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When can you feed yogurt to a baby


When Can Babies Eat Yogurt?

Written by WebMD Editorial Contributors

In this Article

  • Introducing Your Baby to Yogurt
  • Nutritional Benefits of Yogurt for Your Baby
  • How to Prepare Yogurt for Your Baby
  • Tips for Introducing New Foods to Your Baby

When you begin to offer your baby solid food around six months, you introduce them to a variety of tastes, flavors, and textures. Before you begin, it’s important to know how to safely introduce allergenic foods. 

Yogurt is a great food choice once your baby is introduced to solids. Yogurt is safe for babies as long as you pay close attention to nutrition labels and watch for any allergic reactions. Talk to your doctor first if there is a history of dairy allergy or lactose intolerance in your family.

Introducing Your Baby to Yogurt

Be sure to read labels on yogurt and make sure to avoid two specific ingredients:

  • Honey. Honey isn't safe before 12 months because your baby may contract a type of food poisoning called botulism.
  • Added sugar. Many yogurts have added sugar or sweeteners that have no benefit for your baby. Try sweetening yogurt with fruit instead.

You should only introduce one new food at a time to your baby, and wait at least three days before introducing another. By doing this, you can pinpoint an allergic reaction if they have one. Since dairy allergies are common, this is especially important when offering yogurt to your baby.

Watch for these signs of an allergic reaction:

  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea
  • Skin rash
  • Swelling around the lips or eyes

If your baby has an allergic reaction, stop feeding them yogurt and call your pediatrician. They can provide guidelines of when to try offering yogurt again to see if the allergy goes away with time.

Nutritional Benefits of Yogurt for Your Baby

Yogurt is rich in protein and calcium, as well as phosphorus and B vitamins. While protein aids in muscle development and calcium promotes strong bones and teeth, most of yogurt's health benefits seem to come from its live bacterial content. Yogurt and other fermented foods that contain specific strains of live bacteria are known as “probiotic.”  Probiotic foods like yogurt may help maintain a healthy balance of bacteria in your baby’s gut. Over time, probiotic foods may even prevent a wide range of health issues including obesity and diabetes.

A serving size for your baby is about half a cup of yogurt. Some yogurt brands are fortified with added protein and vitamins that are fine for your baby, but read labels carefully to look for added sugar and honey as ingredients. 

How to Prepare Yogurt for Your Baby

Once you have established that your baby isn't allergic to either yogurt or individual fruits, add chopped or mashed fruits to your baby’s yogurt for added taste and sweetness. Make sure the pieces are small enough that they aren't a choking hazard. 

Great chopped or mashed fruits to add to yogurt include:

  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Peaches
  • Banana

‌You can spoon-feed your baby or let them hold the spoon and try to feed themself. Of course, they might make a mess. This is part of their learning about food as they are introduced to solids. 

Tips for Introducing New Foods to Your Baby

Before offering new foods, ask these questions:

  • Can my baby hold their head up independently? This is an important developmental milestone for eating solid food.
  • Is my baby interested in eating? Your baby may watch you eat with interest, or even try to grab your food and taste it. When you offer your baby a spoon, they should open their mouth to eat.
  • Can my baby move food to their throat? If you offer food with a spoon, your baby may push it out with their tongue first. This is called the tongue-thrust reflex. With time they will learn to use their tongue to push the food to the back of their mouth and swallow.

‌Offer a variety. As your baby starts to eat solid foods, they need variety in their diet. This helps ensure your baby is receiving all of the nutrients they need and also helps expand their palate for new tastes. 

Normalize new foods. Once you introduce a new food to your baby and you've confirmed they aren't allergic to it, try to offer it to them again at least twice a week. Not only does this familiarize your baby with new foods, but it can also prevent food allergies. Additionally, when your baby is learning to eat, they watch you. Make sure to offer them the same foods the rest of the family is eating for encouragement.

Consider Allergens. By the time your baby is 12 months old, they should be introduced to each of the common allergenic foods:

  • Cooked egg
  • Creamy peanut butter
  • Cow’s milk (dairy)
  • Tree nuts (such as cashew or almond paste)
  • Soy
  • Sesame
  • Wheat
  • Fish and other seafood

‌By introducing these foods early in life, you can reduce your baby’s chance of developing food allergies.  

When can babies eat yogurt, and which baby yogurt is best?

Most babies can start eating yogurt as soon as they start eating solids – around 4 to 6 months. Yogurt is an excellent choice for one of your baby's first foods because it contains calcium, protein, and vitamins. The best option is plain, unsweetened, pasteurized yogurt (regular or Greek) made from whole milk and containing "live cultures."

What kind of yogurt is best for babies?

Nearly all flavored and fruit-on-top yogurts, even products marketed for babies, contain added sugar, which can contribute to tooth decay and obesity. The USDA guidelines recommend that children under 2 years old get no added sugar from their diet. Choosing plain yogurt is the easiest way to avoid added sugar.

To see whether a product has added sugar, check the nutrition label. Look at the line under "Total Sugars" to see how much of the sugar in a product is added sugar. (All yogurt contains some natural sugar in the form of lactose. )

Yogurt made from whole milk is best for babies and toddlers because they need the calories and fat in full-fat dairy products. Don't offer your child reduced-fat or fat-free yogurt before age 2 unless your healthcare provider advises it.

Greek yogurt is strained for a rich, creamy texture, and has twice as much protein as regular yogurt, making it another good choice for babies. Plus, it's often easier to find Greek yogurt in sugar-free varieties.

Is yogurt healthy for babies?

In addition to being a good source of calcium and protein, some types of yogurt contain live cultures, also known as probiotics. These are living microorganisms (bacteria) used to convert milk to yogurt, or added to yogurt afterward. They promote the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut, which researchers believe may help with digestion.

How can you tell whether yogurt has this good bacteria? The product label should state that the yogurt contains live or active cultures, which means the organisms haven't been destroyed by heat during processing. However, a label that says "made with active cultures" does not mean that the yogurt still contains living cultures, only that the yogurt was made with them (as all yogurt is).

It can be hard to tell if a yogurt contains a significant amount of beneficial bacteria. One way is to look for the Live & Active Cultures seal by the International Dairy Foods Association. This seal identifies products that contain at least 100 million live and active cultures per gram. But participation in the program is voluntary, so a product without the seal isn't necessarily short on cultures.

You may wonder why it's okay for babies to eat yogurt, when drinking cow's milk isn't recommended until a baby is at least 12 months old.

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Actually, a little bit of cow's milk, like the amount in the occasional serving of yogurt, won't hurt your baby. It's just not a good replacement for the breast milk or formula that still makes up most of their diet for the first year.

That's because babies can't digest cow's milk as easily or completely as breast milk or formula. And cow's milk doesn't have the ideal proportion of fats and nutrients that your baby gets from breast milk or formula.

For more information, see our article on when and how to introduce cow's milk to your child.

Yogurt allergies in babies

If your baby has been diagnosed with a milk allergy or shows signs of a food allergy (such as eczema), don't give them yogurt until you've checked with your healthcare provider.

Otherwise, as with any new food, wait at least three days after introducing yogurt before giving your baby another new food. That way, if your baby has an allergic reaction, it will be easier to tell what caused it.

Common symptoms of an allergic reaction include itchy red spots or patches, swelling around the lips or eyes, or vomiting within two hours of eating the recently introduced food. If you notice any of these symptoms, don't give your baby any more of the food until you've checked in with your provider.

Lactose intolerance – which is different from a milk allergy – is very rare in babies. Even if your child becomes lactose intolerant, it may be fine for them to eat yogurt. The production process breaks down much of the lactose, making yogurt more easily tolerated than other dairy products.

Yogurt recipes for babies

Your baby may not be a fan of plain yogurt, so try adding flavor (and nutrients) by mixing in fruit or vegetables. For babies who are new to solids, start with pureed fruit and cooked, pureed vegetables. For older babies, you can add soft fruit and cooked vegetables chopped into small pieces. Mashed avocado, applesauce, oatmeal, and wheat germ are also good additions.

Never give honey to a baby younger than 12 months because it may contain bacteria that can cause botulism in children that age.

Try these baby food recipes with yogurt:

  • Yogurt and berry swirl
  • Baby guacamole
  • Tropical fruit salad 

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when to introduce baby yogurt to complementary foods

Reading time: 5 minutes

Yogurt is one of the most common dairy products loved by children. For the preparation of yogurt, a special sourdough is used, to which Bulgarian bacillus and thermophilic streptococci are added. The presence of these microorganisms provides the benefits of yogurt for children. That is why many mothers have questions about at what age you can give yogurt to your baby and how to make a delicious treat for your child yourself.

1 Yogurt for baby food: when to give it, from how many months

1.1 Benefits of yogurt for baby food

1.2 Possible harm and contraindications

1.3 Yogurt for baby: when to give complementary foods

1.4 How to choose the right treat for your baby

1.5 Homemade recipes

1.6 Baby yogurt recipes

1.6.10023

Children's yoghurt, rich in lactobacilli, saturates the newborn's body with a huge amount of vitamins and calcium, which is important for the elements of the skeleton and tooth enamel. Easily digestible proteins predominate in the composition of the fermented milk dessert, which ensure the growth and development of the crumbs.

The benefits of yogurt for children's body is the content of a very large amount of probiotics. With the help of such additives, the intestinal microflora is normalized, digestion improves. Especially useful for children after prolonged antibiotic therapy.

Yogurt for baby food can be with various additives - fruits, berries. This will make your child's daily diet more nutritious and varied.

Watch a video with Dr. Komarovsky's opinion about yogurt:

What are the benefits of yogurt for children? - Dr. Komarovsky


Watch this video on YouTube

Possible harm and contraindications

To decide how many months you can start giving yogurt to a child, you need to remember that such complementary foods can cause allergic reactions. Most often, they are caused by fruit and berry fillers, the addition of synthetic flavors, dyes and preservatives. An allergy to a product without additives is possible only with individual lactose intolerance.

When giving yogurt to children, parents should remember that the expiration date in children's products is very short, so it is very likely to treat the baby with an expired treat. The reason for negative reactions can be not only the shelf life, but also the conditions in which it was kept. That is why many pediatricians recommend making tasty and nutritious homemade yogurt for babies.

Yogurt for a baby: when you can give complementary foods

When a baby can be given complementary foods with yogurt - it depends on the baby's nutrition. If an infant is breastfed, it is allowed to feed a fermented milk treat after 9months. With an artificial type of nutrition, it is recommended to add dessert from the age of 8 months.

Yoghurt for a child - how and from what age you can give it:

  1. It is better to treat the baby with the first portion of the product in the first half of the day - this will give the mother the opportunity to track the reaction of the baby's body to new complementary foods for some time.
  2. If well tolerated, the product can be used as a tasty and nutritious snack or afternoon snack, combined with cottage cheese, berries and fruit pieces.
  3. "Adult" products that do not have the "For children" label can be given to small gourmets only after reaching 2 years.

When answering whether children can eat yogurt, pediatricians answer in the affirmative, but parents should carefully monitor the portion size. The size of one serving for children under 12 months should not exceed 80-120 ml, from 1 to 3 years - 220 ml of the product.

How to choose the right treat for your child

There is a wide range of fermented milk products on the supermarket shelves. In order to choose high-quality and healthy yogurt for a child, you need to remember a few rules:

  1. A high-quality dessert must contain only milk and sourdough. Flavors, stabilizers, dyes and other chemical additives are not allowed.
  2. Babies under 2 years of age should not buy products with fruit and berry fillings, as they can provoke an allergic reaction. It is best to combine a pure dessert with homemade fruit or berry puree.
  3. Children under 2 years of age may be given foods that do not exceed 3.2% fat. Such desserts can disrupt digestion, so they are only allowed for older children.
  4. Pediatricians recommend giving such widely advertised products as Rastishka, Miracle, Activia, Aktimel to a child only after reaching the age of 3 years.
  5. Fermented milk yoghurts for children under one year of age are produced under the trademarks Agusha, Tema, Medvezhonok. They can be given to the baby from 8-9 months.
  6. Carefully study the expiration date of the fermented milk product - a natural delicacy cannot be stored longer than 6-7 days. A longer shelf life indicates the presence of preservatives and other chemical additives in the composition.
  7. If the product label contains the mark "Natural Bioproduct", the manufacturer must indicate the concentration of microorganisms in its composition.

Do not use fat-free yoghurt for children. They are considered diet food and can only be consumed on the advice of a doctor.

Homemade recipes

Many mothers prefer not to buy a fermented milk product in the store, but cook it themselves. There are several recipes for making homemade treats - in a special yogurt maker, a thermos or a slow cooker. This will require a minimum of products - only boiled milk with sourdough.

Ready store-bought fermented milk products should not be used for fermentation. For this purpose, only a special sourdough bought in a specialized store or pharmacy chain is used. Check the expiration date of the starter before buying. For each serving of the homemade version, use a new starter.

In a yogurt maker

Natural yogurt in a yogurt maker - a simple and delicious recipe!


Watch this video on YouTube

Bring the milk to a boil, then let it cool to about +42°. After that, pour the starter and pour the mixture into the yogurt maker. Leave for 9-10 hours, then put the finished product in the refrigerator. This delicacy can be stored for up to 4-5 days.

In the multicooker

Do-it-yourself homemade yogurt in the multicooker


Watch this video on YouTube

The multicooker can also be used to prepare children's treats. Boil 2 liters of milk, then cool it down to +40-42°. After adding the selected starter to the liquid, stir well, pour into the multicooker bowl, close the lid and set the “Yogurt” function.

Depending on the model of the device, the delicacy will be cooked from 8 to 10 hours. After that, pour the cooked dish into glass cups or molds and refrigerate for 2-4 hours.

In a thermos

Homemade yoghurt in a thermos?


Watch this video on YouTube

You can also use an ordinary thermos to prepare delicious homemade treats. It is prepared very simply - boil the milk and let it cool, then add the starter and mix thoroughly.

After that, pour the mixture into a thermos, after dousing it with boiling water. Wrap with a warm towel or blanket and leave in a warm place for 5-7 hours. Pour the finished delicacy into glass molds or glasses and cool on the refrigerator shelf for several hours.

Baby Yogurt Recipes

Yogurt can be a tasty and nutritious snack for children. It can be served with cottage cheese, soft shortbread, pieces of apples, pears, bananas, peaches and other fruits.

Yogurt can also be used as an ingredient in a variety of salads, sweet casseroles and other dishes that children will love.

Summer vitamin salad

  • pears - 2 pcs;
  • apples - 2 pcs;
  • plums or peaches - 5 pieces;
  • melon slices - 2 pcs;
  • grape berries - 15-20 pcs.

Wash all fruits thoroughly, peel and cut into small pieces. Add seedless grape berries and fill all the ingredients with a fermented milk product. If the salad turned out to be very sour, you can add a little honey to improve the taste (if the child is not allergic to bee products).

Winter vitamin salad

  • apples - 2 pcs;
  • kiwi - 2 pieces;
  • persimmon - 2 pcs;
  • bananas - 2 pcs;
  • tangerines or oranges - 2 pcs.

Peel the fruit, de-seed and cut into small pieces. Put in a salad bowl in layers, pouring yogurt. If desired, you can add a little sugar or honey.

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Read on the topic At what age can you give milk to a child: benefits and harms, how to introduce complementary foods

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Yogurt is tasty and healthy a delicacy that must be in the children's diet already in the first year of life. With the correct introduction, taking into account age restrictions, the fermented milk product helps to diversify the daily menu, as well as improve the health of the child.

Read on the topic At what age can you give sour cream to a child: is it possible for children, what are the benefits and harms

Read on the topic At what age can you give kefir to a child: from how many months, how to give did you like the article?

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At what age can you give your child yogurt? From 5 months is it possible?

From what age ...

25 responses

Last - Remove

#1

#2

#3

#5

Guest

From 8-9 months you can have milk, baby curds and biolact. Previously, it was not necessary, especially since you did not give vegetables, meat, fish. Very often, babies have an allergy to milk, due to lactose. Spoil the baby's entire gastrointestinal tract.

#6

9000

#8

Guest

For such questions, there is a pediatrician who regularly examines the child.

#9

Guest

agree. Complementary foods start from another and, according to modern WHO standards, from 6 months. Before that, the stomach is still too weak to break down heavy food.

#10

#11

#12

#13,0003

#14 #14

Guest

Complementary foods according to WHO from six months, as written above. Komarovsky recommends starting with kefir, explaining that WHO simply does not know about kefir, and therefore does not recommend starting with it. There are many schemes for introducing complementary foods, the choice is up to the mother, whom to believe.

#15

Guest

Dear Mom!!! I am a criminal. From the age of 6 months, we ate borscht with sour cream and cracklings, wiped with a fork. The sons are already 33 years old and 28 years old, if anything. Throw slippers at me, civilized mothers.

#16

004 Fiery

If the baby has constipation, then it is better to give fermented milk formula, we were prescribed NAN.

#19

guest

t.*****. It turns out that there are fermented milk mixtures for children from birth?

#20

003

It is necessary to shove a spoon into the vagina right from the beginning of pregnancy.

#22

Guest

You need to shove a spoon into the vagina right from the beginning of pregnancy.

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#22

Fiery

Why do you want to give yogurt to your child at this age? Five months early for the introduction of fermented milk products. If the baby has constipation, then it is better to give a fermented milk mixture, we were prescribed NAN. Although the mixtures are adapted and will not negatively affect digestion, all these yogurts can only make things worse.

#22

Guest

Dear Mom!!! I am a criminal. From the age of 6 months, we ate borscht with sour cream and cracklings, wiped with a fork. The sons are already 33 years old and 28 years old, if anything. Throw slippers at me, civilized mothers.

#23

guest

and start serving sausages. let him get used to semi-finished products from a young age
and dumplings have already been given to him, eh, author?

#27

Guest

Dear Mom!!! I am a criminal. From the age of 6 months, we ate borscht with sour cream and cracklings, wiped with a fork. The sons are already 33 years old and 28 years old, if anything. Throw slippers at me, civilized mothers.

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#28

Guest

Dear Mom!!! I am a criminal. From the age of 6 months, we ate borscht with sour cream and cracklings, wiped with a fork. The sons are already 33 years old and 28 years old, if anything. Throw slippers at me, civilized mothers.

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