Can my baby eat cheese, and which ones?

Cheese is a milk product used as a food, so it belongs to the normal complementary-feeding window rather than to the 12-month gate that applies to cow’s milk as a drink.

The one rule that really matters

Avoid fresh and semi-fresh raw-milk cheese under 5 years. The Ministero della Salute’s July 2025 guidance is explicit: raw-milk cheese carries a warning that consumption by children under five may pose health risks. The organism is E. coli STEC, which can cause haemolytic-uraemic syndrome, and raw-milk cheese is behind most of the 60 to 70 Italian paediatric cases a year.

The ageing is what changes the risk. Cheese aged 60 days or less is the category to avoid. Well-aged cheese, 12 months or more, is safe - so Parmigiano Reggiano, the one most Italian families reach for first, is not the problem. The soft fresh ones are.

The other thing to watch

Salt. Cheese is one of the saltiest things in an Italian kitchen, and no salt is added at this age. That does not ban cheese; it means a little as an ingredient rather than as the meal.

And the shape

Cheese cut into cubes is a choking shape. Grated, melted into food, or cut into thin strips - not cubes, not chunks.

Where we stop

How much cheese a day. That is a portion question, and no Italian authority publishes portions.