Olives for 14-month-old?

[moomina]

Ds loves olives and would eat them for every meal if he could. I'm happy with this in principle but am a bit worried about the high salt content. I do give 'em a good rinse to get most of the brine off if I buy the ones in jars, but is it basically okay for him to eat them quite regularly? What nutritional value, if any, do they actually have?

My dd loves olives too - she's 2 but has been eating them for many many months. I do try to restrict it because of the salt content - usually it's only every couple of weeks she has them. I always tell myself they must be quite healthy - despite the salt - better than letting them scoff crisps anyway!

according to 'Foods that harm, Foods that Heal' book, olives are a good source of vitamin E although you probably wouldn't ever eat enough of them to supply useful amounts. They also contain natural antioxidants which is good.

Personally, I'd probably err on the side of caution and go with the 'everything in moderation' school of thoguht.

Don't they have "good fats", too?

would it make a difference to stick to ones in olive oil rather than brine?

Thanks everyone. He loves olive and cherry tomato sald so will keep giving it to him - but in moderation of course!

My DD enjoyed olives she took off a pizza once (no pits) but these were quite mild. They're a good size for a little gob! She was more cautious last week with some stronger, marinated ones though.

Just wanted to say that here in Spain it's not unusual to see littlies munching on olives. So I'm sure the odd few won't harm.

dd loves olives, and salami. I figure that even though they taste very salty, they actually have less salt in them than cornflakes, say, so as long as the rest of her diet doesn't contain crappy high salt processed foods then she will be OK. I would far rather she gets her salt and sugar hits from natural sources like olives or pure chocolate.