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

Is it still less than 1g untill 12 months. Look at the packet, salt content per 100g, what weight is the packet? How much is my child actually going to ear? It was a total non issue with ds, he lived in air for nearly 4 years, dd ate and ate from the start, so it was more of an issue, a couple of slices of toast and that was her salt for the day.

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

@LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow 🤣🤣 no shame in that!! I watched DH sprinkle it on his toast the other day because I’d forgotten to buy his salted butter with the food shop 🤣

hard hat on

I come from a culture that also uses masses of salt in cooking.

Unsurprisingly, we also have extremely high levels of heart disease. All my parent’s generation are struggling with it in one way or another.

I’ve always watched salt intake, but having our DC was a wake up call to my DH about how bad lots of our food was.

What we Cook now is healthy and traditional, and DC eats it no complaints. DH missed it a bit to start with (and basically just added tonnes of chilli to compensate), but his palate has adjusted now.

I really hope we don’t pass bad food habits to our DC just because it’s traditional to both eat crap and die early.

In specific numbers babies under 1 should have no more than 1g of salt per day.

Salt is present in stuff like bread, pasta, cheese etc anyway - so you can easily get to 1g or go over it without adding any extra to cooking.

I switched to the zero salt stock cubes and add extra garlic and other herbs and spices. If I’m making something for us that I really want to season ‘properly’ then I’ll cook for dd separately - I always cook extra of stuff that is suitable for her and freeze portions too so if we’re having something that isn’t the most suitable there’s something I can quickly get out. I also switched to unsalted butter, found the lowest salt bread or made our own (and limited how much she had) and was really careful about other ingredients - she’s still never had any processed meat for example.

But realistically - there were definitely days she went over 1g but that’s not the end of the world, her overall diet was very low salt.

My tastes have adapted too so I don’t miss the salt as much (I used to use A LOT and if anything have low blood pressure so used to justify it that way).

My daughter is 17 months now and over 1 they can have a bit more, up to 2g. I still don’t add salt to any cooking if she’s going to be having it, but I’m a bit more relaxed about how much bread she has (although she currently won’t eat it anyway) or if someone else cooks for us or we’re eating out I don’t really think twice about it now.

Meant to share this link www.srnutrition.co.uk/2021/08/how-much-salt-should-a-baby-have/

Quite a few comments so I won't continue to reply individually but thank you for everyone's comments! It's all so interesting as I really thought it meant to add salt to the food once cooked lol!

As for some people saying I don't need all of that in spag bol, I absolutely do😂 it's literally a crime to be West Indian and make food without seasoning! However I think making DD her own meals and then storing them in the fridge/freezer is a really good shout and I think I'll find that easier then having to adjust my own meals

Don't add salt when cooking was how we handled it. Also switched to low salt stock cubes and low salt versions of other things like baked beans.

Pepper and herbs and spices are all fine.

Interesting point, OP - does “seasoning” for you mean mostly salty stuff? I always take it as loads of other herbs and spices as well. Totally agree it’s dull without those. But doesnt have to be all salt based seasoning - other stuff helps greatly.

But… Bolognese is not West Indian! So just on that example you really could change to using less salty seasonings in it and you absolutely would adjust and it wouldn’t be bland, I promise.

It’s hard to accept if you haven’t tried it though, I do get that. Tastebuds are very trainable!

I find most parents I know, like me, were fairly anxious about this with first child and unclenched a little with the second. Yes do what you can and tips here are helpful, but these things can become such a stressful focus for parents, especially mums and there can be competitive ‘I’d never give my kid shop bought hummus’ chat.

I remember when my first was maybe 3 and eating a pack of wotsits, a 1yr old in a class toddled over and I encouraged mine to offer a crisp as baby looked interested. The mother grabbed her child and recoiled in horror! I was about to be put out but then I remembered I too was that mum once and I got over myself .

@Talipesmum most West Indian seasonings are typical salt based and we the appropriate seasonings with every dish without fail. We still use herbs and spices but that may not be in every single dish if you know what I mean. Just depends on what we're cooking tbh

@NoSquirrels you're absolutely right it isn't a West Indian dish but that doesn't mean I won't put my own ingredients in it so it can fit in with my West Indian taste buds😂🤷‍♀️

Interesting thread, I think culturally British food probably is quite bland when you compare with Caribbean cooking (my favourite type of cuisine) because we tend not to do big flavours, and probably overall use less salt / seasonings than other cultures in general. I know someone who moved here from Florida and couldn’t believe how bland the food was here.

@galaxybaby

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?

" Doesn't your food permanently taste bland" nope, it tastes of the food we choose to eat rather than a spoon of salt attached to some food.

as for how long to continue for, well that is upto your child they may never like food with salt added to it. why not just change everyones diet to not include the salt as it makes life much easier that way and certainly wont do any of you any harm at all

This is partly why we didn’t do baby led weaning with ours and I started with purées and moved on to mashed meals. They were having family meals around 2.
I didn’t feed my little ones meals where I use a lot of stock such as spaghetti Bol or beef stew.
I found that curries were fine because I was using a lot of spices so the food still had lots of flavour without any salt. I just added extra chilli in at the end for the older ones.

Don't want to be harsh OP but babies have died from salt poisoning, including in a young family where they used gravy as a mixer when blending food. This does matter.

We just kept them on fruit mush and so on for first year, then the low salt stock cubes others have recommended and seasoning at table. It doesn't hurt any of our health to kick the salt down either, and your sense of taste adjusts. Very quickly you'll find things taste as strong without extra salt and you'll realize how much your body had become habituated.

@JennyForeigner

Don't want to be harsh OP but babies have died from salt poisoning, including in a young family where they used gravy as a mixer when blending food. This does matter.

We just kept them on fruit mush and so on for first year, then the low salt stock cubes others have recommended and seasoning at table. It doesn't hurt any of our health to kick the salt down either, and your sense of taste adjusts. Very quickly you'll find things taste as strong without extra salt and you'll realize how much your body had become habituated.

I have just looked this story up and from what I can see, a 3 MONTH OLD baby died in 1999 because the parents were feeding him liquified adult meals with gravy, and ready brek, and his salt levels were very high. The dr treating him said he had never seen this before. There are sadly numerous examples of deliberate salt poisoning of babies and young children in the media, but this again has nothing to do with the OP’s query.

So your comment is on the exaggerated side and not helpful imo.

Never add any salt to cooking, and don't give anything very salty such as gravy etc. Limit food such as ham and sausages which also tend to be quite salty.

However, babies do need a tiny bit of salt, so don't worry about them getting a little bit from foods like bread and cheese. Just be aware of what they have eaten each day and try to balance things out.

Herbs and spices are fine (in moderation) but don't add salt in any form. Things like bread and cheese have salt in them already so limit those when they are tiny too. Stock cubes should be avoided unless they're low/zero salt. We have got so used to cooking without salt that we barely use it ourselves now.

Good tastes bland because you are used to the salt

It takes a while but if you change your cooking to help baby , next year you will be surprised at how salty food can taste

All purpose seasoning has got salt in. We moved to green seasoning as it's easy to make yourself so you don't have to put salt in. We've just made some this morning and seasoned all the chicken and mince for the week then the meat will go in the freezer seasoned tomorrow.

Green seasoning

" Doesn't your food permanently taste bland" nope, it tastes of the food we choose to eat rather than a spoon of salt attached to some food.

@takenforgrantednana not sure if you've actually had seasoned food before but it doesn't taste of salt... it tastes of the actual food we're eating too. All the seasoning does it help the flavour to stand out, especially as you put it in with the food whilst it's cooking

@EnrouteNOTonroute

Interesting thread, I think culturally British food probably is quite bland when you compare with Caribbean cooking (my favourite type of cuisine) because we tend not to do big flavours, and probably overall use less salt / seasonings than other cultures in general. I know someone who moved here from Florida and couldn’t believe how bland the food was here.

This is very true. Of course it's just a difference in culture so can't really be helped but it's something I find really interesting. I also find it funny when some British people say they season their food with salt and pepper and that's it

OP You can learn to season your food without salt.

Due to various family members and friends having health issues where added salt makes them worse we have had to learn to.

However it wasn't until my DD was born we took it very seriously.

It is a case of educating your taste buds to realise there are other favours not just salty.

You can get low salt stock cubes and zero salt mixed seasoning.

When you buy mixed herbs and mixed spices look at the ingredients. If they have salt in them then don't buy them.

(We gave found Sainsburys does the ones with low or no salt.)

When you use individual herbs and spices out if a jar check that they don't have salt added to them. If in doubt presume that they have salt in them and don't give them to your child.

Avoid any pre-made sauces as they will have too much salt. Make your own.

'Your comment was factually accurate and so I didn't like it'

Ok...