Why no salt & sugar for baby?

Most of the new Moms like me often find themselves trapped inside their own notion of thought when it comes to what’s wrong and right for their babies. There are precedented beliefs in our society where one is compelled to follow the deeds of their ancestors and there is this society where so many things are based on practicality, pragmatism and logic on parenting and healthy life-style. With including salt and sugar to your little one’s diet seems to be a normal habit of every family households as a form of taste enhancer or to flavour tasteless food, but in practicality, according to the dieticians, this is a straight ‘no no’ conduct especially for babies under 1 year old.

My daughter is 16 months old already but the health visitor recommended almost no sugar and salt in her diet until she is 2 years old. She gave me a brief idea about how bad it is in her little body as her kidney is not matured enough to cope with the extra sodium intake. The dietary recommendation of salt intake for different age group looks like this:

Fig: SACN Recommended maximum salt intake

Even there are evidences now to prove that the children who consumed excess salt in their diet could develop high blood pressure, kidney diseases, osteoporosis, respiratory illnesses such as asthma, stomach cancer and obesity. The babies under 1 year old get enough level of sodium from their mother’s milk or formula milk to support normal growth and development. For the toddlers, as you can see in the table above the required level of salt is merely 2g a day which is very low in quantity. Most of the sodium are hidden in ready made foods, packaged foods that stays in the shelves longer as it contains preservatives which is basically a salt.

Like salt, sugar intake should also be limited to children and toddlers as it damages their teeth and put them at risk of developing diabetes, obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure in their later life. I was told not to give her even honey at this stage because babies are born preferring a sweet taste from the womb and including sweetness from early stage might put them in the pattern of preferring sweet taste later in their life so, its better to substitute artificial sweetness with natural sweetness available from fresh fruits. It’s surprising to know that even dried fruits are loaded with sugar such as raisins, cranberries, apricots so, it is better to give them in moderation or to soak them overnight to limit the quantity of extra intake.

However, it is quiet difficult coming from an Asian background to wholly practice it and even quite confusing when buying foods for your baby as most of the store foods contains hidden salt and sugar in excess amount. So, its better to cook for your baby as you are in control of what goes in on your baby’s food and avoid as much ready made and pre-packaged food for your baby as possible. I’m still learning so sometimes when in hurry, I tend to buy and feed my daughter a store baby yogurt or wafers for snacks and later regret the decision. So, sometimes it seems impossible to put into practice when you are in hurry or you’re visiting your relatives or you’re outside busy and your baby is hungry, on that few occasions, it’s absolutely fine to feed what’s available until and unless your baby is not hungry as somedays are not perfect and not in your control, so occasional slip ups are acceptable. However, pre-packing your baby’s snacks with you such as bananas, berries, carrots, natural unsweetened yogurt from home when you are in a run, might help you in such situations.

I was advised that even I should avoid eating junk foods which are loaded with salt and sugar in front of my daughter as it can, in her subconscious mind, depict what she should be actually eating, which is totally wrong. So, to avoid that situation, it’s better to choose a healthy life style for you and your family from now on. Even I am trying really hard to get into these ideas of no sugar, no salt practice and hoping to change even my behaviour to eat healthy gradually for the sake of my daughter. It’s do-able and achievable when it comes to your baby so why not?

What do you think?

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