What does no salt in babies foods actually mean?

[galaxybaby]

I planned to post this today but I see another poster beat me too it last night!😂 so this is now a thread inspired by another thread (as well as some of the comments).

I wanted to know what people do regarding salt in babies food and what does it actually mean when the guidance says that babies shouldn't have much salt. Does it mean that you can cook a meal from scratch with whatever ingredients but you shouldn't add salt on top of their food once it's cooked? Or does it mean when cooking from scratch you shouldn't add any salt at all whilst cooking?

If it's the latter then how the hell does that actually work? I'm West Indian and we don't use salt and pepper to season, we use loads of different seasonings. For example, I made spag bol the other day and that included all purpose seasoning, beef seasoning and a beef stock cube as well as a jar of pasta sauce. All these seasonings have salt in them so does that mean I shouldn't be using it?

DD is only 8 months but she loved it when I gave it to her😁 (tried to give her as much mince as possible opposed to mince and sauce).

I don't mean to be annoying as I can see there's literally a similar thread going on right now but I'd really like to know in what way you shouldn't add salt to a baby's food. I think it'll literally be impossible for my household as there's always salt in our food due to the chosen seasoning. Thanks

It means no salt in cooking, stock cubes, salty ingredients. No gravy from a jar.
Check the all purpose seasoning and the beef seasoning for salt. Also check the pasta sauce but it may be ok (or buy another brand/use passata, garlic and onion).
You either cook hers separately or add your seasoning at the end.

It’s really bad for their tiny kidneys and can effectively poison them. Can you make sauces with tinned tomatoes instead of pasta sauce and herbs and spices rather than salt laden seasonings? Then add salt to your own food at the end?

What @SandysMam said. It's really bad for their kidneys. When I make a chilli I will just take out some of the mince into a separate pan and make my 7mo a small version without any of the seasoning added. Super easy, means he gets to eat with us and avoids giving him anything that might harm him.

Oh wow that's really interesting. I personally can't just add salt at the end as that doesn't do anything for me, I literally don't even consider that to be seasoning.
I also can't just add my own seasoning at the end once I've taken out a portion for DD because it needs to be in the pan whilst the food is cooking and not just chucked in at the end.

So for those on the other thread that have said they never add salt (or any seasonings) to their food, I don't really understand. Doesn't your food permanently taste bland?
Also, if I was to cook DDs foods separately, how long am I meant to do that for before she's 'allowed' to have salt?

Realistically, I did things like use low salt stock cubs until they were around 1/18 months. I wouldn't add salt to things at the table for them either, of course.

When it came to cooking, if it needed a sprinkle of salt, I'd add just a bit less than usual and serve it up. They eat such tiny portions at that age.

However, it's cumulative, so if I knew one meal was perhaps a tad salty, I'd make sure the next ones definitely were not. I always took a broader overview of diet. Sharing a nice stew one evening that did have a small amount of added salt, was fine in my eyes, provided it wasn't every day.

Things like bread/pasta sauce/pesto all have salt in them and I know that lots of people give these to their kids without a second thought. Many do think about it, obviously, but lots don't!

I have never added salt, just other spices depending on what type of food it is. Onion, garlic, cumin, red pepper etc.

Yep - the food can end up pretty bland unless you are inventive. But you do need to make sure it is low in salt.

Stock cubes - you can get “Kalla low salt” stock cubes which taste a bit rubbish compared to normal ones, but are better than nothing. We used those for a while.

And be more creative about the seasoning. Use lots of herbs and spices - there’s no salt in any of those unless you’re using the “general ready mix” type spice mixes. So in spag bol we would add lots of thyme, oregano, basil, maybe some cumin or a bit of smoked pimenton, fennel, bay leaves, along with garlic, onion, celery etc.

If you want, you can then take a few spoons out to set aside for the baby, and stir a stock cube or whatever else you want through at the end for your portion. Or make loads of the baby one in advance and freeze it up, so the baby can have their version when you do yours, for the “hardest to remove salt from” dishes.

Would it be worth asking this question on the Black Mumsnetters board maybe? There must be ethnic parents' SM groups or advice sites?

This is a great resource - solidstarts.com/starting-solids/sodium-and-babies/

They have a free app that has basically every food you can think of and information on how to safely serve it at different ages.

when cooking from scratch you shouldn't add any salt at all whilst cooking

It means this.

Lo-salt stock cubes, don’t add salt as seasoning when cooking, use herbs & spices instead, add to taste to your portion at the end.

Don’t use jar sauces!

You adjust your mindset and your tastebuds catch up. Honestly and truly it won’t taste bland unless you are an absolute shit cook, and the extra salt to taste at the end is effective if you need it.

Salt enhances flavours, it doesn’t add flavour so you just work a bit harder at bringing out the flavour by other means.

And it’s not forever!

I never used low salt stock cubes for my two.

I didn't add salt to my cooking until they were both other 2. Now I do add some to the veg water etc.

I went by the rule of just not adding any extra salt. I had a friend who went totally overboard on this and searched out super expensive low salt versions of ham, cheese etc.

Life is too short for that

If you can’t cook family meals without using salt or salty ingredients such as spice mixed, stock cubes or jared sauces then you need to be making meals for your 8 month old separately.

You could batch cook some meals made from scratch and freeze them in individual portions so that you don’t have to cook from scratch for her every day.

Seasoning with herbs and spices is easy, salt is just one seasoning, it’s not essential.
Try looking at the ingredients of the spice mixes you love and buying the individual herbs and spices to make a homemade salt free version.

Salt is very dangerous for babies, as others have said it’s basically poisonous to them,
I personally wouldn’t advise giving anything with salt until at least 2 years old.

Make stuff properly from scratch and don’t buy the ready made seasonings and sauces. Add the herbs individually, use things like onion and garlic for flavour combined with tinned tomatoes instead of a jar of sauce, use low salt stock cubes. So when you get to the end the only thing missing is the salt so you can easily add that just to yours. That said, I don’t worry too much about it too much and if one meal is a bit salty I’ll just try to make sure the other stuff they eat that day isn’t.

We used lots of smoked paprika- flavour without salt or chilli heat for kid friendly versions of things.

Bolognese deffo doesn’t need jar sauce, all purpose seasoning and beef seasoning, for instance. A low-salt stock cube and then work harder at creating flavour through soffrito of onion, celery, carrot, garlic softened with herbs, then brown your mince really well, tomato purée and good tinned tomatoes, long slow cooking, maybe some milk (don’t knock it til you’ve tried it!) And I dunno how giving her mostly mince not mince + sauce works - the sauce and the mince are combined?

It is an adjustment for all cooks, but it is totally possible to do if you want them eating family meals with you.

I used to have two pans going, one with just the meat and one with the meat, seasoning, etc. Ours cooked as normal but the DC had a plainer one.

Cook her food separately until 12 months if you add a lot of salt

As others have said but just wanted to add on to the point PP made about bread, cheese etc which are staples of weaning- for me I knew those foods had a bit of (pretty much unavoidable) salt in which is precisely why I didn't add any more into the mix when cooking. It just meant that DD had to either eat something different to us that night or we made it in a low salt way, just depended on what we had got planned to eat. I can't remember when we started relaxing about a bit of salt in cooking but probably about 18 months so it wasn't that long in the grand scheme of things.

If you want to make only one meal for all the family you will need to make compromises and change to first principle cooking. I did use the kallo low salt stock cubes but little else in terms of pre prepared sauces.

Your other option is to cook a seperate meal or batch cook a few meals for your DD. Yes its a hassle but something that just has to be done- it's not forever.

Well it's all part of parenting. You'll have to get used to adding salt at the end and your tastes will adapt within a few weeks.

Much better for you anyway, the number one risk factor for death in the world is high blood pressure. So don't get your child hooked.

@Tigersteakpie

Realistically, I did things like use low salt stock cubs until they were around 1/18 months. I wouldn't add salt to things at the table for them either, of course.

When it came to cooking, if it needed a sprinkle of salt, I'd add just a bit less than usual and serve it up. They eat such tiny portions at that age.

However, it's cumulative, so if I knew one meal was perhaps a tad salty, I'd make sure the next ones definitely were not. I always took a broader overview of diet. Sharing a nice stew one evening that did have a small amount of added salt, was fine in my eyes, provided it wasn't every day.

Things like bread/pasta sauce/pesto all have salt in them and I know that lots of people give these to their kids without a second thought. Many do think about it, obviously, but lots don't!

@Tigersteakpie yeah that totally makes sense, thank you for that!

Yep, I’m afraid it absolutely means you shouldn’t be using it. I don’t think you need all those things to make a spag bol anyway! Stock up on single herbs and spices rather than blended seasonings. Kallo sell Low Salt and Very Low Salt stock cubes. Knorr now sell so salt stock cubes. I don’t think they’re any more expensive than the normal ones.
Personally in our Spag Bol, DH and I like lashings of Lea & Perrins sauce. So I make a family friendly spag bol, move some into a smaller pan and let it cook away in there then add L&P to our pan 🤷🏻‍♀️ I cook everything in double or triple portions so that each time I cook I add portions to the freezer for our baby. It means that on nights DH and I have a takeaway or maybe something that isn’t really suitable for DS, or I’m working late and family are looking after DS, I know he has a freezer stocked with healthy low-salt meals 👍🏻

Lots of supermarket bought things like bread & cheese etc have quite a lot of un avoidable salt so cutting as much salt as you can from cooking is much better for baby!

If you want, you can then take a few spoons out to set aside for the baby, and stir a stock cube or whatever else you want through at the end for your portion. Or make loads of the baby one in advance and freeze it up, so the baby can have their version when you do yours, for the “hardest to remove salt from” dishes.

@Talipesmum this is so simple I don't know why I never thought of this😂 I think batch cooking her little portions is a great idea thank you

@JanglyBeads

Would it be worth asking this question on the Black Mumsnetters board maybe? There must be ethnic parents' SM groups or advice sites?

@JanglyBeads I was thinking too (and I may still do that) but some black people don't follow the guidance given in this country (things such as a baby doesn't need to drink water before 6 months or shouldn't wean before 6 months) because we do these things back home anyway. So I thought I'd bring it to the Parenting board to see what people who follow this advice say

tigersteakpie and twizbe have it...exactly what I did

I did and still do the majority of meals from scratch and just got on with it so no worries about processed sauces/jars etc.

IME loads of folks SIL have NFI about what is actually in food...doling out pesto pasta and then raisins for afters and hitting you in the face with their judgy halos when you serve a tiny portion of HM coq au vin or the like.

In your position I'd rein in the jarred sauces and adding of salt, and as tigersteak said, look at the whole week of food for balance and maybe do a couple of things separately for the wee one that you can use from the freezer.

Having said that, when you do the "add your own salt at the table" option it can give you a jolt as to how much you do add to get that flavour hit you feel is right so you can use this to cut down on your own intake and re-educate your palate a bit and be healthier.

..and i say this as the woman who would dab her finger into the maldon salt to get a hit! :o