Salt in complementary feeding

Key words: Complementary feeding, Salt, Healthy diet, Children

While there is much evidence to support the beneficial effect of reducing sodium intake in adults to prevent hypertension and cardio and cerebro-vascular diseases, evidence for a relation between sodium intake and blood pressure levels in children is less conclusive. For this reason, the LARN Commission has not issued any recommendations on this matter. Therefore, the common practice of recommending to avoid adding salt to complementary foods for infants up to one year of age might appear unjustified. The role of paediatricians should be to provide nutritional counselling to the whole family and to improve the eating habits of all its components, by supporting the consumption of healthy foods, such as fruit, vegetables and pulses, and encouraging the use of low quantities of salt and sugar in general. As a result, the infants of the families that adopt a healthy diet can be safely introduced to family foods starting from six months of age.