How easy is it to OD a BLW baby on salt?

[spongebrainbigpants]

Please advise. A few MN and RL friends have expressed concern that pure-BLW (which is what we're doing with DS, 6 mths) leads to an increased risk of salt overdose.

I never use salt to cook veg with and at the moment DS is not having a huge amount of cooked foods - his diet mainly consists of veg, rice cakes, porridge (baby stuff), pitta bread, fruit. I sometimes also use baby foods spread on rice cakes, etc just for variety.

If I cooked a casserole, pasta dish, etc, with a shop bought jar would DS ingest enough salt from the amount he ate to be at risk?

Just wanted some reassurance tbh. Doing really well with BLW so far but obviously want to be sure I'm not endangering my LO.

Thanks.

Hi sponge

I don't think BLW can increase the risk of giving too much salt as any foods that a BLW baby has can also be made in to a puree! I would avoid using shop bought jars of pasta sauce etc and just stick to making your own. The only thing DS has with salt is cheese and bread but he has very small amounts and no other slat.

Yes, agree with goingfor3. Can't see why BLW leads to more salt intake, but would definitely avoid jars of sauces etc at this age. Things like that can be pretty salty.

Hi sponge

I've been giving Alexander the food we're eating this week, but I'm just avoiding putting salt in. So yesterday I made a lentil casserole but instead of stock I used water with herbs. The cheese will have been the only thing with salt. I have wondered about cheese and salt, but am just going to limit how often he has it

I like to give him toast with philly/humous on as well. I found some unsalted bread the other day (tasteless, but A seemed to like it!) and am using unsalted butter

By the sounds of the foods you've tried, these are fine. I guess the risk is in the prepared foods if they are high in salt, but I'm no expert. I'm avoiding anything prepared for now just in case.

I'm going to try A on pasta - we will use a jar of sauce but for A I might put on something else. I've heard people suggested chopped tomatoes or running pureed veg as a sauce instead

runny pureed veg not running veg!

I understand what you are asking. With ds1 and ds2 I made their own special food for pureeing. Therefore, it had no added salt. With BLW which I am about to start with ds3, they eat what you have cooked for the rest of the family. Therefore there is likely to be added salt, or salt present in any jar, tin etc.

I guess it comes down to whether you make food from scratch or use jars/tins. We tend to do a mixture, and so for the days when we have something from a jar/tin, I'll give DS an alternative

I make all my food from scratch, but I do add salt. For a baby aged 6 months+ are we really not meant to add any salt at all?

I'd say if you're doing BLW or anything similar, it's best to cook as much as you can from scratch. If you can't, then use special children's versions (eg Dolmio do some perfectly nice pasta sauces with v little salt in them compared to other pre-prepared sauces).

I wouldn't give a baby anything from a jar that wasn't specifically designed for a baby, tbh. Maybe if you are having a casserole with sauce from a jar, it might be better to give the baby some bread and plain veggies and maybe a slice of cheese or leftover cold meat or something?

Can you check the nutrition label on jars? As far as I recall, babies should have no more than 1g salt in 100g food (= 0.7g sodium?).
I am prepared to stand corrected on the figures here!

For ease you can get those sachets of cook at home (or whatever its called) pasta sauces; from scratch bettre but sometimes ease wins in RL. Mix both and I think you get a happy balance! I would never ever give ds4 (almost 9 months) jar pasta sauces or anything salty bat a smear of marmaite on an unsalted rice cake (Tesco organic).

I might get flamed for this but I don't think convenience foods and BLW go together. If you are going to feed your family out of a jar (and I used to do this sometimes before DS, so I'm not judging) then its much better that it be special baby food. If you're going to prepare special food for your baby, then you might as well just cook from scratch for the whole family.

IMO adding salt to food is a complete no-no, as is using high-salt stock cubes like oxo. However I've found it really easy to not add salt to things (until the table for some recipes - if DS wants more than his portion it comes off DH's plate who never adds salt)

I do think you have to be careful as (and I think the limit is 1g of salt too) the recommended daily allowance is only 2 slices of bread... If you add up salt that might be in any spread/margarine/butter you may be using, in non-baby cereals, it all builds really quickly!

On the rare ocassions DH are eating something unsuitable, DS gets some quickly cooked frozen veggies, perhaps some cheese (or if I'm prepared some meat saved from the previous day) and toast or rice cakes, or leftover mash. Or (reduced sugar and salt) beans on toast. Always a favourite!

Am in agreement with ChrismumMiaow that if you are BLW then just make from scratch, but if you can't just give the baby a simple alternative. I used to let my DC2 have things like pizza from fairly early on in the BLW process as I had made the dough and the sauce and just gave them a bit that was not very cheesy. Not always practical, but I batch make things like a tomato based pasta sauce (with no salt), which can be used for pizza base, quick pasta meal etc. DH does sometimes complain when I make things like casserole with no salt as he does like it - but it's easier for him to add to his than for me to take it out after it is cooked! Also, if I was making a meal that was very BLW friendly I would always freeze a couple of portions for when baby couldn't eat our meal.

Am about to start BLW my 6 month old so will be doing all of this batch freexing again soon.

Its hard to cook from scratch sometimes but when dd was under 1, I wouldnt give her jars of sauces. I would batch cook and freeze suitable meals for that she could have when we were having unsuitable things.

I'm more leniant now she is over one, am I right in thinking you can be less strict once they are over one?

But surely some salt is important in the diet? I am not talking about processed foods, but adding salt to food. I realised at one point that we as a family were eating NO salt in anything and starting adding a little back again.

I do cook from scratch so can easily not add salt, but your comment about bread worried me a bit. Currently, we buy artisan (otherwise known by many on here as poncy!) bread from places like Flour Power. But we are getting a bread maker just in time for when we start blw (not for that reason of course). Do you add salt to homemade bread?

And cereals too? What cereals do you give to babies then that are not powdered ones to add milk to?

frisbyrat - 1g salt = 0.4g sodium.

Don't forget that milk (breast and formula) contains salt too.

Ilana - yes you need salt in homemade bread.

For cereal try something like raisin wheats.

Ilana - I add half the amount of salt in the recipe when I do make home made bread (don't always manage it).

One of the reasons I do cook main meals from scratch is so that I don't have to worry so much about the rest.

As regards cereals, DS has weetabix or some fake cheerio type things, which both have salt, but he doesn't have those every day (and not massive portions as he also has fruit and often yoghurt for his breakfast) (he's having them more at the moment because he's gone off porridge from having it every day but I will start alternative between that (home made) and cereals.

Also, I don't really try to count salt - at 11mo I just try to have a general awareness of which foods are saltier, and limit those - if he's had a day of more processed, salty foods, he gets a day of lots of veg and simple home cooked stuff to follow it!

Thanks - I am certainly aware of what contains more salt and what doesn't. I don't want to be actually counting grams though! It takes away from the ease of BLW if I have to do that!

Thanks for all your replies. It was things like bread and rice cakes that were of interest esp tbh.

I think the amount that DS is actually eating at the mo is so small that I can be a little more relaxed but will look out for low/no salt alternatives.

I think alot of manufacturers are now much more aware of the fact that most people are eating too much salt and providing alternatives so it should get easier.

One of the reasons for doing BLW was to improve my own health by forcing me to home cook, but we don't have any space for a freezer so that's a bit of a pain in terms of batch freezing (which was the other reason why I didn't want to go down the puree route!).

Very helpful. Thanks.

Rather than count salt per day I:

• make bread myself with a breadmaker
• make hot meals from scratch (using boots baby stock cubes instead of oxo; learn more about herbs, and add mustard or pepper to dishes instead of adding salt)

In this way, I could give DS what I was eating if we were out (more convenient and broaden his tastes, get him used to eating things that I hadn't prepared), and then give important things to like - like cheese (had to offer this at least 40 times before he actually swallowed it, but now he loves it) and then other more salty things like a little bit of bacon, marmite, etc.

Now DS is nearly 1 I'm going to relax a little on the salt but not much.

i,ve seen packets of baby pasta sauces and pouches of gravy esp for babies

Hi sponge - I had a bit of a salt worry the other day when DS was sucking away on a bit of chicken out of my teriyaki stir fry, but I've decided that as long as I keep salty stuff like cheese as an occasional thing, leave it out of cooking, and make sure he is well hydrated, all should be well.
I'm just trying out using the no-salt thin square Kallo rice cakes as fake bread, thanks to some kind MNer's tip.

I am also worried about this so thanks for the tips everyone.
Today my LO (7 months) had beans on toast for breakfast (not that much got swallowed...) and I then got so worried she might have OD'd on salt. Do I really have to buy low-salt beans and bread? What would be the signs of a baby who had had too much salt?

Also, I am very careful about not giving her too much bread but how do you ensure they get enough protein unless you can give them cheese, baked beans etc? We don't generally eat meat much at home so cheese, beans and eggs are our main sources of protein.

novice - low sugar and salt beans aren't much more expensive than supermarket own brand ones IME.

Alternatively, I sometimes make my own with tinned (no salt) plain haricot or canelini beans and a basic tomato sauce. Its pretty quick, especially if you make up tomato sauce regularly for other meals.