BLW in for'n climes - the salt/sugar question.

[mootthing]

We are spending a couple of months in Switzerland because of DH's work. DS is just coming up to 9 months, but I am slightly struggling with the BLW out here because very little seems to have its salt/sugar content marked and we are living in a sparsely furnished flat, so I don't have any of my usual baking/kitchen utensils or reserves of stuff in the freezer/cupboards.

I'm particularly struggling with lunch. Any suggestions? DS is getting very fed up with fruit/veg/rice cakes (which I brought with me and are running out - the only non-salted ones I have found here have chocolate on them!). I am falling back more and more on bread and cheese, but am a bit worried about the unknown salt content of the bread, particularly.

I wouldn't worry too much. Could you give him some kind of fruit bread, or brioche, made in to french toast. you could spread fruit puree on bread or cream cheese. Give him fruit cut in to sticks, cooked carrot . There is also a bread in france called pain au lait which would be good, don't know if they have it in switzerland? also sticks of omelette?

at 9m I would loosen up a bit and give bread for lunch

OK - I never know how careful I need to be about salt. There seem to be such dire warnings.

I know the guidelines say to aim not to give more than a couple of slices of bread a day up to 1 year, but I never know how to balance that against other potentially high-salt foods, like cheese. DS is a true man. With the exception of bananas, he much prefers meat, bread, and cheese to any sort of fruit or veg.

What about things like pesto/cooked ham. Would you give those at all/on top of bread?

ham yes, pesto no - put it on (unsalted) pasta.

I also did things like buying unsalted butter (easy in CH), using cream cheese or cottage cheese rather than saltier hard cheeses, and trying to do no-salt breakfasts (porridge, mini shredded wheat etc) to make up for being cavalier re salt in other directions, iyswim.

stuff like cold roast chicken, steak etc also good - dd ate a lot of leftovers at this age

We're mostly eating bananas for breakfast with the occasional piece of toast or weetabix. He won't touch porridge or shredded wheat.

OK so I think the salt thing for an under 1 year old works out like this ...

Max daily salt intake = 1g

On average, 1 slice of bread = 0.4g (about the same for a croissant or brioche)
1 slice of ham = 0.5g
A equivalent sized piece of cheese = about the same as the ham

so basically, it only takes one small ham or cheese sarnie to get you up to your entire daily limit! If he likes meat, how about stewing a piece of chicken? or a boiled egg?

There is good govt info on salt here

What about making crepes or omelettes? You could do that easily without salt and have cheese/cream cheese, ham, veg etc with them without the worry of additional salt on top of the cheese/ham. It would also be a variation in texture for your LO.