Yet another BLW ??? - salt & sugar

[boomer78]

I didn't want to hijack the other thread so here goes - IF you give your LOs YOUR food, do you mean salted and with spices? We are slowly starting and it's been going great. DD has mostly had fruits and veggies so far. But she clearly wants EVERYTHING we eat. Food with salt added (not excessive but some). From what I read, little ones should avoid salt.

So if you 'share' your food with your children, do you literally give them what you eat, even if it has salt (or sugar) in them? I'm not too worried about the spices. DD is almost 9m.

[Knitting Mama]

I can't tell you my personal experience, because my Cecilia is only 4.5 months. But a good friend of mine has an 18 month old daughter, and when she started solids around 7-8 months, she ate everything her parents ate, and that included curries, spicy sauces, ethnic foods from around the world, and so on. Her mom's a gourmet chef.

[Abraisme]

I started with some basic fruits and veggies around 5-6mo and then quickly progressed into feeding my DD whatever I am eating. Of course it's age appropriate to accomodate her lack of back teeth. So yes, by 7-8mo my DD was eating food with salt/pepper, etc on it.

[Masel]

My 11 month old got sushi this evening but the wasabi was mine!

[confustication]

My kids don't seem to like bland stuff- so yep, they get everything I have. Actually, with this babe, I didn't even really do the 'one food at a time' approach- he grabs what he wants from my plate or his brother gives his to him. I watch for reactions in general, and if there is one I can follow it backwards to figure it out, but so far so good. (Also, my kids don't want food at 6 months- they usually start gaining some interest at about 9 - 10 months, and go from there. )

[fruitfulmomma]

Yes, I salt their food. I don't feed them highly processed foods which contain large amounts of sodium.

[chel]

if possible i try to limit the salt/sugar amount, easier at home but i have offered a 6m food from a restaurant that was "flavored". i'm more concerned about choking hazards. i do have to really watch my 10yr dd, as she will try to feed the baby pure junk food.

[Ruby2]

I've just been trying to cook without adding salt. We add it to our food on our plates after I've set aside some for dd. We use all sorts of other spices though, just not salt. I like what Dr. Sears says about how avoiding salt and sugar for as long as possible might help dd avoid developing a huge taste for them as an adult.

Dh and grandma do give our 8 month old dd pickles all the time when I'm not around though...sigh!

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by Ruby2

Dh and grandma do give our 8 month old dd pickles all the time when I'm not around though...sigh!

in the US, most pickles are vinegar packed and contain very little salt. Depending on the type they may have plenty of sugar though. But salt-brined pickles were one of my DS' first foods.

I dontgive him junk food which contains excessive amounts of salt or sugar, but he has had salt brined pickles, and even homemade ice cream (maple syrup). I've also fed him chili (i removed his portion before adding the really spucy stuff). I feed him a fair bit of beans and cheese, both of which vontsin salt. Not something thats even on my radar.

[SubliminalDarkness]

Yep! And we eat a lot of spicy, strong-flavored foods, too. Our kids love it, and have from the beginning.

[ann_of_loxley]

I just stopped cooking with salt about 4 years ago when DS1 was starting solids. But spices - you bet! DS1 loves spicey foods now too!

[tzs]

salt and spices...yep. it actually takes more salt than regularly homemade salted food to mess up a babe, unless you have a history of hypertension. but i do still avoid processed foods with a ton of sodium.
she loves pickles and i find myself ADDing spices for her. i.e if she's having beans i'll make sure to add some oil and lime and cumin or something like that.

[red and lulu]

i watch the amount of salt i use when cooking in general, but don't not give dd something b/c it's salted. she likes what we're having be it salty, spicy, or sour (pickles are a huge favorite). sugar however is another story. she does not eat anything with sugar and we plan to keep it that way for as long as possible.

[boomer78]

Thank you all so much!!!

[carmel23]

We don't add a lot of salt to much, and we cook 98 per cent from scratch.

But I will pull the baby's food out if it is something I will add salt to--I'll just take his out first. But not spices, he loves curry, mexican spices, and pretty much everything.

So I do limit the salt and he has had no added sugar. Their systems shouldn't have to handle that now.

[dancingflower]

From Gill Rapley's book, " babies up to 1 year old should have no more than 1g of salt (0.4g sodium) per day".

Then she says that considering that many baby friendly foods like cheese (100g), bread (2 slices) or rice cakes are inevitably packed with their fair share of salt, It's better that you compensate by not adding salt to what you cook.

She also advises to offer xtra water or breastmilk whenever baby eats a salted food to make it easier on their kidneys.

In our case, We've been cooking with loads of garlic, with herbs and spices and no salt (we add at the table) so we can have "salt credit" for when we are out. But the truth is that our LO (6.5mo) is not really in danger of reaching his daily dose of salt, unless he can absorb salt through his fingers, cheeks ...eyelids!!! While we loose a bit in flavor because it's nice when food absorbs the salt while its cooking, in the other hand it's healthier even for me. I have a serious salt addiction.