BLW - stupid question about salt

[Penthesileia]

My dd is nearly 25 weeks, so I'm going to start offering her solids in about 2 weeks (she's sitting up unaided, swipes at anything we're holding, chews on anything she can, etc). I'm going to follow BLW as it suits our style of parenting, and follows on naturally (it seems to me) from bf-ing on demand, which is how we've operated thus far.

However, I just want to check one thing... I get that you offer baby wedges or sticks of food and the food that you're eating (within reason, of course), but I'm not 100% clear about salt... Do you stop cooking with salt altogether, so say if I were making mashed/roast/boiled potatoes or boiling pasta, I wouldn't add salt as I would normally? It's not like I ladle it in, I assure you , but I know how important it is not to overload a baby's kidneys with salt, and even a little to an adult can be a lot to a baby, I guess.

Just wanted to check.

TIA!

I stopped using salt to cook with, i.e pasta/potatoes etc and tbh even now DD is a year old I stll don't use salt to cook with. I only add it to my food after I have dished up DD's food.

Good luck with the BLW, it's ace, very messey, but good fun.

I would like to offer you a piece of advice I wish I got when I started BLW. Make sure you use a biiiiig bib with arms and what not when your DD has a banana. Banana will not come out EVER.

I stopped cooking with salt when DS1 was a baby (if not before). He;s nearly 10 now!

For now, I would avoid salt altogether. I would cook without salt, and then add to your own food to taste.

I am not sure of exact amounts for babies this young, but the amount of salt their bodies can cope with is minimal and they will get it naturally in food they eat, so do not add it at all.

Thank you for your replies!

I suspected that it's best to avoid salt altogether, but wasn't sure.

DustyTv - It does seem like fun! And thanks for the banana tip. Perhaps I'll do what my parents did: in all the photos of me eating as a baby, I am naked!

SoupDragon - you are tres virtuous. [halo emoticon].

SomeKindofWonderful - Yes, that's what I thought. I remember some horrific story about a young couple who pureed their own food (although I think it was junk food of some kind) and fed it to their LO, who died from renal failure. So awful.

penthesileia, lol we do that when DD has spag bol, it is just so messy it is easier to have her in a nappy and nothing else

I love BLW and it suits DD well IYSWIM. It means we can all eat at the same time as she just feeds herself while Dh and I eat ours.
DD is just getting to grips with a spoon now and will feed herself a yoghurt and soup with a bit of help.

Good luck.

Cheers, DustyTv.

Hello, glad you like the pic of my DD, she was the one eating mince !

I don't cook with salt at all, however I was fairy lax about worrying about salt in pre prepared food, and I'm talking about things like bread, homous etc. given that the amount she actually used to eat wasn't very much.

If you are generally cooking from scratch and offering your DD fresh foods and aren't using salt to cook I think you'll be fine.