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Milk Feeds for Infants 6–12 Months 107

Weaning Infants at High Risk Milk Feeds for Infants 6–12 Months
of Allergy
Breast milk or formula milk continue to be an
Infants are at higher risk of allergy if they have a important part of an infant’s nutritional intake,
parent or sibling with eczema, asthma, hay fever however, these milk feeds should decrease as the
and/or food allergies. Ideally, breastfeeding quantity of solid food increases:
should be continued throughout weaning and the
highly allergenic foods should be introduced one ●● The amount of breast milk taken should
at a time so that any reaction to these foods can be naturally decrease as the infant is able to
noted. regulate his or her own milk intake if allowed to
continue feeding on demand.
Highly allergenic foods are:
●● Early morning milk feeds should be
●● cow’s milk discontinued from around 9 months to
encourage more food to be eaten at breakfast. A
●● egg milk feed can be offered after breakfast.

●● nuts ●● When two courses are offered at the other two
main meals, the milk feed can be dropped at one
●● fish and seafood meal – particularly if a milk pudding is given as
the second course.
●● wheat
Formula-fed infants need to decrease their milk
●● soya intake in the same way. Parents feeding formula
milk should be advised to offer less milk after
●● sesame seeds meals and not to encourage finishing the whole
bottle but to let the infant stop when he or she
●● lupin indicates they have had enough. By 9 months
formula milk intake should be about 500–600 mL
●● celery milk per day (Department of Health 1994).

●● mustard. Expected intakes at each weaning stage are
listed in Table 4.2.5.
There is no evidence to delay introducing these
foods beyond specified ages (Zutavern et al. 2006,
Anderson et al. 2009), but some parents may prefer
to introduce them slightly later than less allergenic
foods. More research is needed in this area before
more specific recommendations can be made.

Table 4.2.5 Expected milk and food intake at each weaning stage

Stage Age guide Milk feeds Meals Variety of foods
1 Around 6 months. Begin 5–4
2 by 6 months but not 4–3 1–2 From one or two food groups
before 4 months
3 6–9 months 3–2 3 Three different meals with foods from all four
nutritious food groups
9–12 months One or two courses per meal
Offer water in a cup with each meal
Vitamin A and D supplement for breastfed babies

3 Three different meals from four nutritious food
groups
Two courses per meal
Offer water in a cup with each meal
Vitamin A and D supplement for breastfed babies