When can i add salt to baby food

How Much Should They Eat?

Salt for Babies: How Much Should They Eat?

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Nutrition

Medically reviewed by Jerlyn Jones, MS MPA RDN LD CLT, Nutrition — By Alina Petre, MS, RD (NL) on August 24, 2021

If you’re a new parent, you may be wondering how much salt is OK to include in your baby’s diet.

While salt is a compound that all humans need in their diets, babies shouldn’t get too much of it because their developing kidneys aren’t yet able to process large amounts of it.

Giving your baby too much salt over time may cause health problems, such as high blood pressure. In extreme and rare cases, a baby that’s had a large amount of salt may even end up in the emergency room.

Too much salt during infancy and childhood may also promote a lifelong preference for salty foods.

This article explains what you need to know about salt and babies, including how much salt is safe, and how to tell whether your baby has had too much salt.

You may add salt to your baby’s food in hopes that it’ll improve the taste and encourage your baby to eat.

If you use a baby-led weaning approach to feeding your baby, you may end up serving your baby foods containing more salt simply because you’re serving them the saltier foods you eat as an adult (1, 2).

However, babies who get too much salt through their diets can run into a few issues.

A baby’s kidneys are still immature, and they aren’t able to filter out excess salt as efficiently as adult kidneys. As a result, a diet that’s too rich in salt may damage a baby’s kidneys. A salt-rich diet may also affect a baby’s long-term health and taste preferences (3, 4).

Babies are born with a natural preference for sweet, salty, and umami-tasting foods (1, 4, 5).

Repeatedly being offered salty foods may reinforce this natural taste preference, possibly causing your child to prefer salty foods over those that are naturally less salty.

Processed foods, which tend to be salty but not typically rich in nutrients, may be preferred over whole foods with naturally lower salt contents, such as vegetables (4, 6, 7, 8, 9).

Finally, salt-rich diets may cause your baby’s blood pressure to rise. Research suggests that the blood-pressure-raising effect of salt may be stronger in babies than it is in adults (3).

As a result, babies fed a salt-rich diet tend to have higher blood pressure levels during childhood and adolescence, which may increase their risk of heart disease later in life (10, 11).

In extreme cases, very high intakes of salt can require emergency medical care, and in some cases, even lead to death. However, this is rare and usually results from a baby accidentally eating a quantity of salt much larger than parents would normally add to foods (12).

Summary
Too much salt can damage a baby’s kidneys, increase their blood pressure, and possibly raise their risk of heart disease later in life. A salt-rich diet may also cause your child to develop a lasting preference for salty foods.

Sodium, the main component in table salt, is an essential nutrient. Everyone, including babies, need small amounts of it to function properly.

Young babies under 6 months of age meet their daily sodium requirements from breast milk and formula alone.

Those 7–12-months-old are able to meet their needs from breastmilk or formula and the small amounts of sodium naturally present in unprocessed complementary foods.

As such, experts recommend that you don’t add salt to your baby’s food during their first 12 months (2, 4, 5).

Having an occasional meal with salt added is OK. You may sometimes feed your baby some packaged or processed foods with salt added or let them try a meal from your plate. That said, overall, try not to add salt to the foods you prepare for your baby.

After 1 year of age, recommendations vary slightly. For instance, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) considers 1,100 mg of sodium per day — about half a teaspoon (2.8 grams) of table salt — safe and adequate for children of 1–3 years (13).

In the United States, recommendations for the same age group average 800 mg of sodium per day. That’s about 0.4 teaspoons (2 grams) of table salt per day (14).

Summary
Babies under 12 months should not get any additional salt through their diet. Intakes between 0.4–0.5 teaspoons of salt appear safe in children up to 4 years old.

If your baby eats a meal that’s too salty, they may seem thirstier than usual. Typically, you won’t notice the effects of a high salt diet immediately, but rather over time.

In extremely rare cases, a baby that’s eaten too much salt can develop hypernatremia — a condition in which there’s too much sodium circulating in the blood.

If left untreated, hypernatremia can cause babies to progress from feeling irritable and agitated to drowsy, lethargic, and eventually unresponsive after some time. In severe cases, hypernatremia can result in coma and even death (15).

Milder forms of hypernatremia can be more difficult to spot in babies. Signs that your baby may have a mild form of hypernatremia include extreme thirst and a doughy or velvety texture to the skin.

Very young babies may start crying in a high pitched fashion if they’ve accidentally eaten too much salt.

If you think that your baby may have gotten into too much salt or is beginning to show signs of hypernatremia, call your pediatrician.

Summary
If a baby has a salty meal occasionally, you may notice they are thirsty. In extremely rare cases, babies who have ingested large amounts of salt may develop hypernatremia and require medical attention.

As a parent, you can limit the amount of salt your baby eats in several ways.

Most baby food purées may contain small amounts of naturally occurring sodium from the foods they are made with but very little, if any, added salt. If your baby is currently eating them exclusively, they’re unlikely to ingest too much salt.

If you make your own baby food, skip adding salt, choose fresh foods, and check labels on frozen or canned vegetables and fruits to find lower sodium options.

Also, remember to rinse canned foods, such as beans, lentils, peas, and vegetables, before adding them to purées or meals. Doing so helps reduce their sodium content (16).

If you’re doing baby-led weaning, you can set aside a portion of meals for baby before adding salt or make family meals with spices and herbs instead of salt.

Check the sodium content of foods you frequently buy, such as bread, cereal, and sauces. Lower sodium versions are available for most packaged foods, and comparing labels can help you find a brand with less salt added.

Frozen meals, as well as takeout or restaurant foods, are generally higher in salt. Occasionally, it’s fine for baby to have these meals, but when dining out, a lower salt alternative would be to bring a few foods from home for your baby.

Summary
You can minimize the amount of sodium your baby eats by offering them foods without added salt. Replacing pantry foods like bread and sauces with low sodium alternatives can also help.

Babies need small amounts of salt in their diet. However, their bodies can’t handle large amounts. Babies fed too much salt may be at risk of kidney damage, high blood pressure, and possibly even an increased risk of heart disease.

Moreover, a salt-rich diet may cause babies to develop a lifelong preference for salty foods, in turn, possibly lowering the overall quality of their diet.

Try not to add salt to your baby’s foods when they are under 12 months. After 1 year, you can include a small amount of salt in your child’s diet.

Just one thing

When cooking a family-style meal, get into the habit of adding salt near the end of cooking. This way, you can reserve a no-salt-added portion for your baby.

Last medically reviewed on August 24, 2021

Uncategorized
Parenthood
Baby

How we reviewed this article:

Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.

Current Version

Aug 24, 2021

Written By

Alina Petre

Edited By

Lisa Valente, MS, RD

Medically Reviewed By

Jerlyn Jones, MS MPA RDN LD CLT

Copy Edited By

Christina Guzik, BA, MBA

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Evidence Based

This article is based on scientific evidence, written by experts and fact checked by experts.

Our team of licensed nutritionists and dietitians strive to be objective, unbiased, honest and to present both sides of the argument.

This article contains scientific references. The numbers in the parentheses (1, 2, 3) are clickable links to peer-reviewed scientific papers.

Medically reviewed by Jerlyn Jones, MS MPA RDN LD CLT, Nutrition — By Alina Petre, MS, RD (NL) on August 24, 2021

Why shouldn’t you add salt to the baby’s meals?

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by Babymoov

Many of you have been asking about adding salt to your baby’s meals. So can you put salt in your child’s meals, yes or no? Starting from what age and how much?

Salt: use with moderation!

Salt is an important and essential element in our diet because it is made of sodium chloride. However, in Western society, salt consumption is considered to be too high (WHO) and may have adverse health effects (high blood pressure, obesity).
The recommended amount is 2 to 5 grams of salt per day for adults, for babies it is best not to add any. Why? On the one hand, the food given to your child already has a small amount of salt that is naturally contained in it, either in milk or the first purées you prepare for your baby. On the other hand, you should not add salt to your child’s food because its kidneys are not ready yet and therefore it will find it more difficult to eliminate it.
Do not create bad eating habits
Let’s put an end to the popular misconception according to which, without salt, there is no flavour: this is not true! First of all, salt is not a flavour enhancer, as it changes how we perceive flavours. And the taste of salt is not an innate taste, but has been developed by the food industry, which creates a form of addiction to salty flavours. Moreover, it is best to exclude industrial food, which very often contains salt to preserve it better and artificially improve its flavour.
So if you are preparing jars of home-made food yourself, do not add salt: even when you think the meal does not contain enough salt, it will still be tasty for your child. If you add salt, you might create bad eating habits. Bear in mind that weaning is not just about gradually passing from a liquid diet to solid food, but it is also about developing your child’s taste!
How much salt for the baby? At what age can I start adding cooking salt?
Until the child is about 1 year old, it needs less than 1 g of salt a day. As stated above, salt is already naturally found in milk and the food you prepare (obviously if you do not consider ready-made meals and processed food).
After the child is 1 year old and up to when it is 3 years old, the recommended amount of salt is 2 grams.
Tips:
* Salt is already naturally found in some foods, like cheese or canned vegetables: use them sparingly! If you cannot avoid using ready-made meals, read the ingredients on the product’s label to identify the amount of salt hidden in it. Beware, the label does not always say it contains « salt », but « sodium ». Do not overdo the portions.
* If the baby finds that a dish really seems too bland, consider using herbs and spices: sage, thyme, rosemary and paprika will enhance the taste of your food!
* Finally, do not hesitate to ask your paediatrician who will advise you on your child’s diet!
Is it necessary to salt baby food

Reviewer Kovtun Tatiana Anatolievna September 15, 2021

13972 views

The salt we use every day in cooking is called sodium chloride. But if we talk about salt from the point of view of the human diet, then it makes sense to consider two elements, chlorine and sodium

Sodium and chlorine ions play an enormous role in the human body - they maintain homeostasis (the constancy of the internal environment of the body), the level of fluid concentration inside and outside the cells necessary for normal life, ensure the normal permeability of the membrane of each cell in the body, participate in the conduction of electrical impulses in cells and perform a number of other physiological functions.

But do not immediately reach for the salt shaker.

Firstly, salt in its natural form can be obtained from many products, and secondly, there are strict restrictions on salt intake, and if they are not observed, then you can harm the body.

After all, a number of important mechanisms (renal, adrenal, vascular, etc.) are responsible for maintaining the balance of sodium and chlorine ions in the body, which, with excessive intake of salt from food, can experience excessive stress, and some systems can even fail.

Today we will talk about the “salt” subtleties.

To salt or not to salt - that is the question

As for children, experts are unanimous in their opinion: infants do not need salt "from the outside" at all. Nature made sure that there was enough of it in mother's milk. By the way, it is equally important that mommy does not lean heavily on salty food.

And if the baby is bottle-fed, then the principle is the same - the balance of all the necessary elements has already been observed in the mixtures.

Salt can only be administered after breastfeeding or artificial feeding is completed, usually this happens at 1 or 1.5 years old. The baby will receive a third of the daily intake of sodium and chlorine "naturally" - from vegetables, fruits, cereals, meat and fish.

Here are some foods from the high sodium diet for children:

egg

sardine

cottage cheese

kefir
tomatoes

oats

apples

carrots

And foods that are rich in chlorine :

beef

rice

buckwheat

egg white

But the remaining two-thirds of the norm for the baby can be obtained with the help of table salt. The rules of "pinch" or "tip of a knife" do not work very well here - these are not perfect measures of measurement. The only thing that parents should be guided by is that children's food should a priori seem unsalted and fresh for an "adult" taste.

Additional salting of industrial products for children 1–3 years old is prohibited. Children's "salt norm" per day is about 0.5 g per 10 kg of body weight.

What happens if you add too much salt to baby food

The urinary system of the baby will hardly get rid of the excess of this mineral. The load on fragile kidneys, pancreas, blood vessels will increase, and disturbances in water-salt metabolism are also possible.

Alarming signals for parents can be the presence of edema in the child, unreasonable anxiety of the crumbs and a decrease in the number of urination.

Which salt to choose for the baby

In baby food, it is recommended to use regular table salt. Black, Himalayan pink or sea salt is not suitable for crumbs. Separately, it should be said about iodized salt - it can be included in the diet only after consulting with a pediatrician.

It is better to add salt to dishes after they are cooked so that nutrients do not evaporate after heat treatment.

The task of parents is to form the right attitude towards salt in the baby, without “hammering” the natural taste of products with it, but also without making it a taboo.

Find your balance and grow healthy!

Reviewer Kovtun Tatiana Anatolievna

Scientific adviser to PROGRESS JSC, Candidate of Medical Sciences

All expert articles

Is it necessary to salt the food of a child up to a year

— Anastasia Ivanovna, what role does salt play in metabolic processes and why is it harmful?

- These questions are often asked during consultations. You can't do without salt. The basis of table salt is sodium chloride, which:

helps to improve metabolism;

has a beneficial effect on the pH balance;

stabilizes hydrobalance;

affects blood metabolism;

prevents dehydration.

The value of salt for the body is high, but we forget that vegetables, fruits, bread and other products already contain salt. And we don’t think about it, so an excess of salt often occurs in the body.

Pay attention! When sodium chloride is low, there may be loss of appetite, abdominal pain, nausea, and excessive flatulence. Someone also talks about dizziness and a drop in blood pressure, but all conditions should be observed with doctors.

Why don't they salt their food to children? And in general - do children need to salt their food?

- As I said, many foods contain natural salt. It is so thought out by nature that children receive the first salt from breast milk or formula and in a form that does not harm them. For example, 100 ml of breast milk contains 0.17 sodium. From six months, you can switch to other types of food, making sure that it is suitable for your child's age. I will especially note that cow's milk contains more salt than goat's milk, but in any case, whole milk is not recommended for babies under a year and a half years old.

- And yet, from the point of view of pediatricians, when is it possible to salt food for a child?

— Pediatricians recommend starting salting complementary foods no earlier than 7-8 months, but I would advise you to refrain from salt in the diet of a child up to a year. At the age of the start of complementary foods, the kidneys have not yet formed: they are not able to filter a lot of salt. You can provoke overexcitation, kidney and joint diseases.

— What are the supposed health benefits of salt?

- Babies who sweat a lot are thought to lose sodium chloride. In fact, you need to think about dehydration. And it is better to replenish it not with salty foods, but by supplementing it with clean water separately from feeding. And, of course, you need to find out why the child is losing a lot of fluid.

For example,

the potassium-sodium balance in the cells is formed provided that there is enough vitamin D in the body. For some reason everyone forgets about this, but it is the level of vitamin D that you need to think about if the child sweats a lot. Hyponatremia (decreased serum sodium concentration) causes severe dehydration in case of diarrhea and vomiting, which means that the child loses a lot of water in a short period of time. In such conditions, it is imperative to consult a doctor, take tests, and the question of salting or not salting food will not solve the problem.

Another example is that salt improves appetite,

this is a known fact. Salt increases the amount of saliva, increases the acidity of gastric juice and at the same time exacerbates the desire to eat. In 2008, an interesting study was conducted at the University of Iowa: rats were first fed salty food, and then deprived of salt, which led to irritation. When the rodents were again added salt to their food, they showed cheerfulness and good mood. This is an indicator that salt increases appetite and changes behavior.

If you add a lot of salt to baby food, then the child will get used to this amount and then will protest against insipid food. What to do? Gradually reduce the amount of salt or limit it completely, eliminating all salt reserves, and if age allows, add foods with a salty taste: orange, cranberry, pomegranate juice, onion, garlic, radish, parsley.

— How much salt does a child need?

- Until the year it is better not to add anything - the child will receive sodium chloride with food. In extreme cases, add salt from eight months - no more than 1 g per day. After a year, you can slowly introduce salt, but also in reasonable quantities, without overdoing it.

Types of salt: what can children do

— There is an opinion: in order to make salt more accessible to the child's body, its solution is evaporated in a water bath. But I never met parents who did it at home. When choosing salt, you need to carefully read the compositions, evaluate the condition and reaction of the child to salt, and remember the expiration dates.

— What salty foods are strictly prohibited for children and why?

- Salted straws, fish or nuts, even for an adult organism, have an excess of salt. In them, the allowable dosage of salt is almost 17-20 times exceeded, which loads the liver, kidneys, and blood vessels.

Pediatricians and pediatric gastroenterologists recommend not giving your child sugar and salt until they can do without them. Dentists talk about the age of three or four years and the restriction of sweets. But in big cities, children try everything earlier. And as soon as the child gets acquainted with the taste of salted or sweet food, the process cannot be stopped, he will continue to ask for such food, since his receptors will only respond to it. Therefore, young children should be limited in salt and sugar, including their solutions in water.

When choosing products, it is necessary to focus on the age of the child and do not forget that by adding food, we increase the natural dosage.

— Is it possible to replace salt with something?

- Some mothers replace salt with kelp - they buy it in pharmacies, grind it into dust and add salt to food. But they forget that kelp is an iodine-containing product that is undesirable in the diet of children with hypersensitivity to iodine. In addition, kelp is indicated for chronic constipation, and when eaten, it will take water from the body. So, in order not to get dehydrated, you need to increase your water intake. Increasing in volume, it irritates the mucosal receptors and increases intestinal motility, which means that the child will go to the toilet more often. Therefore, replacing salt with something, you need to evaluate all the pros and cons.

— Is there salt in prepared vegetable and meat purees, cereals and cream soups?

— When choosing food for a child, it is important to read the ingredients. If the product does not contain added salt, such as MAMAKO ^® baby food, the manufacturers declare this on the packaging, and if sodium chloride is added, then it will be included in the description of the product composition.
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