no sugar no salt?? but confused about added versus natural

[missytequila]

i am sorry i keep trying to understand this concept of no sugar and no salt before one...

baby yogurt, baby foods, they all seem to say no added sugar yet when you read the label it says 14g

they also all say they have sodium...

i also am unsure of bottled water...is evian ok for an 7.5 month old

Lots of foods have naturally occurring sugars,same with salt, it's added refined sugar that you really want to avoid. Sometimes the ready made savoury baby foods also used concentrated juice to sweeten, which is a bit sneaky as you wouldn't do that at home.

The yogurt probably has a bit of fruit juice added? You don't have to buy baby yogurt - any plain organic no added stuff yogurt is fine.

Not 100% sure on the water but think I have read somewhere that the mineral content in bottled water is a bit high so might be tougher on baby's kidneys.

I was told that Evian is fine for babies. I used to use it on flights to make up DDs bottles, when the liquids restrictions meant I could not take my own on board.

A French friend of mine uses Evian to make up all her baby's bottles, she says everyone does it in France. But personally, I don't see what's wrong with plain tap water? Unless you're on a plane of course! But you still need to boil it, it's not sterile.

Agree with Robin, naturally occuring sugars are better than added ones, but unfortunatley you can't tell exactly how much is added sugar from the labels. I read on here that anything with over 15g of sugar per 100g would be high sugar, anything with less than 5g of sugar per 100g would be low sugar.

With salt/sodium it's different - whether it's naturally occuring or added it's all the same to your baby's kidneys. But generally speaking, if you don't add salt when you cook then you should be ok. Watch out for bread, cheese, salted butter (most UK butter is salted, but you can buy unsalted butter), these are all high in salt.

you shouldn't give bottled water to babies. the mineral content varies but in some can be far too high for them.

plain tap water is fine for a 7.5 month old

pretty much ALL foods contain some sugars/salts

what you want to avoid is things that have even more added to them.
the sugar in yoghurt for example will come from the fruit in it. that's fine, you just don't want to go overboard with it

i would choose a brand like plum, or the baby yeo valley, or i think sainsburys own brand which hav NO added sugar in them, only the naturally occuring sugars

as for salt, you do need to be careful with that. but that just means not offering things that are high in added salt. things like stock cubes, gravy, crisps!
don't add salt to food when you cook it