Salt and babies

[Lostinspace1]

I don't understand how babies aren't allowed to have salt, but yet can be weaned on food containing salt e.g. bread, cheese? Is it because the levels are so low.....? Just a bit nervous about what types of food to give my LO. Sorry, I probably sound very thick...

Steer away from process food or anything with added salt. There's not much in bread or cheese generally, and a baby won't eat that much. Might be worth you having a look at baby led weaning, which is a lovely, easy way to wean.

I did actually worry about the salt levels in bread when dd was tiny and made my own in the bread machine, only using half the recommended amount of salt

I thought of it as no added salt

My DC have shared our food that I salt after I've served theirs.

I think the thinking is they will get a little salt from bread cheese etc so you really shouldn't add any more iyswim?

I was wondering the same thing! I was thinking more about feta, halloumi and olives than bread, but just really salty things in general-not sure if DS can have them.

A pint of milk has about 0.6g of salt in it. Basically you should ideally give just whole foods and don't add salt to any cooking you do.

Our bodies need some salt to function, so I imagine even babies need a tiny bit. As others have said, if it is naturally included in certain foods then by 6 months their body will be able to process it. Perhaps steer clear of too much particularly salty processed food such as ham and don't add salt or stock cubes to baby bolognese etc (I used to make a little pan separately from ours without the oxo) but don't worry about things like bread and cheese as these are part of a healthy diet generally.

You have to keep the total salt in their diet low because their kidneys aren't able to deal with it as effectively as they need to yet.

You can't totally avoid all salt in all foods, but you do what you can to avoid adding any. So, if he/she eats a little bit of bread or cheese which has some salt in it, that's ok. But don't then add to the 'burden' by adding salt to anything you can keep it out of, or giving them things that you would think of as 'salty'.

Given the amounts of 'hidden' salt already in food, anything you can 'dodge' has to be a help.