New SACN 2023 milk recommendations

Babies from 0-12 months old are encouraged to have breast- or formula milk. Cow’s milk is a potential allergen, thus it should be introduced with care from the age of 6 months.

When introducing an allergen, you should follow these steps go and check my previous post for more details.

1. Introduce the allergen early in the day, to monitor any reactions;

2. Introduce it gradually for example a quarter of teaspoon at first, 2 days after half a teaspoon and 2 days after that whole teaspoon;

3. Introduce one allergen at time, so that you can be sure that the reaction is due to the new food.

If no reaction then you can fully introduce pasteurised cow’s milk in your babies diet from the age of 6 months in cooking preparation ONLY, in porridge for example, and NOT as a substitute for breast or formula milk.

Previous recommendation

From the age of 1 year your little one PASTEURISED COW’S MILK can be given as a main drink. Previously, it was recommended to give pasteurised whole milk or full-fat milk up to the age of two years old.

Updated recommendation

However, the updated recommendation from SACN 2023 have now shown that semi-skimmed milk can be also given from the age of 1 year as this cause no harm.