Salt?

[Alison222]

Does anyone know of any low salt vegetable stock cubes? My husband is vegetarian and most of our food has stock and/or herbs. When can I stop worrying about it? Ds is 8 and a half months old.
Everyone seems so concerned about salt in babies food, and I know that in the UK they can't add it to baby food (not the case in France though as I discovered all the baby jars of veg had salt in them), but when can you stop worrying so much?
How much is too much?
My HV is hopeless she hasn't a clue.

Message withdrawn

I don't know about low salt stock cubes, but up until my son was a year old I used ready-made stock from the supermarket (Tesco's is my local and they do it in their Finest range). The sodium level is much less than in the stock cubes.

You can get low salt vegetable stock cubes from Holland & Barrett - sorry, can't remember the brand name.

Sainsbury's own label chicken stock and vegetable stock is salt free. It comes in half pint pots and freezes well.

I too was worried about this and I checked the salt/sodium percent in an average stock cube compared to so called 'baby gravy' and the levels in the stock cube were LESS than the 'baby gravy'. So I bought the normal stock cube but watered it down.....the instructions said one cube would make 3/4 pint of stock, so I used HALF a cube but made it up to 1 full pint of water.

Same with some adult cooking sauces, (once he was over a year) I make up as normal but then separate my son's portion and add some boiled water to water down the salt content. (Also doubles the meal so it's a handy way of getting a meal for 2 days, time saver!)

If you can find anything in the organic section then this is probably the best thing to go for because they don't add any extra salt, sugar, etc, to the food (at least that's what I understand the whole idea of organic is). I was told that once your child hits one year you can introduce salt to their diet, ie they can eat exactly the same food as you do, as you add salt to your meat or veg for example. My HV told me this and I read it in some book somewhere.

In actual fact the the definition 'organic' refers to how the food is produced, ie without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides etc., and is therefore not meant as a guide to additives used. You still need to check the label for the levels of salt, sugar etc. in organic items.

Jane - Moderator

Thank you everyone.
My freezer isn't large enough for making stock - although the idea is good. I got somelow salt ones in Holland and Barrett. The brand name is Kallo for anyone else who might be looking.The salt levels are the same as the baby gravy I bought and about a 10th of normal stock cubes. I must say I'm wondering how I will now find the flavour of our food but I'm sure that we will get used to it very quickly as I don't add salt to anything else (except chips).

Thanks Alison222, I had also been wondering the same thing and you asked before I did. I dont use salt in anything other than on chips so was very worried ref gravy and stock etc for my son.