Salt and Sugar Limits for Babies

The salt figures

NHS guidance publishes a maximum recommended salt intake by age. For children under 1 year old it is less than 1g a day. For children aged 1 to 3 years it is no more than 2g a day. For 4 to 6 year olds it is no more than 3g, for 7 to 10 year olds no more than 5g, and for anyone aged 11 and over no more than 6g, which is around one level teaspoon.

The reason is given plainly: babies should not have much salt because their kidneys are not fully developed and cannot process it. NHS guidance on foods to avoid repeats the point, saying babies should not eat much salt as it is not good for their kidneys.

How small less than 1g actually is

One gram of salt is roughly a fifth of a teaspoon. That ceiling covers everything your baby eats in a day, including what is already in bread, cheese and shop-bought foods, not just what you add.

This is why NHS guidance gives an instruction rather than a calculation: do not add salt to your baby's food or cooking water, and do not use stock cubes or gravy, as they are often high in salt. It asks you to remember this when cooking for the family if you plan to give the same food to your baby, which is the practical crux of the whole topic.

Where the salt comes from

NHS guidance lists the salty foods to avoid giving babies: bacon, sausages, chips with added salt, crackers, crisps, ready meals and takeaways. Ireland's HSE gives comparable advice in its guidance on foods to avoid during weaning.

The less obvious sources are the ones that add up. Bread, cheese, baked beans, packet sauces, gravy granules, soy sauce, olives and processed meats all carry salt that never appears on your kitchen worktop. NHS guidance on salt notes that around three quarters of the salt we eat comes from packaged and everyday foods such as bread, breakfast cereals, meat products and ready meals, and that it is also found in takeaways, restaurant and cafe meals and fast food.

Cooking for the whole family

The workable approach is to cook without salt and season adult portions at the table. Herbs, spices, black pepper, garlic, chilli and lemon juice add flavour without salt, and NHS guidance suggests exactly these as substitutes. Checking labels helps too: the guidance recommends looking for products with green and amber colour-coded labels on the front of packaging, and choosing lower-salt versions of foods and sauces such as reduced-salt stock cubes.

The sugar figures

NHS guidance is explicit about babies: there is no guideline limit for free sugars for babies under the age of 1, but sugars should not be added to food or drinks given to babies. In other words, the limit for a baby is not a number, it is zero added sugar.

For older children the guidance gives figures. Children aged 1 should have no more than 10g of free sugars a day, which it describes as about two and a half sugar cubes. Children aged 2 to 3 should have no more than 14g, about three and a half sugar cubes. Children aged 4 to 6 should have no more than 19g, five sugar cubes. Children aged 7 to 10 should have no more than 24g, six sugar cubes.

What counts as free sugars

NHS guidance defines free sugars as any sugars added to food or drinks, including sugars in biscuits, chocolate, flavoured yoghurts, breakfast cereals and fizzy drinks, whether added at home or by a manufacturer, plus the sugars in honey, syrups such as maple, agave and golden syrup, nectars, and unsweetened fruit juices, vegetable juices and smoothies. The sugars in those last items occur naturally but still count as free sugars.

Sugars inside whole fruit and vegetables, and the lactose in milk, are not free sugars. A baby eating mashed banana is not consuming free sugars; the same banana blended into a smoothie is a different matter.

The World Health Organization sets the underlying population recommendation that free sugars should be less than 10 per cent of total energy intake, with a further conditional recommendation of below 5 per cent for additional health benefits, and the UK figures follow the 5 per cent line.

Honey is a separate rule

NHS guidance states that occasionally honey contains bacteria that can produce toxins in a baby's intestines, leading to infant botulism, which is a very serious illness, and instructs that you should not give your child honey until they are over 1 year old. It adds that honey is a sugar, so avoiding it will also help prevent tooth decay. This is an absolute rule for the first year, not a moderation rule, and it applies to cooked honey as well.

Why it matters beyond the kidneys

NHS guidance links sugar directly to tooth decay, saying your baby does not need sugar and that by avoiding sugary snacks and drinks, including fruit juice and other fruit drinks, you will help prevent tooth decay. Its guidance on drinks and cups adds a specific warning: when using a bottle or trainer cup, do not put anything in it other than breast milk, formula milk or water, and do not add anything else including sugar, cereals, baby rice or chocolate powder. It explains that comfort sucking from a bottle on sweetened drinks causes tooth decay in young children, because drinks flow very slowly through a teat, which means the sugary substance is in contact with the teeth for longer.

Taste preference is the other reason. Foods eaten in the first year shape what a child accepts later, so a baby who never meets salted or sweetened versions of ordinary foods is not missing out on anything they will notice.

Saturated fat, briefly

NHS guidance adds a related point in the same place: do not give your child too many foods that are high in saturated fat, such as crisps, biscuits and cakes, and checking the nutrition labels can help you choose foods lower in saturated fat. Note that this is different from fat generally, which babies need; whole milk dairy and oily fish are recommended parts of a baby's diet.