"Just feed him what you eat"

[SpadesOfGlory]

Is it just me who's confused about how to actually do this?

7 month old DS (weaned from 5months due to reflux) has progressed brilliantly from purees to what I would call proper meals. He's confidently chewing and there isn't really anything he wont eat. The HV said to get him eating "family meals" as soon as possible, just give him what we're eating without adding salt.

This is where I get confused. If I make a homemade mild curry, the curry paste has loads of salt in! And if I do mince, carrots and onions there's a stock cube or gravy granules in it, same with cottage pie etc. Can DS eat these? Does it mean just not to add separate salt to your cooking? So far I've just been giving him pasta and tomato based sauces, bolognaise etc, fish and mash, scrambled egg and toast, but would love to know if I can give him our "normal" meals or if I have to alter it in any way?

I used low salt stock till my youngest was about 18 months. Would give him a small amount of gravy. Never occurred to me to look at the salt in curry!

I avoided things like cured meats and bacon until he was 1. But he had everything else we did.

As far as I know it's a cumulative thing not a one off thing. So one salty meal is fine but lots of regularly salty meals isn't.

I still don't add any salt to the kids foods though and they are now 5 and 3

We altered all our meals to contain as little salt as possible. We read the labels and chose a curry paste with low salt. We use low salt stock cubes or no stock cube at all. Often we remove a portion of food for DC before adding salt, seasoning or gravy etc right at the end. Our food is very bland but at least our child won’t die from salt poisoning.

You will need to watch salt intake for a few years so it's worth developing recipes and ingredients at this stage which are lower salt. Won't do you any harm either

You can buy low salt versions of stock etc - have a look the next time you do a shop :)

I am Indian and when we make curries we usually make smaller separate ones for the babies / kids. They have everything the same except mustard seeds / chillies / garam masala / salt. It’s okay to use onion, ginger, garlic and powdered masalas (like haldi, paprika, coriander etc) provided you don’t use loads.

Thanks for all the replies, that's helpful

So for the likes of cottage pie..is the "baby version" just the mince and potato and no gravy, just juices?

I read a few curry paste labels when I was shopping yesterday and they were all 4 or 5g of salt in the jar! And recipes say to use a full jar or at least half most of the time. Anyone got a low salt curry recipe?

I have no food-related advice, but I do think the 'eat what you eat' advice is lazy bollocks. There's so much they can't or shouldn't have. It also seems to assume you eat dinner when they do, and therefore this makes your life easier 🙄 At 5pm when my son eats, I've usually only just had lunch!

Mother of an 8 month old who is nowhere near eating proper meals and tries to choke himself by taking huge bites of anything harder than mush...

Annabel Karmel’s chicken tikka www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/annabels-chicken-tikka-masala/
Are you sure you mean curry paste and not curry sauce? Most of the recipes that I have only use 1-2 tablespoons of paste, not the whole jar! But curry sauce, however, I probably would use most of the jar!
Cottage pie www.organix.com/recipes/6-months/shepherds-pie

Maybe focus more in the things you make that don’t have added salt.
So a tomato pasta sauce, roast chicken with gravy made from the cooking juices, etc.
Or make curry from scratch. It’s easy with coconut milk, onions, tomato and some spices.

I found it the easiest to batch cook low salt versions of different meals then freeze them as it was a faff trying to do it with each family meal every night especially as DD ate earlier than us and I cooked when she was in bed.

You can get baby stock cubes for making cottage pie etc. In one way it isn't that hard but in another you end up eating what baby eats rather than the other way round. There are some things that just won't work tbh whatever you do.

In terms of salt though you just need to be sensible imo, seemingly there is no issue with babies eating cheese and bread, both of which have salt in . If they have a tiny bit, for example via smoked fish in fish pie I didn't worry too much.

We're only just moving on to our ten month old eating the same as us, so feel your pain! But yes, the salt in stock, gravy etc does count. We got some ultra low salt stock cubes from Tesco, and everything else we make bland then season after taking out the baby portion (e.g. curry made without chilli, then stir it in at the end). Annabel Karmel and Made for Mums have some great recipes that work for all the family. Google is your friend too: we all tucked into this last night and it was delicious: www.babyledfeeding.com/recipes/baby-led-weaning-pulled-pork-taquitos/ (sorry, not sure how to do clicky links)

As a PP said, you'll need to be low salt for a while, so no harm in building up a repertoire now!

Switch to low salt stock cubes. When i make cottage pie i fry onions and carrots in oil. Add beef mince, tomato puree and a table spoon of flour, then some low salt beef stock and simmer to reduce. Top with mashed potatoes. I don't add gravy but you could have it separately.
Also curry paste should only be a tablespoon not the whole jar. Are you using the cooking sauces instead of paste? Try this recipe www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1555/chicken-sweet-potato-and-coconut-curry?utm_source=app

I batch cooked DS1 his own meals from a baby weaning book. Some of which we ate ourselves, other things I froze in portions. It worked really well.

By DS2 I have no idea what we were doing as he was so blimmin fussy. I think we just muddled through.

Also, how much curry do you think your 8 month old is eating? He’s not eating a whole jar of sauce so he’s not having that much salt!

I think you should take the combination of all advice with a pinch of salt. A bit of curry paste or stock is not going to hurt, just use a little less than usual and don't add any extra.

Whenever I was making things like Lasagne I would make a separate one for DS and freeze the other portions for the next time we have Lasagne 😊. It wasn't much more effort just more pots!

But honestly with baby #2 they will just have exactly the same as us and I will ensure the rest of his/her day is very low salt.

Just split a portion off for baby at that stage of cooking if you can't bear to skip the stock cube.

Personally I skipped the stock cube and we added salt to our own plates. Side benefit was we reduced our own salt intake

I did the eat what you eat thing and it's easier than it sounds.

Just use low-salt stock cubes and less spice. We have a pot of chilli flakes on the table that adults can use to add some heat.

That's it. You can still cook with booze.

I don't understand why people think that cooking two meals is easier?

You can make your own curry paste. If I'm making curry I will dry fry some spices, the ones that 'pop' then add oil and other spices to make the paste.

Burmese style curries - you can put an onion or two in a blender with spices and then fry that as a paste.

You can start with just turmeric and cumin and add garlic to get the heat and then add other spices as you go along. Obviously chilli will add more heat, coriander will add depth.

You can get baby stock cubes for making cottage pie etc.

Better still, make your own stock from root vegetables and flavourings like celery, pepper, etc., but add less salt and freeze in an ice cube tray. It’s hard for adults to get used to less salt but you can do it - DH has high BP and we now cook pasta, rice, potatoes and so on without salt. Others can add it afterwards if they want.

Also second taking a portion out for your baby before you add the salt or stock to yours.

Don't use a shop bought curry paste. Buy thre ingredients separately and make your own. Learn to make your own stock and gravy. Those jars, boxes, cubes etc have so much shit in them.

I batch cook and freeze then ds has that, so its family foods but not necessarily what we are eating. Ds has tea at 5 but I'm not ready to eat then and some nights DH doesnt get in until gone 7. I do make sure I sit at the table with ds and have a cup of tea or snack whilst he eats.

Kallo do very low stock cubes, if I'm making cottage pie for example, I'll use those then take a couple of portions out for ds and will add our own stock after.

Curries are really easy to make from scratch with a little curry powder.

I basically do the same cottage pie for all of us, except I use a organic low salt stock cube , add no Worcester sauce and add less purée in the mix to keep salt down ... mash is made with no added salt butter.

I do a lot of stews / casseroles/ bourgion this way too so son can eat with us

Also I do homemade bolognaise sauce now from baby les weaning book rather than my good old friend dolmio

I tend to do extra of the above and freeze extra portions for our son as we don’t often eat at the same time to be honest.

Homemade fish fingers or if pushed for time I will cook cod or fish fingers and remove the bread crumbs

Lots of veg

I have invested in a slow cooker which helps as I do those meals timed for his dinner and then it keeps the remaining bit warm for 4 hours so then me and hubby eat when he is working later with out extra effort from me.

Made my own pesto to avoid salt for chicken flavouring but frozen it in an ice cube tray so it isn’t labour intensive for future meals

I also cook and freeze pasta sauces just a basic tomato and carbonara so that I can do a quick meal saving the 20 - 30 mins it takes to make the sauce up ( which is an eternity when you kids hungry ) x