottage cheese.
Some children categorically refuse pasty cottage cheese, but eat crumbly curd with pleasure - and vice versa.
Homemade cottage cheese for babies
There are only two ways where to get cottage cheese for a baby: buy ready-made or cook it yourself. Immediately, we note that homemade cottage cheese has a number of disadvantages that may be critical.
If you prepare cottage cheese from homemade milk, you cannot be 100% sure of its fat content and quality. Fatty cottage cheese can adversely affect the work of the child's gastrointestinal tract, and pathogenic bacteria can also get there.
Shop cottage cheese is "not as scary" as people think of it, especially from the older generation.Before entering the store, the cottage cheese goes through a series of checks, and the manufacturer does everything to prevent a low-quality product and make it fully comply with the norm. That is, there is more control over the production of store-bought baby cottage cheese, it is safer.
Another important point: store cottage cheese is stored longer than homemade cheese: 7-10 days versus 2-3. And the hassle with homemade cottage cheese is much more, given that you also need to cook it in very small portions.
How to cook cottage cheese for babies
If you nevertheless decide to cook cottage cheese for your baby yourself, use this recipe.
You will need: 400 ml of milk, 300 ml of kefir, fat content - at your discretion, for a start it is better to take low-fat ones.
How to cook: bring the milk to a boil, add kefir to it and, after boiling again, remove from heat. When the resulting mixture has completely cooled, transfer it to cheesecloth and lift to drain excess liquid. The resulting residue will be your homemade cottage cheese.
When to give cottage cheese for babies
You can feed your baby cottage cheese both in the morning for breakfast and for an afternoon snack. It is not suitable for dinner - too light, the baby can wake up hungry in the middle of the night.
As the child gets acquainted with new products, you can add fruits, berries and other "toppings" to the curd.
Allergy to cottage cheese in babies
If a child is allergic to cow protein, then perhaps it will manifest itself when consuming fermented milk products like cottage cheese. But not a fact. It is worth trying to accurately attribute cottage cheese to foods that are allowed or prohibited for a baby.
It is also important to distinguish between intolerance to dairy products due to the lack of an enzyme to digest them and a child's allergic reaction, which the child can outgrow on their own.Intolerance is forever, and allergies, a type of it, can go away. To check if this has happened, you need to give your child to try dairy and sour milk products at least once a year.
Allergies can manifest as atopic dermatitis, urticaria, edema, vomiting, and runny nose.
How much cottage cheese can a child be 1-2 years old
Children under 2 years old are not recommended to eat more than 50 g of cottage cheese per day. The trial of a new product begins, of course, with scanty portions - half a teaspoon.
If the reaction is normal, then every day the portion gradually increases to 50g. If a one-year-old baby (or older) loves cottage cheese very much and is not ready to limit himself to 50 g per day, then it is not a problem to give him a large portion.
But if the baby wants to eat a lot of cottage cheese every day, it is imperative to consult with a pediatrician for possible negative consequences.
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