Babies eat too much salt

Consumer health website, www.itsmyhealth.com.au published today the results of a UK study that found seventy per cent of babies have too much salt in their diet.

The study showed that babies are being fed processed foods which contain a high level of salt, such as tinned baked beans, spaghetti, bread and gravy.

They were also being given cow’s milk as their main drink, which has a higher salt content than breast milk or formula, despite recommendations that it should not be given to children until they are at least one year old.

As a result some of the babies were eating up to twice the recommended daily allowance for children under the age of one (400mg sodium per day up to 12 months of age).

The study’s authors, nutritionists from Bristol University, are concerned that this type of diet may affect the children’s kidneys, give children a taste for salty foods, and establish poor eating practices that could continue into adulthood and result in health problems such as high blood pressure, later in life.

The findings are based on research done on almost 1,200 participants in the ‘Children of the 90s’ study and were published online by the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The full article is available at http://www.itsmyhealth.com.au/healthy-living/parenting-and-babies/babies-eat-too-much-salt.

www.itsmyhealth.com.au