Play It Safe With Salt
Healthy Eating
How to keep down the salt levels in your family's food.
As part of a healthy eating and living regime, it's important to monitor salt intake in children. Babies and children under 11 years old should have considerably less salt than adults, because they are smaller and less developed. Babies up to 12 months old need only a very small amount of salt, up to 1g a day as their kidneys cannot cope with excess amounts.
How much salt should children have?
1 to 3 years - 2g salt a day (0.6g sodium)
4 to 6 years - 3g salt a day (1.2g sodium)
7 to 10 years - 5g salt a day (2g sodium)
11 and over - 6g salt a day (2.5g sodium)
(SOURCE: FSA)
These are the recommended maximums for children, so it is better for them to have less. When buying processed foods, even those aimed at children, remember to check the salt content on the label as processed foods always contain more salt because it acts as a preservative.
Too much salt in food is unhealthy for children in a variety of ways. Not only does it affect their health right now, it can lay down problems for the future. If children are given a taste for salty foods, they could be more likely to continue eating too much salt when they grow up.
