Precautions for adding salt to babies
Release time : 04/18/2025 09:30:02
The health of a baby's diet has always been the top priority for parents, and every parent hopes that their child will grow up healthy and happy.
Diet is an indispensable part of a child's growth, affecting their health and development.
Salt is an essential condiment in daily life. So, when should a baby begin to eat salt? What should be noted when adding salt to the baby's diet? Concerns and precautions regarding salt introduction to babies: 1. At six months of age, babies can start trying a small amount of salt. However, it is important not to give babies adult table salt because their kidney functions are not fully developed, and excessive salt intake can increase the burden on the kidneys and is detrimental to health. 2. After a baby is one year old, the amount of salt they consume can gradually increase. Still, it is crucial to control the amount of salt intake to avoid overconsumption. 3. When introducing salt to babies, choose low-sodium salt instead of iodized salt. Also, avoid giving babies too salty foods to prevent affecting their health. 4. For babies with special conditions, such as hypertension or heart disease, it is advisable to add salt under the guidance of a doctor. 5. When introducing salt to babies, parents should follow the principle of "less is more" by adding only a small amount at a time and tasting multiple times until the baby can adapt. In summary, introducing salt to babies requires caution. Parents should arrange the addition of salt according to the age and health condition of the baby to ensure the healthy growth of the baby.
From the time baby starts eating complementary food, parents should be aware of the precautions related to salt intake in babies.
Note 1: Since milk and other complementary foods already contain sodium sufficient for physiological needs, there is no need for additional sodium in baby's normal diet.
1-year-old children should not consume salt and, ideally, delay the introduction of salt. It is best to opt for unprocessed foods. Note that when introducing salt to babies, choose low-sodium salt that contains fewer sodium ions, along with other ions such as magnesium ions, which can help expel excess salt from the body and reduce the incidence of diseases.
Note 3: When feeding salt to babies, eat more vegetables. Vegetables contain a lot of potassium and can inhibit the absorption of salt by babies.
At the same time, vegetables are rich in zinc ions, which can help enhance baby's taste sensitivity. Who knows, maybe one day they will become a gourmet!
Note 4: Adult flavors may not be suitable for babies.
Because people's sensitivity to salt increases with age, babies are more sensitive to salt than adults. Don't judge a baby's taste by an adult's palate.
Note 5: Condiments contain high salt content, so it is advisable to limit their consumption and increase the intake of fresh fruits.
Additionally, sodium content in items such as soy sauce, shrimp paste, and monosodium glutamate is quite high. In the diet of babies, it should be used sparingly, but ideally not at all.
When should a baby start eating salt? As babies grow and begin to eat complementary foods, they need to be introduced to salt.
Many mothers ask, when can babies eat salt?
Particularly, I wanted to add some flavor to the baby's first foods to prevent them from always finding them bland.
At around 1 year old, babies can start to consume salt. However, the amount should be very minimal, about one gram at most, and no more than two grams.
When stale noodles and soft rice become the staple diet for babies, it is appropriate to add salt at an optimal time; however, children with heart disease, nephropathy, and respiratory infections should limit their salt intake.
Generally for children aged 1 to 6 years, the daily salt content should not exceed 2g.
If there is a lot of sweating in summer, or diarrhea and vomiting, the amount of salt can be increased accordingly.
In fact, for babies' very sensitive taste buds, it is the best choice to eat more vegetables and fruits.
The hazards of consuming too much salt in infants, and whether it is necessary for babies to add salt to their complementary foods starting at the age of one year. It is important for parents to understand that excessive salt intake can pose risks to a child's health, affecting their growth and development.
Excessive salt intake by infants can kill the existing bacteria in the respiratory tract, leading to bacterial dysbiosis and respiratory diseases, as well as reduced resistance.
High salt diet can lead to reduced salivary secretion and decreased lysozyme, which is conducive to the existence of various bacteria and viruses in the upper respiratory tract.
Intake of too much salt in babies can lead to the death of oral mucosal cells, reducing their number and increasing susceptibility to oral cell diseases.
Excessive salt intake in infants can lead to the osmotic action of salt, which can kill the normal flora in the upper respiratory tract and cause dysbiosis, resulting in disease.
Babies consume too much salt and have high sodium ion content in their bodies, which will affect the absorption of calcium ions and zinc ions, which may easily lead to calcium and zinc deficiency in children, and affect their body's growth.
The baby eats too much salt, which increases the burden on the baby's heart and kidneys.
The baby's kidneys are not yet well developed and are not enough to penetrate too much salt and damage kidney and heart function.
If your baby develops a strong eating habit from an early age, it may easily cause diseases such as high blood pressure.
What salty foods should my baby not eat? Babies should not eat too much salt while they grow up, but many foods in life contain a lot of salt. Salt is the most common seasoning in life and is everywhere.
In order to ensure your baby's health, how can your baby avoid eating "hidden salt"? Snacks.
Similar dried fruits, nuts, and junk food contain a lot of salt, and these snacks are exactly what babies like most. So in order to ensure the health of the baby, mothers should ask the baby to eat less.
Pickled vegetables.
Pickles that have been marinated for a long time must be added with a large amount of salt. Many mothers like these pickles and unknowingly give them to their babies. Unwittingly, their babies will ingest a large amount of hidden salt.
Processed food.
Baby likes to eat canned food such as ham sausage, which contains a lot of salt. Stop your baby from eating less canned food.
Strong soup treasures.
For example, adding more soy sauce can make your baby eat more delicious. Many mothers often add soy sauce to complementary food to improve the taste. In fact, soy sauce has a high salt content.
In addition, food seasonings such as soup dumplings and salad dressings all contain a certain amount of salt, so mothers must not let their babies eat too much.
Other: Cheese, especially processed cheese, contains a certain amount of salt.
In addition to the salt needed for seasoning, soda crackers also contain sodium bicarbonate, which is also a sodium salt.
How to control the amount of salt your baby eats without using adult tastes as a yardstick.
Baby's food should be cooked separately, and don't let him eat the same food as his family too early.
Babies are far more sensitive to salt than adults. The taste of food cannot be measured by adult standards, otherwise there will be too much salt for the baby.
When preparing meals for their children, parents should pay attention to reducing the content of salt.
After the baby is one year old, it is appropriate to add iodine salt. When making stir-fry or soup, wait until the food is almost cooked or just finished before adding salt, which will give a better effect.
The child has heart disease, nephritis and respiratory infection. The salt intake in the diet should be strictly controlled.
The method of adding salt at the dining table can be adopted, that is, less salt or no salt should be added when cooking a dish until it is served on the table.
It would only leave the salt on the surface of the food and not taste at all.
In summer, when babies sweat more or if they have diarrhea and vomiting, the baby's salt intake can be slightly increased compared to normal.
It is important to supplement the diet of babies with appropriate foods.
1. Season the soup with soy sauce. When the baby is 10 months old, you can cook it with clear water and add some green vegetables to make the noodle soup. If you are worried about losing flavor, you can put a few drops of soy sauce in the soup to avoid being too salty.
2. Put shrimp skins in the egg custard. When steaming the egg custard for your baby, you can put some chopped shrimp skins. It not only has a taste, but also has a unique flavor. The baby may like it more! 3. Make porridge with multiple flavors. When cooking porridge, you may wish to add a few sweet potatoes or pumpkins cut into small pieces. The porridge with soft glutinous flavor can promote your baby's appetite.
Precautions for baby when eating seasonings In addition to salt, which the baby cannot eat before the age of 1, can other seasonings be eaten? Actually, it's not. In addition to salt, there are three seasonings that the baby cannot eat or eat less during infancy. Does mom know which three seasonings are? Vinegar is one of the common condiments in life.
Half a year before the baby is half a year old, it is a sensitive period for the development of taste buds, which can enrich your baby's taste buds.
However, vinegar is divided into fermented vinegar and compounded vinegar.
Mom should choose for her baby to eat. It is rich in B vitamins and minerals to brew vinegar. Don't buy prepared vinegar by mistake.
For babies under half a year old, the main food is breast milk, and the fat that the baby consumes through pure breast milk or formula milk powder.
Mothers should pay attention to never give animal oil to their babies, which will cause indigestion and diarrhea.
Sugar babies all like to eat sugar. Eating too much sugar will consume a lot of vitamins in the body, reduce saliva and digestive juice secretion, increase gastric acid, and ferment in the intestines, causing indigestion and loss of appetite.
Therefore, it is best to limit your baby's consumption to about 10 grams.
Follow the "MamaNet" WeChat, to access more wonderful maternity information and benefits: Open WeChat → Add a Friend → Search for "MamaNet" or "mama_cn" to do so.
The medical information provided in this article is for reference only.
If you feel unwell, it is recommended to seek medical attention immediately, and the medical diagnosis and treatment will be subject to offline diagnosis.