I heard an old news story some time ago. The death of an eight-month-old baby turned out to be caused by the mother adding a lot of salt to the porridge the baby ate after she got home. Because it is old news, we will not delve into its origin and authenticity, but today we are going to talk about the topic of adding salt to baby food supplements. Are you mothers interested in listening to Dr.G’s talk~ What is salt? ? What we usually call salt is generally understood to be a condiment. In fact, the table salt we eat is sodium chloride. Explaining to everyone what salt is is not just for the sake of simple scientific knowledge about salt. But let everyone realize that salt does not just refer to the salty seasoning we put when cooking, but is widely present in most of the food we eat every day. If you don’t believe it, you can just pick up the snacks around you and check the ingredient list to see the “sodium” content. Even your baby’s formula contains salt-sodium. Will babies really lose energy if they don’t eat salt? In the conflict with the parenting concepts of the elderly at home, there is one point that I believe 80% of mothers have encountered, and that is the issue of whether to add salt to baby\’s complementary foods. Usually, people of the previous generation would think that \”eating without salt is boring\”. Unsteady walking and standing are all attributed to the fact that the baby does not eat salt. In fact, this theory is deeply rooted in the minds of the elderly, mainly because the lives of previous generations required heavy physical work, but their living standards were limited and they did not have fish and meat rich in protein to eat, so they could only eat more. Salt supplements sodium to maintain the balance of electrolytes in the body, so this saying has been passed down. Compared with the era when \”eating salt was enough\” as the old man said, our current living conditions are hundreds of times better. Salt is contained in all kinds of food we usually eat, and it can be replenished in minutes without any need. Just add extra. Why do babies under 1 year old not need salt? According to the \”Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents\”, babies under 1 year old do not need to eat additional salt. This is mainly because babies between 0 and 6 months old mainly eat breast milk or formula milk. The sodium in breast milk is enough to meet the baby\’s needs. The sodium in formula milk is higher than that in breast milk, so babies who are fed breast milk can eat it with peace of mind. Just milk. According to the \”Reference Intake of Dietary Nutrients for Chinese Residents (2013 Edition)\”, babies aged 6 to 12 months only need 350 mg of sodium per day. After babies aged 7 to 12 months can add complementary foods, breast milk, formula milk and complementary foods also contain different proportions of sodium. Therefore, as long as the baby is eating normally, the sodium in the food can fully meet the baby\’s physiological needs. At the same time, the baby\’s taste during this period is in the formative stage. If salt, sugar, MSG and other seasonings are added during the production of complementary food, it will not only be detrimental to the baby\’s ability to taste the natural taste of the food, but will also affect the formation of the baby\’s light taste. Once a baby becomes mouth-heavy, there will be safety risks for diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes when he or she becomes an adult. Can you add salt as much as you like if you are over 1 year old? Babies aged 1 to 3 years old need to consume 700mg of sodium (1.8g of salt) every day, although this is 350mg more than babies aged 6 to 12 months. butUnder normal circumstances, it can also be obtained from foods rich in sodium (meat, eggs, milk, soy products, radishes, cabbage, etc.). Moreover, the \”Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents\” recommends that babies\’ meals should be light in taste and should not be too salty. Therefore, even if babies after 1 year old can eat with their parents, do not let them eat adult food, but make it specially. Babies aged 4 to 6 years old need to consume 900mg of sodium (2.3g of salt) every day. At this time, in addition to the ingredients themselves, you can consider adding salt to obtain sodium, but you should also pay attention to the daily salt amount of 1 to 2g. . Even for children over 6 years old, the daily amount of salt should be within 3~5g. Moreover, you should also pay attention to the intake of \”invisible salt\” in your baby\’s snacks, such as shrimp crackers, white bread, breakfast cereals, sandwich biscuits, seaweed, fruit and vegetable juices, puffed foods, etc., which are all foods with extremely high salt content. Therefore, when you go to the supermarket in the future, you should develop the habit of checking the food ingredient list and choose processed products that are rich in nutrients and low in sodium for your baby. How much salt do adults need per day? The \”China Dietary Guidelines (2016)\” states that the daily salt intake per person should not exceed 6g. However, according to a dietary survey involving 31,140 people in 75 large and medium-sized cities across the country, 58.2% of Chinese residents consume too much salt. Some people may have no idea about the number of grams. Let\’s put it this way, after removing the inner rubber pad of a beer bottle cap, filling the cap with salt and smoothing the top, it will be about 6g of salt. However, this is the amount of salt an adult consumes per day. Thinking back to the people who love salt in life, let alone the daily pickles, this amount of salt is simply not enough for cooking. It would be strange if the salt intake does not exceed the standard! The most intuitive impact of excessive salt intake is high blood pressure. Recall whether patients with high blood pressure have the characteristic of \”heavy mouth\”, which is directly related to excessive sodium intake. If you want to pay attention to salt intake in your daily diet, in addition to controlling some \”invisible salt\”, you can also buy a salt-limiting spoon to pay attention to salt intake at every meal. In addition, developing habits such as adding salt later, limiting salt-containing seasonings (chicken essence, soy sauce, tempeh, etc.), and using low-sodium seasonings can also effectively avoid excessive sodium intake. What are the dangers of eating too much salt? The liver and kidney functions of babies are not fully developed, and excessive salt intake will increase the burden on the body. Excessive salt intake will reduce oral saliva, allowing bacteria and viruses to exist in the respiratory tract, causing the risk of respiratory tract infections. Excessive salt intake will also disrupt the metabolic balance in the body and affect the absorption of other nutrients. Developing a salt-heavy habit from an early age will lay hidden dangers for future health such as high blood pressure, diabetes, adult obesity, and cardiovascular disease. Netizens have something to say about whether salt should be added to complementary foods @小贝马: My old man insists on adding salt to the baby. He also said that only by eating salt can the baby\’s bones grow stronger. I am also drunk! @leexiaoyan: The elderly teacher at home asked me to add salt and sugar or children’s soy sauce to my children’s complementary foods! But I insist not to feed it to my children! What about you @小金鱼: My family not only adds salt, but also often feeds the baby steamed buns dipped in vegetable soup behind my back, and fermented fermented bean curd.Hey, I really want to write a big-character poster and stick it on the wall! @瑶瑶: What you have is nothing. My family will secretly feed the baby fat meat and ice cream. I said these things must not be eaten. The old man just said innocently that there is something that cannot be eaten. You are all like this. Eat big ones. The baby no longer eats the complementary food I made, and it collapsed…o(≧口≦)o@大 Zhuangbaoma: Old people like to say that I was raised on millet porridge and sweet potatoes for three or four months. It has been weaned, and now it is not as strong as a cow. Every time I say I can\’t eat this or that, they say I\’m squeamish. In fact, I\’m not squeamish at all when it comes to raising children. @rat猫猫: The baby is now 9 months old. When making noodles or other meat-containing complementary foods for him, the old man always adds some salt. I really can’t stop him!
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