Scared-salt poisoning

[ASR8]

Hi all,

This sounds so stupid now I'm writing it but I saw a sensory play idea on Instagram to make "taste-safe" snow with bicarbonate of soda and veg oil. I made it for my ten month old daughter to play with but she was intent on trying to taste it so I cut the playing short. Now I'm worriwd that she will have ingested too much salt. She licked a few toys with it on and put maybe half a pinkie finger nail size in her mouth before I decided to call it a day.

What do you think? I've given her loads of cool boiled water and am monitoring her and she seems fine. She's done three little spit ups of milk which isn't unusual for her and seems happy in herself.

What should I be looking out for? My husband thinks I'm majorly overreacting which I do have a tendency to do as our daughter was born at 28+6 and spent a lot of time in hospital

Very anxious mamma here. Why do they say it's taste safe?!

Yes you're overreacting as she didn't actually eat huge amounts of it
P.s. you can give tap water as a drink from 6 months

I might be being thick, but if it was made from bicarbonate and oil where does the salt come from?

Neither of the ingredients you’ve used to make the stuff contain salt …

Sodium is in salt (sodium chloride) and is also in sodium bicarbonate (bicarbonate of soda). Its Sodium that should be limited to under 0.4g for under 1s (that equivalent to under 1g of salt)

There's no possible way she could have ingested enough salt to be an issue after a few licks of a toy and a tiny amount eaten.

@dementedpixie

Sodium is in salt (sodium chloride) and is also in sodium bicarbonate (bicarbonate of soda). Its Sodium that should be limited to under 0.4g for under 1s (that equivalent to under 1g of salt)

Thanks for explaining - even so I think what was of wasn’t ingested / licked is super unlikely to have caused any poisoning

Sodium bicarbonate is mostly salt. The clue is in the word sodium.

But she’s only licked it. She’ll be fine.

The recommended amount of salt per day is about a teaspoon at that age.

@SheWoreYellow

The recommended amount of salt per day is about a teaspoon at that age.

At that age its under 1g of salt so much less than a teaspoon.

That said, a lick and a tiny nibble isn't going to go over that level

Anxiety is a bitch. Your DD is totally fine but if I could go back in the the one thing I'd do when my 4 were very little is get counselling for anxiety and possibly even treatment. I'd never have believed I needed it and it was a problem but hindsight ....

Sodium bicarbonate has nothing to do with table salt, except it shares the common sodium ion. Table salt gas chlorine (you know, a poisonous gas?!). Bicarb has HCO3.
Sodium bicarbonate is in antacid tablets.
Yes, it's not great. Baby will be fine. I doubt she would actually have eaten very much - it's not very nice!

I think you know you're over reacting. Your dd is fine. She also doesn't need cooled boiled water. Just give her tap water.

Also, and I mean this with good will, but I do think you need to address your anxiety otherwise you'll exhaust yourself with worry over the coming years.

Thanks all. Deep down I know I'm overreacting but we spent 78 days at the NICU and she came home on oxygen during a pandemic, so I feel I need to give myself a break on the anxiety thing. But I do take on board the fact that counselling mighr be required as I do tend to go overboard as a first time mum worrying about things. Thanks for putting my mind at ease regardig the play snow 🤦‍♀️

@PeonyTime is right - bicarb isn't salt, so it won't give your little one salt poisoning. It tastes truly disgusting, so she won't have eaten much, and the worst it will have done is sooth any tummy ache or colic!

It is salt, can you share a link to say otherwise? I can’t find anything.

But even so, a lick of it isn’t going to be a problem, given that the daily recommended limit is a teaspoon.

I mean I can’t find anything that says it isn’t salt, just plenty that says it is.

I don’t want to add to the OPs worries, but equally telling her complete rubbish isn’t going to be good when she finds out the truth.

But, like I say, she won’t have eaten enough to be a problem.

Since it’s chemical formula is:

NaHCO₃

There very much is salt in it. OP is right to think that.

Whether she’s eaten enough to do damage.. certainly unlikely, just watch the salt intake over the next few days and keep it at a minimum.

Just to save you a job in future, it’s fine to give her tap water now. You don’t need to worry about boiling and cooling it