How much SALT can a baby have?????

[Eaney]

DD is 10 mths old and has never had any salt. I was going to introduce sandwiches and was about to give her a ham sandwich when I noticed that there was salt listed on the ingredients.

I currently uses unsalted butter and was wondering when I could switch to salted. I haven't given her cheese yet but I assume there is ssalt in cheese as well.

Anyone know when you can be a little less careful on the salt issue. There is salt in so many products it will be difficult to avoid.

here you go

The daily recommended maximum for children depends on their age:

1 to 3 years - 2 g salt a day (0.8g sodium)
4 to 6 years - 3g salt a day (1.2g sodium)
7 to 10 years - 5g salt a day (2g sodium)
11 and over - 6g salt a day (2.5g sodium)

If you give a healthy diet and don't actually add salt to anything (ie potatoes when cooking them) then i wouldn't personally worry too much. My kids have anything and everything, within reason.

My dd is nine months old, and apart from not adding salt to her food at the table, really don't think about this issue at all. And yes, cheese is salty. I wouldn't even think twice about the ham.

Babies need only a very small amount of salt - less than 1g a day up to 12 months. Their kidneys can't cope with larger amounts of salt.

Babies who are breastfed will get the right amount of salt through breast milk. Infant formula contains a similar amount.

Thanks. Do any of you check how much salt is in things like bread and cheese or do you assume that as long as you are not adding to the cooking process and as long as you are not giving high salt food then you can relax.

I can be a bit anal about these kind of things probably due to DS having several allergies and having to read ingredients on everything. I don't want to be unneccessairly anal with DD.

Have to say that I have never read salt content of any "normal" foods at all. DD just have a balance of food and i figure it evens itself out. She seems healthy enough anyway.

I only look if for any reason I need something a bit more heavily processed.

None of mine have had allergies, well a little eczema here and there) but nothing bad. Maybe it's just me, but after having 5 I tend not to worry too much. They have a healthy diet, plenty of fruit and veg, limited biscuits, cakes etc only one fizzy drink per day. The rest I don't worry about tioo much.