What Cheese Can Babies Eat? A UK Safe-List (and the Cheeses to Avoid)

Babies can eat cheese from around 6 months, as soon as they start solids — as long as it's the right kind. The safe choices are pasteurised, full-fat cheeses: everyday favourites like cheddar, mild hard cheeses, mozzarella and cream cheese. Cheese is a great early food — rich in calcium, protein and energy, and easy to grate, melt or offer as soft sticks.

Before offering solids, check your baby is showing the usual signs of readiness for weaning — sitting steadily with good head control, reaching for and mouthing food, and no longer pushing food back out with their tongue. These usually appear around 6 months.

Remember: cheese is a dairy food, which is fine from 6 months even though cow's milk as a main drink waits until 12 months. If that distinction is new to you, our guide to yogurt for babies explains it in full.

This is feeding support, not medical advice. If your baby has a diagnosed cow's milk allergy, speak to your GP or health visitor before offering cheese.

Some cheeses carry a small risk of listeria — a bacteria that can make babies unwell — so the NHS advises avoiding them for babies unless they're cooked thoroughly until steaming hot, which kills the bacteria.

Avoid giving these to your baby (unless cooked thoroughly):

• Mould-ripened soft cheeses — like brie and camembert
• Ripened soft goats' cheeses of a similar type
• Blue cheeses — like stilton, roquefort, gorgonzola and Danish blue
• Any unpasteurised cheese, whatever its type

Safe from 6 months (pasteurised, full-fat)	Avoid unless cooked thoroughly
Cheddar and mild hard cheeses	Brie, camembert (mould-ripened soft)
Mozzarella	Blue cheeses (stilton, gorgonzola, etc.)
Cream cheese, cottage cheese	Ripened soft goats' cheese
Paneer, mild cheese slices (pasteurised)	Any unpasteurised cheese

The good news: cooking removes the concern. Brie baked into a hot dish, or blue cheese melted thoroughly into a piping-hot sauce, is fine because the heat destroys the listeria. It's only the uncooked versions of these particular cheeses to steer clear of. When in doubt, check the label says "pasteurised" and stick to the safe-list.

Cheese is delicious and nutritious, but it's also one of the saltier foods your baby will eat — and babies need very little salt. Their kidneys can't handle much, so keeping salt low is genuinely important in the first year.

You don't need to avoid cheese for this reason — it's a valuable food — but do use a little portion sense:

• Offer cheese in modest amounts rather than large helpings, and not at every single meal.
• Choose lower-salt options where you can — milder cheeses and cream or cottage cheese tend to be lower in salt than strong, mature or processed cheeses.
• Don't add extra salt elsewhere. If cheese is part of a meal, remember it's already contributing salt, so keep the rest of the plate unsalted. Never add salt to your baby's food, and go easy on other salty ingredients like stock cubes, gravy and processed meats.

Think of cheese as a tasty, calcium-rich addition to a varied diet — welcome in sensible portions, not as the salty centre of every meal.

Cheese adapts to every stage of weaning. Always sit your baby upright and supervised, and never leave them alone with food. Because firmer cheese can be a choking risk if offered in the wrong shape, serving matters.

Age	How to serve cheese
From 6 months	Finely grated hard cheese sprinkled over or melted into soft food (mash, veg, pasta); soft cream or cottage cheese off a spoon or spread thinly; melted cheese folded into an omelette or on toast fingers
7–9 months	Grated cheese stirred into meals; soft cheese sticks or fingers (a manageable size to grip and gum); cheese melted into sauces
9–12 months+	Small soft cubes or thin sticks as chewing improves; cheese in family meals — still watching salt and portion size

A couple of safety pointers:

• Grate or melt for younger babies. Hard cheese in a firm chunk is harder to manage — grated or melted is safer and easier for a new eater.
• Soft, easy-to-squash pieces. When offering cheese sticks, choose a softer cheese and a size baby can hold. As with other firm foods, keep an eye on the shape.

If your baby gags a little while getting used to new textures, that's usually a normal part of learning to eat — our guide on gagging versus choking during weaning explains the difference.

Because cheese is made from cow's milk, it's part of the dairy allergen group — one of the most common allergens in babies. If your baby has already tolerated other dairy like plain yogurt, they've generally already met the dairy allergen. If cheese is their first dairy food, introduce it like any allergen: on its own, a small amount first, then a little more if there's no reaction, and keep it in the diet once tolerated. Our guide to allergen introduction covers this in detail.

Mild-to-moderate reaction signs can include redness or hives (often around the mouth), swelling of the lips or face, being sick, tummy upset or loose stools. Stop dairy and speak to your GP before offering it again.

Call 999 immediately and say "anaphylaxis" if you see any severe signs:

• Swollen tongue, or swelling in the mouth or throat
• Difficulty breathing, noisy or wheezy breathing, or a persistent cough
• Suddenly going very pale, floppy or unresponsive

Anaphylaxis is a medical emergency — don't wait to see if it settles. Call 999 straight away.

From around 6 months, pasteurised full-fat cheeses — cheddar, mozzarella, cream cheese and mild hard cheeses — are a lovely, calcium-rich early food. Avoid mould-ripened soft cheeses (brie, camembert), blue cheeses and anything unpasteurised, unless they're cooked thoroughly until piping hot.

Keep portions sensible because cheese is salty, and don't add salt elsewhere. Grate or melt it for younger babies, offer soft pieces upright and supervised, and treat it as part of the dairy allergen group — knowing your reaction signs, including the 999 anaphylaxis flags.

For a confident, structured start to solids — safe foods, textures, allergens and salt — take a look at our Starting Solids course (£67). You might also like our guides to yogurt for babies and introducing egg.