The result of not giving salt and sugar to my LO
While doctors and online resources strictly recommend "no salt and sugar" for children under one year of age, we often struggle to adhere to this rule.
My little one refused almost all meals until we weaned her completely. We had every chance to give in and add salt or sugar to the food to make it tastier for her to eat.
Somehow, we persisted and resisted our temptation to feed her tastier alternatives to regular food. The reasons were clear in our minds:
Our family has a history of diabetes. So, we avoided giving her food with added sugar, like chocolate milk, etc., as diabetes can be genetically inherited. Also, we get plenty of sugar from fruits and natural food, so there isn't the need to take supplementary sugar daily.
On average, Indian families consume almost double the recommended salt intake. Excess salt intake results in cardiac and kidney diseases, and given our family history around these issues, we wanted to do whatever we could to get our kid accustomed to less salty food.
A friend thinks that our bodies' needs for salt vary. That's why it is generally written as "salt to taste" in recipes.
I partly disagree with this because I'm of the opinion that our body gets accustomed to the amount of salt intake. My mother's preparations are generally saltier. I grew up eating those. My husband's family eats comparatively bland food. I'm now used to less salty food.
Excess salt or sugar in our diet may affect our bodies in the long run, so it's best to avoid it. As a rule of thumb, we try to consume less processed food. For instance, we prefer milk over cheese. We make curd at home. We eat seasonal fruits and vegetables instead of frozen or canned ones. We've reduced fried food to a bare minimum.
The results
My cousin followed the rule of not giving salt or sugar to her son with an idea that it would help the child adapt to a variety of foods.
It reinforced my commitment to avoid salt and sugar for my little one. I had to put effort into bringing my parents on the same page, as they're the ones involved in preparing meals for her. But eventually, they agreed and did not add salt to the food they cooked for her.
Today, my daughter eats almost everything without fuss. I haven't seen any kid eating vegetables like bottle guards and bitter guards, but she eats them happily. After she turned one, we started giving her regular food with moderate salt. However, we still don't give her chocolates or sweets often. Even if we do, it's limited to only a small bite.
We attribute her better adaptability to regular food to little to no salt or sugar intake when she was young. It is one of our best parenting decisions so far. But there's also a downside to it.
The downside of restricting children from eating tastier food completely
No matter how much we try, once children start going to school or attending birthday parties, they'll come across those tempting junk food that we tried hard to avoid.
Once, my 2-year-old nephew (who hadn’t had a chance to eat sugary food before) attended a candy-themed birthday party. He was overwhelmed by the sheer number of candies in the decor and kept eating candies throughout the party. While other kids, who had eaten chocolates and sweets before, ate moderate number of candies.
My girl also once, literally, inhaled a piece of sweet and kept asking for more. So now we let her eat sweet and savory snacks occasionally but in moderation. But we stick to no additional sugar and moderate salt in our diet.