Although salt is an essential seasoning in daily life, it should not be eaten indiscriminately by infants. From the beginning of adding complementary foods, parents will encounter various feeding difficulties for their babies, such as not eating obediently, or preparing hard-earned meals that the baby refuses to eat after a few bites, and so on. As a novice parent, it is indeed quite troublesome. So, when can babies eat salt?
Babies' physical condition is not yet fully developed and much more fragile than adults, so eating salt too early is not good. Generally, the kidneys of infants under one year old have not fully developed and are not able to penetrate too much salt. If you consume too much salt, it will increase the burden on your kidneys and heart, thereby affecting your baby's growth and development.
A high salt diet can reduce saliva secretion in the mouth and correspondingly decrease lysozyme, which is beneficial for the presence of various bacteria and viruses in the upper respiratory tract. After a high salt diet, due to the osmotic effect of salt, it can kill the normal parasitic bacteria in the upper respiratory tract, causing bacterial imbalance and leading to disease.
A high salt diet can inhibit the proliferation of oral mucosal epithelial cells, causing them to lose their ability to resist diseases. A high salt diet can also affect the absorption of zinc in infants, leading to zinc deficiency and a series of diseases such as low immunity. It can also disrupt the ion balance in the body, so it is not recommended to give children salt before the age of one. Babies have an extremely sensitive taste buds, and just a little bit of salt will make them feel very flavorful. Excessive salt intake can cause infants to feel salty, but due to their inability to express themselves, they can only gradually adapt to this level of saltiness. As a result, their taste becomes increasingly strong and their taste development is severely affected.
