panicking tbat baby has had too much salt

[SmithsFan]

My wife was eating leftover risotto for lunch when our baby started expressing an interest. She gave him some, probably no more than 6 or 7 grams before I grabbed it off her.

I'm terrified that he will consume too much salt after reading about a baby who died after having a portion of an adult's shepherds pie. It's his first birthday tomorrow but I've felt having the party today would always be bad luck.

The rational part of me knows he ste hardly anything and how ridiculous it is yo go on about luck but the anxious part of me is in pieces.

The risotto had pearl barley, stock, porcini mushrooms and parmesan in it among other less salty ingredients. I'm terrified his kidneys and liver wont be able to cope and am fighting the urge to search for the article id read previously.

[daisyflower]

You have to trust me when I say, please don't give this a second thought. I worried quite a bit with my first, ie, would add the chorizo after I took out his portion. I spoke to the head health visitor who specialised in nutrition and she said that at 9 month old, a child can eat a happy meal from McDonalds once a week and be perfectly fine.
I asked this health visitor about the baby you mentioned. She said in 30 years of practice, she has known one baby die from too much salt and it was him. What happened was, the baby was very dehydrated and was having powdered, Smash mashed potato with instant Bisto gravy 3 times a day for meals. It was a case of child neglect.
No offence but at nearly 12 months, your child should be eating a plate of that risotto to itself X

[eastofeden]

Hi, I've looked everywhere for an article about a baby dying from 'consuming an adult portion of shepherd's pie'. The only article I can find is one of a baby CHOKING on a shepherd's pie, there's nothing about a child dying from too much salt by eating an adult's portion. A few bites is not enough to kill a baby. Not unless the salt content of the food was huge, in which case it wouldn't be allowed to be sold. Baby's stomachs are much smaller than adult's too, a tot wouldn't be able to eat that much food without vomiting. I doubt there was even 7g of salt in the entire risotto. Even very salty foods like pizza usually only have 4-5g of salt (I always check the labels) and that's the whole entire pizza. Your child only had a few bites of a relatively salty food. Just give him some extra fluids to counteract the sodium, make sure he doesn't get dehydrated. If you are really worried please call NHS 24.

[SmithsFan]

Thanks Daisy. I've now calmed down after searching and checking RDAs v the likely salt content.

Baby is in the process of moving on to more adult foods and the onset of every new stage like this terrifies me. I was the same when he started on solids, moved from our room to the nursery etc.

[daisyflower]

Being a parent is always worrying but there will be much bigger things to be worried about as they get older so you have to try and put the little things in perspective.
I was very protective food wise with my first and he's now a very very fussy 3 year old. I have a 15 month old and gave her what I was eating from the start...she ate steak for her dinner tonight. Just don't pour salt all over his food and he will be just fine. You seem like a great dad...think of all the not so great parents there will be letting their babies eat take always or frozen pizza and pot noodles for every meal of the day and they're still alive...

[SmithsFan]

Hi, I've looked everywhere for an article about a baby dying from 'consuming an adult portion of shepherd's pie'. The only article I can find is one of a baby CHOKING on a shepherd's pie, there's nothing about a child dying from too much salt by eating an adult's portion. A few bites is not enough to kill a baby. Not unless the salt content of the food was huge, in which case it wouldn't be allowed to be sold. Baby's stomachs are much smaller than adult's too, a tot wouldn't be able to eat that much food without vomiting. I doubt there was even 7g of salt in the entire risotto. Even very salty foods like pizza usually only have 4-5g of salt (I always check the labels) and that's the whole entire pizza. Your child only had a few bites of a relatively salty food. Just give him some extra fluids to counteract the sodium, make sure he doesn't get dehydrated. If you are really worried please call NHS 24.

Pretty sure the article was in the Daily Mail. I may have picked up the wrong end of the stick. I've not been firing on all cylinders mentally for the past few months and am frequently confused and misremember things with a bias towards my fears.

I've seen a few success stories on here where people look back at their old posts and can't believe what they said/thought in the depths of their anxiety. I really hope that's me.

---------- Post added at 20:47 ---------- Previous post was at 20:29 ----------


Being a parent is always worrying but there will be much bigger things to be worried about as they get older so you have to try and put the little things in perspective.
I was very protective food wise with my first and he's now a very very fussy 3 year old. I have a 15 month old and gave her what I was eating from the start...she ate steak for her dinner tonight. Just don't pour salt all over his food and he will be just fine. You seem like a great dad...think of all the not so great parents there will be letting their babies eat take always or frozen pizza and pot noodles for every meal of the day and they're still alive...

He very rarely eats processed foods. My wife makes 90% of his meals from scratch. I think she was initially hurt by my reaction because she puts so much care and love into researching and cooking our son's food but she knows how I am at the minute.

From what I'm reading about Generalised Anxiety and catastrophising I'm thinking this is as much an issue for me as HA.

[daisyflower]

You really can drive yourself mental if you allow yourself to worry too much about things. It's hard to not think, 'oh no, what if this is the start of meningitis' with every little sniffle, 'what if he's in a crash??' if he goes out without me or think horrible thoughts about how awful life would be if something was to happen to them. I find I have to just take a step back and focus on thinking about something else when irrational or catastrophic thoughts start to creep in. My daughter has eaten her on poo twice, eaten a piece of scrambled egg that was 24 hours old that was hidden in the rug, a piece of fish that was also 24 hours old that she had stashed somewhere and sucks the bar of the swing in the playground. If I didn't filter my thoughts, I'd be up all night worrying X

[SmithsFan]

You really can drive yourself mental if you allow yourself to worry too much about things. It's hard to not think, 'oh no, what if this is the start of meningitis' with every little sniffle, 'what if he's in a crash??' if he goes out without me or think horrible thoughts about how awful life would be if something was to happen to them. I find I have to just take a step back and focus on thinking about something else when irrational or catastrophic thoughts start to creep in. My daughter has eaten her on poo twice, eaten a piece of scrambled egg that was 24 hours old that was hidden in the rug, a piece of fish that was also 24 hours old that she had stashed somewhere and sucks the bar of the swing in the playground. If I didn't filter my thoughts, I'd be up all night worrying X

Thanks and I know exactly what you're saying but it's just putting it into practice that's the problem. Two friends have lost babies, one of cot death and one of meningitis, so these lay heavily on my mind.

The one time my son has been sick with anything to worry about was when he had an allergic reaction to eggs and I was actually perfectly calm and rational throughout. I've read stuff saying that in such circumstances people tend to step up to the plate and deal better than in non-emergency situations when we catastrophise apropos of nothing.