We love our pediatrician. He was actually my DH's pediatrician when he was a kid. He's smart, friendly, and listens to our concerns. He's even participating in two different studies about new vaccines, which I think is really exciting.

However, he gave us some advice that I'm second-guessing. Our LO is 9 months old and just starting to eat table foods.

At our last appointment, the pedi asked us some general questions about our thoughts on potty training to get an idea of what kind of approach we might be taking, even though it's early. He encouraged us by saying that we shouldn't stress too much about it, and whether we start early or late, all kids learn eventually. We said that it's so early we haven't given it intensive thought, but with our timetable planning for LO #2, we might try potty training a little on the early side, starting somewhere around 18 months, so that we won't have two kids in diapers.

He gave us some tips based on his personal experiences and parents he's heard from, and then he hit us with this:

"I say this to all parents, but especially parents who are going to try to potty train on the early side of 15 or 18 or 22 months: don't give your baby cheese. I know they love it. It's an easy table food that they can eat without any help. But you would not believe the number of parents who come to me saying their baby has constipation issues because of all the cheese they're eating, and it really disrupts the potty training process. They're already getting all the dairy they need from breastmilk or formula or, if they're older, whole cow's milk. They really don't need cheese, and if I were you, I'd hold off giving it to your baby until she's two or three years old."

So I guess I have two questions.

1. Since cheese is dairy just like bm/formula/cow milk, how is it all that different? I guess maybe the quantity of it? Maybe the baby sort of fills up on it instead of food with fiber and it causes constipation in a way that wouldn't happen with just drinking milk alone and supplementing with fruits and veggies?

2. For those of you who do give copious amounts of cheese to your babies and young toddlers, have you noticed any constipation issues?