BLS and salt? When to start bread?

Well we handed DD (she's a week short of 6 months old) some steamed carrot today, which she very cheerfully sucked for a while before throwing on the floor. Her first non-milk food! :) Not that I think any actually went in.

Anyway, I'm pleased about it.

My questions for today (there will surely be more) are: what do you do about giving baby what you are eating when nearly everything you are eating that is cooked has salt added to it? We eat a lot of Spanish food (DH is Spanish), and it's almost impossible to get him to not salt it, or otherwise some of the most basic ingredients, like chorizo, are really salty anyway. My understanding is that DD shouldn't have salty things at all for ages (how long?). So I can't see a time when we will be able to give her what we are having.

Did anyone else have this situation? What did you do? Am I being paranoid, or sensible, about the salt thing?

We don't mind steaming or boiling veggies for her, or giving her fruit, but not sure what to do when it comes to meat and other things.

Also, is there any reason to not give her bread sometime soon? There is always bread on the table here, so it's kind of an obvious thing to share. Does it have to be soft bread, or would a bit of crust be better? We're usually eating something like a baguette, so crusty bits on the outside and soft on the inside.

Pretty sure I saw something on bread/wheat introduction and I'll have a look around to see if i can find it

Hola Tenar,

I too am doing BSL & worry about the salt thing. I have given DD ham but I rinsed it first - :dunno: -might have got rid of some of the salt. I feed her baked beans occasionally & have bought the 'no added salt' ones but I figure she gets them so rarely and in such little quantities that the normal ones are ok for her (and they taste better - since we eat the leftovers!)

Maybe when DH is cooking, get him to take a little portion out before he finishes seasoning so that your DD can have what you are having and your DH can still go wild with the salt for you guys.

And I give my DD bread all the time, she has toast for breakfast most mornings (doesn't like wheatbix or porridge!). Try the soft stuff first & see how she goes and then try the crusty stuff.

HTH - Suerte!

Look, there are many people that wil tell you salt is evil and they should never have it.
However, salt is actually ESSENTIAL to the body's function, in many ways.

When your kids are older and eating processed foods, etc, then salt intake becomes a real issue as it is for you or I.
However, when the child is not eating ANY salt, this is a very big issue. If you DD is eating some salted foods, that is not dangerous, nor the end of hte world. It is actually quite healthy in modereation. Now I wouldnt give her a chorizo to chew on but ceratinly mash with salt in it, because that is what you are eating is not bad. When you think about salt content you need to apply it to the whole of her intake and the whole amount in the food you made. So for a mash made from 6 potatoes you may have put in a tsp of salt. So in the teaspoon or so she will eat at this age the amount of salt in that is minimal.

I always cook with salt (chef, cant help it lol) and Charlotte was BLS from 7 months when she started eating.
I do not add salt to steamed vegies, etc, anyway, so any salt is only in a main meal like dinner if it is a cooked stew, sauce etc.

Putting salt in pasta water will not add to her salt intake either, BTW, nor will putting salt in your potato water ;)

WRT to bread, there you may need to think about how much she is eating and what type - bread (white or highly processed) flour can be very binding in the gut and cause costipation and cramping. White flours and processed foods can do this. Bread also contains salt ;)
I think I didn't give Charlotte bread until she was about 9 months, a couple of months after she started solids. I found the stewed fruits and vegies enough. She did however also eat porridge ( i used to pulse the quick oats a few times in the blender the first few times she had it. Too this day her fav food is prridge - she would eat it all day every day if I let her! lol so healthy and filling. A few spoons for breakfast every morning is how we started.

Follow your instincts, you are going well and she will guide you :)

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WRT to bread, there you may need to think about how much she is eating and what type - bread (white or highly processed) flour can be very binding in the gut and cause costipation and cramping. White flours and processed foods can do this. Bread also contains salt ;)
She did however also eat porridge ( i used to pulse the quick oats a few times in the blender the first few times she had it. To this day her fav food is prridge - she would eat it all day every day if I let her! :)

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Limey, can you some & talk some sense into my daughter please!? Make her eat porridge! I eat it, her Dad would eat it everyday for breakfast...actually, he does most days...and I really think she should eat it too!!

I get what you are saying about salt, its something I have wondered about in regards to needing it, but I got scared off, didn't want to poison the little mite.

I have started off with wholemeal bread. DH & I only eat wholegrain - mostly soy & linseed - but I'm worried about the grains at this point, in case they are too hard for her palate. Am I being a sooky-lala? We've been eating wholemeal bread while we're feeding it to her but its got no flavour when compared to the real stuff! And I wouldn't eat white bread if you paid me - of course sourdough, baguettes & crusty italian loaf dont count ;)

I hear you on the crusty bread Winter!! lol At the moment we are swaying for a boy so I am only allowed to eat WHITE :( Most unhappy though! lol

How are you making hte porridge? DD wont eat it if I make it the "real" way with milk etc.
Quick oats, water to make it swim in a bowl, int he microwave, 90 seconds. Stir it, let it cool a little and add a teaspoon of honey or golden syrup (for the young ones I used golden syrup due to botchelism/spore conerns about honey) stir itup and give her a spoon and let her go for her life. She doesnt necessarily have ot EAT any of it, she will make a HUGE mess and you will have no way of knowing how much she actually ate probably but give it a go.

Charlotte also loves hers made with Green Tea...this is how DH makes his and she started off by eating his, so always loves it lol

HTH :)

PS way to go on getting her back to sleep tonight too, mummy!

I found an old post that suggested bread at around 7 months so it's about right time. There is a smooth grain bread I think Tip Top make it but not 100% sure. It doesn't have any solid grains in it because they've been pulverised and it appears to be white bread if you look at it. I was buying it for a while because DP hates anything but white so he says and I was trying to be healthier as he eats so much junk if you let him.

Be careful with the processed breads , even if they say they contain all the grains of multi grain bread.
It is the processing that affects food, not the food itself. The more it is messed with the more the nutritional value is damaged also.
Try light (or dark) Rye, it is soft like white bread but is very good for you and less processed. And it tasted good too :)

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Quick oats, water to make it swim in a bowl, int he microwave, 90 seconds.


PS way to go on getting her back to sleep tonight too, mummy!

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Awh shucks for the pat on the back! I needed that:confetti:

I'm making it your way, but adding milk at the end - skip the milk you reckon? I'll try it tomorrow & see how we go..

Sorry to hijack Tenar! I'll go now!

Your welcome! It isn't easy looking after a little on on your own when DH is away! I know it can feel like hours when they wont go to sleep and you are sooo ready for some you time! lol

Yeah, ship the milk. She would never eat my porridge, only DHs lol so he "taught" me how to make porridge the "right" way pmsl

Thanks for the advice! I think I'll hold back on the bread for a bit, until we know how she does when she actually can get some of the veg/fruit going down. Though I have the feeling that she'd love to suck a piece of bread to a mushy death.

I'll have to think on the salt, and try to persuade DH to alter his cooking a little, at least in the timing of when he adds it. Not a problem yet, just one I can see coming up pretty fast.

Did you give your babies mince meat before giving them larger pieces, or did you give them bigger bits to suck before they could chew them?

Charlotte is still not a big meat eater. She would eat sausages and very small amounts of mince. But I really didnt offer meat before she was 10 months old. She simply wasn't interested.
I did try the hunk of steak thing when she was teething at about 8 months, but she was unimpressed and it ended up on the floor.

Meat will also dramatically change their poo lol (not nice) so I wasn't phased!
It is also much harder for them to digest, so personally I wouldnt worry about the meat for a few more months yet.

I tend to think that if you're avoiding processed foods (or anything in a box) then a bit of salt in the dinner is not such a big deal. The highest levels of sugar and sodium tend to be in the packaged foods. So although there are some things we don't add salt too, but instead salt it at the table, when it's being cooked, we never worried.

I held back on introducing anything high in sodium (like Vegemite) and limited the amount of processed foods or those that contained sodium (wholemeal toast once a day, rather than at several sittings) and checked out the Choice guide on what is an appropriate level of sodium in kids' foods.

My DP has high blood pressure and needs to limit his sodium intake as well, so it was good when we started reading the labels on everything we bought!

Hey Limey,

Your hubby is The Porridge Master!! DD is eating his version of porridge like a champion! 3 days in a row and that little mouth just keeps opening for more!!

Thanks! *mwah* from us!