Are stock cubes all too salty?

[sparkle]

I wondered if anyone had found a brand of vegetable stock cubes that didn't contain much salt and were suitable for a 16 month old? Call me lazy, but I really don't have time to make vegetable stock and then the meal that i'm using the stock in. I have tried making a large batch and freezing it, but this still took ages.

Save me from the food Nazis. My sister is a born again vegan. I had to put up with her the other day giving me a long lecture about the food I allow my daughter to eat. Of course hers are only fed on organic, no salt, no flavour, grey, meat free, egg free, dairy free tastless healthy stuff. All 3 of her kids suffer constantly with digestive problems, her second son was hospitalised frequently for his failure to thrive. The only one that looks healthy at the moment is her youngest, and he's still breastfed.

Admittedly, the sluglet shows particularly sophisticated tastes. She enjoys olives, marmite, chillis, garlic, crisps, the lemon slice out of our gin and tonic, ice cubes, Roquefort cheese and her daily kit kat. However, she also has a copious appetite, apart from the occasional snuffle is never ill and generally is the picture of health.

Oh and the sluglet's party trick is crawling behind the bar at our local and trying to beg beer dregs.

Blimey, if someone whose kids had been hospitalized for failure to thrive started on at me for what I give my ds, I might have a few choice rejoinders. Still family harmony,christmas etc I suppose. Poor kids though. Some of my happiest early childhood memories involve shoes, clothes and chocolate (so no change there!).

Blimey, if someone whose kids had been hospitalized for failure to thrive started on at me for what I give my ds, I might have a few choice rejoinders. Still family harmony,christmas etc I suppose. Poor kids though. Some of my happiest early childhood memories involve shoes, clothes and chocolate (so no change there!).

my health visitor told me she once caught a new mum (someone not originally from the UK) giving a 5 wk old baby Bovril soup!

You'll find the recommended maximum amounts of salt for all ages of children on this BBC site . HTH!

She decided to launch into the lecture in the middle of a very fraught and emotional family situation (putting cancer suffering sibling on plane to NZ, possibly never to see her again) She's not known for her sensitivity that one. I felt it was not worth answering, just tuned out

Lindy I'm going to adopt "more wine" as my own catchphrase from now on!

I'm giggling at the thought of all these 'alcoholic' babies on this site, nipping down to Mothercare for their meths! Sorry, not funny really I suppose...

When I was little (5 or 6), I tried a huge gulp of my dad's brandy one day (he let me, I didn't pinch it! ) I can still remember the numb hollow feeling in my mouth, and I still can't stand the stuff. Love Vodka though, so I'm not deprived!

Back to the salt thingummy, I would steer clear of adding any salt to anything. I never add salt to anything I cook, just loads of herbs, garlic, pepper and Worcestershire sauce (yes I know W sauce has salt in it) for flavour. My dh loves salt, and used to have a little pile of it on the edge of his plate when eating, but he does not think that my food lacks flavour. You do get used to lesser quantities of it. Can't have chips without salt though, it's not natural!

We were given 2 minatures of Johnnie Walker whisky a while back and DS got a hold of one and drank it all to himself!! The reak of whisky fumes was worse than when DH has had a night on the Whyte and Mackay!! DD lurves Red Wine and if we are having some with our meal she is allowed some in a small glass, DS likes white whine like his dad. On the food side, I think sometimes that some people tend to take the food issue a bit to far, when they are old enough, blend down what the big folk are eating and let them try it out. Mine have eaten Chicken with chilli and Garlic from about 18 months and love it!

Back to the salt thing - if anyone's interested I have found that it is impossible to buy baby food without salt in Spain. I even have a jar of Hipp chicken and vegetable which contains salt (otherwise it's exactly like the UK one). I wonder if this is the Spanish being blase or the English being OTT?

SueDonim, thanks for the link - though I'm not much the wiser as to whether ds is exceeding his one gram per day!!
There's some more info on the Food Standards Agency website here

I am all in favour of children developing adult/exotic tastes (in food! ))- but don't see that as at all incompatible with limiting salt and sugar. My pet hate is specially packaged 'children's foods' (tell me, why does a banana need to be wrapped in a metre of cellophane with a brightly coloured label on it to make it suitable for a child??)

Not sure if this is exactly the right thread, but I got this from the Guardian today, about the amount of salt in specific processed foods:

Bread: Just one piece of medium sliced white bread (weighing approx. 36g) contains around 500mg of salt. A six-year old eating two slices will have consumed half the daily recommended salt intake for a child of her age.

Baked beans: An average portion of traditional baked beans (half a tin weighing approx. 200g) contains around 2,500mg of salt, which alone exceeds the daily recommended intake of 2 grams for a six-year old.

Crisps: One 34g packet of Original Hula Hoops containing around 1,000mg of salt would account for half of the maximum daily salt intake of a six-year old.

Tinned soup: One portion (half a tin) of Baxters Tomato Soup (weighing approx. 200g) contains around 2,500mg of salt, which alone exceeds the recommended intake for a six-year old.

Snacks: One Dairylea Lunchable (Harvest Ham variety) contains 2.75g of salt - 37% more than the recommended intake for six-year olds.

Fast food in restaurants: A Burger King children's meal contains 3.3g, which is 65% more than a six-year old should have in one day.

Cornflakes: An average bowl (30g) contains 750mg of salt, almost half what a six-year old is allowed in a day.

Bacon: If your six-year old has a bacon sarnie made up of two rashers of bacon and two slices of bread, she will have consumed 2,400mg of salt, well over her maximum recommended limit. A single rasher of bacon after grilling contains 700mg of salt.

· Statistics provided by the Food Commission

Scary or what? Especailly the Lunchable and the Burger King...I think a lot of people give their kids Lunchables because they think they're healthy!

godness janh, that is scary. I will stop buying lunchables as treats from now on. My toddler loves them, and bacon sarnies - in fact most of the things on that list.

He guzzles drink all day. Could this be why?

One thing worries me slightly in all this. Salt is a natural preservative and helps give bland food flavour. If food companies cut back drastically on the amount of salt does that mean there are going to be even more artificial flavourings and preservatives added to the food to make up for it? Not saying that I like the idea of huge quantities of salt either, but I don't really like the idea of even more additives either which could actually be worse than the salt.

Either way, I think it's all down to moderation. Just like sugary sweets - a treat now and then but not as something you give every day. I'm not going to stop giving beans on toast to my toddler as it's a great standby meal if we're late in and he wants to eat NOW! But at the same time I am going to try and make a conscious effort to give more home-made and fresh foods when I can.

Georgina, beans on toast is a brilliant quick meal, and full of protein etc, one of P Leach's recommended ones in fact, I bet she didn't know about the salt either!

I know you can get low salt beans, and the bread figure is for white bread, I wonder if wholewheat is any better? (That's the trouble with these things, they only give you half the story.)

Tigermoth, the salt might be why your DS guzzles drinks all day, but I think little kids do that anyway - it's kind of a hobby - I wouldn't worry too much.

(But still - one small bowl of cornflakes and one packet of hula-hoops and that's it for the day..!)

My DS's have discovered Sainsbury's flapjack fingers and have one in their packed lunch every day, I was reading the back of the packet this morning and each one has 9g of fat! (They're made with butter.) But they are also full of oats which are very good for you. Where do you draw the line?