When did you start adding salt to your child’s food?

[Hope54321]

When did you start adding salt to your child’s food?

I cooked pasta for a chef once. He tasted it - glared at me because I hadn’t put salt in - and tossed it all in the bin! Lesson learned… yeah, learn not to cook for arseholes. If he’d wanted salt he could have added it at the table. Twat.

For the people saying that food has to be seasoned during the cooking process, garlic, ginger, various other herbs are excellent substitutes and contain far more flavour than salt.

Equally salt is an acquired taste, so some people prefer more salt than others, in which case they can season their food at the table.

Most foods contain some salt, even dried pasta and tomato purée for instance contains some salt. but either way, not cooking with salt doesn’t mean never adding butter, or cheese or stock, it means not actually grinding salt into a saucepan which is to your taste rather than the taste of everyone you’re cooking for.

We should eat no more than 6g of salt a day. You’d be surprised at how quickly you arrive at that number.

And no, I don’t cook with jars. ever.

It’s salt, not Prussia acid. It makes bland food taste slightly better, particularly vegetables, which it is difficult to make children eat.
Still congratulations to the OP for starting a thread, where so many people have been able to congratulate themselves on their parenting choices!

Pretty baffled at most of these responses. Lots of recipes say ‘crumble in a stock cube’, ‘season to taste’ etc. I think this is what the OP is probably referring to as opposed to churning in a load of salt and stirring it in.

My mum hardly used any salt and my mind was blown when my husband starting cooking for me and used it as an ingredient.

OP I have an almost 2 year old who doesn’t eat particularly salted food (apart from low salt stock cube / cheese / bread) but I think as he heads towards 3 he will start to eat the same meals as us.

It’s salt, not Prussia acid. It makes bland food taste slightly better, particularly vegetables, which it is difficult to make children eat.
Still congratulations to the OP for starting a thread, where so many people have been able to congratulate themselves on their parenting choices!

Can I congratulate myself for the 31 years I didn't add salt to food before I had children...?

Some people just don't like/want salt therefore don't add it. It's not a moral judgement on others.

Mine are only 22-months. I cook all their food from scratch, and don't plan to ever add salt.
Why would I? I made a delicious bolognese for them yesterday. It has star-anise, bay leaves, pepper, tiny touch of chili, oregano and basil in it. Not bland in the slightest!
I think the more salt you use, the more you want, in order to taste flavour. So better to not get used to salt.

The babies eat cheese which is salty, olives, pesto etc, so I'm relaxed about that stuff - I just choose not to add it.

@ThoseFestiveLights

I am boggling at people who don’t use salt and pepper in cooking. Do you think restaurant meals taste awful?

I don’t have any processed foods - apart from bread and cheese I suppose - but I used salt all the time when cooking.

Well most restaurant meals taste of salt. I just don't get why chefs think so much salt is necessary. I want my food to taste of the actual food not of salt

I have salt on chip shop chips and boiled eggs.

No salt in my cooking, not even pasta.

We do have table salt, though it doesn't get used that often, mainly by my youngest Dc he's 20yrs old.

Oh and my Mum very rarely used salt, so I guess that's mostly why I don't use it

@Hope54321 (to actually answer the question and not debate the health problems / benefits of salt) started regularly feeding him whatever we ate around 18 months so it will have been then, although I'd always be mindful to add less salt to his. If I was cooking a spag bol for example, I'd boil him salt-less pasta separately but there would be salt in the actual bolognese. Same with something like a curry, no salt in his rice, but salt in the actual curry.

Never added salt to food in my life.

@IBelieveInAThingCalledScience

I'm foreign (south European) and the thought of cooking without salt is just baffling to me.

Our children would hate it. But then again we don't eat any processed food and the few times they tried McDonalds they actively disliked it.

Your peak smugness medal will be on its way after the bank holiday

Do you not know that there's no law that children have to like eating at McDonalds?

I don't add to salt to anything, never have, and I don't see the point.

I can't believe how many people don't use salt - it's what makes food taste good!

If everyone is honestly cooking from scratch and not adding it all, you very well might be deficient in it. It's an essential nutrient!

I cook with salt and use it as seasoning
Pasta water, cooking potatoes, eggs, tomatoes, avocado, salad - I salt all of them. Not in any great quantity (except pasta water!) but a tiny bit of nice salt makes a huge difference
For stuff like pasta bake, beef stew, cottage pie then it gets added as needed. If I'm using bacon in a pasta bake then it's just added to the pasta water, beef stew gets marmite so no salt needed and the same with cottage pie (but I do add salt to the mash!)

I think it's a bit like having sugar in your tea - tastes weird without when you first stop but after a while if you accidentally take a mouthful of a cup with sugar in it's vile.
My Mum used to add salt to water when cooking vegetables etc but I never do and now I find things cooked in salted water excessively salty. I hate eating at my ILs because everything tastes too salty to me. Maybe my food is bland....I don't know. But it tastes fine to me, and my DH and children don't complain so it is of no significance to me what anybody else would think.
Obviously we don't have a totally saltless existence - it is in so much that you buy, such as cheese, bread, cereal, cooked meats etc and there is naturally occuring sodium in plenty of foods including milk, eggs, meat and certain vegetables so it's unlikely anyone with a varied diet would be deficient - but the question was about adding salt to food and I seldom do that. I can't recall a particular age at which I decided it was ok if my children wanted to add salt to something at the table, but they seldom do, presumably because it's just not what they are used to.
I use pepper, herbs and spices in cooking when appropriate but I think lots of things, especially vegetables, taste best "naked".

Smugness? How interesting you would project moral value to food choices onto others.

I didn't say McDonalds is bad/good.

My point was to highlight that although we cook with salt, it hadn't turned my children into msg/processed food fans.

I will however happily take the smugness medal, mostly for my superb (seasoned) cooking!

What do people do when they go to restaurants? If you never have salt in your food how do you enjoy food with salt in restaurants? This thread is so midboggling. I never knew so many people didn't add salt to their food.

@UnshakenNeedsStirring

What do people do when they go to restaurants? If you never have salt in your food how do you enjoy food with salt in restaurants? This thread is so midboggling. I never knew so many people didn't add salt to their food.

They complain saying it's too spicy after ordering a fillet in a French restaurant

I'm also astounded by the people not using salt in their cooking. Do you seriously ignore every recipe that includes salt? I'm struggling to imagine many recipes that don't have salt . Even a homemade tomato soup needs salt and pepper.

I can't imagine what your average French or Italian cook would say. Well, I can actually and it wouldn't be favourable

Salt is easy to add to taste, but impossible to remove. Occasionally when eating out, DH and I have had to swap because what he's ordered is just too salty for him.

They started eating family food around 8 months, it contained seasoning - rarely salt but stock cubes, soy sauce etc contain salt. I never salt my veg, pasta or rice even before dc.

If you avoid giving them too much factory processed food then I wouldn't worry about adding salt in recipes as necessary

I'm also astounded by the people not using salt in their cooking

I’m astounded by the amount of people that think not using salt means food is tasteless and bland.

I don’t find it so. So stop telling me that i need to add salt to “improve” my food.

And no, i’m not “deficient”. By the time I’ve had a couple of slices of bread, some cheese, butter, mayonnaise/ketchup, and the occasional tin of soup or ready made sandwich at work, i am easily over my 5g a day.

@AgeingDoc what do you do when you cook for other people or a dinner party? Do you add salt to their food? Or have salt on the table for them to add? I have never been to someone's home and had a meal where there was no salt in the food.