Hidden Salt, Hidden Risks: Safeguarding Our Children's Health with Smarter Choices

This is a guest blog post by Children’s Nutritionist, Hannah Daw

When it comes to children’s nutrition, salt is often an overlooked ingredient that can impact their health. Let’s explore the importance of thinking about the salt in our children’s diets and look at some practical strategies for reducing their salt intake (while helping them to keep maintain a breezy relationship with food).

toddler eating a chip

How does salt impact children’s health?

We know that high salt intake is linked to high blood pressure in adults, but what about children? Evidence indicates that high salt diets in children may increase their risk of developing conditions such as high blood pressure and osteoporosis in the future (Malcyk, 2024). Also, don’t forget that dietary habits formed in childhood may shape eating patterns later in life which means that if children are introduced to salty foods early, they may develop a preference for high salt foods as they grow older as (Dubois, 2022; Mazzuca, 2024). So, you can see that thinking about salt intake from a young age is important for the short-term and long-term health of our children.

What can children have?

Keeping within the recommended limits can keep our children’s salt intake within a healthy range, current guidelines are:

  • <1g/day for under 1 year old

  • 2g/day for 1/3 years old

  • 3g/day for 4-6 years old

  • 5g/day for 7-10 years old

  • 6g/day for 11 years and above

(NHS recommended maximum salt intakes)

This can be hard to visualise but just remember 5g of salt is approximately the same amount as a teaspoon of salt.

How do I know what they are having?

While it is much easier to gauge how much salt is in food when you are home cooking, for other foods it can be a little trickier. This is when understanding how to read labels can really help!

Salt is often the last on the nutritional information on the label and typically it will tell you how much is in 100g or sometimes in a serving. You can use this to take a tally of how much your child might be eating.

As a guide, foods that have 0.3g of salt or less per 100g are low salt and anything that has 1.5g of salt or more per 100g are high in salt.

Foods such as processed meat, crisps, ready-made sauces, soups and pizzas are variable but have higher levels of salt. So, making your own versions of foods such as pasta sauces or pizzas or keeping an eye on the number of crisp packets that are eaten can really help here. Even some breakfast cereals can be high in salt, so it is always worth checking!

What about eating out?

A recent survey by Action on Salt found that 1 in 3 main dishes eaten out exceeded the government’s voluntary salt target for children’s meals. So, when you are out it is always worth checking the nutritional information to see how much is in the meals that are being served.

However, this same survey also found that only 29 out of 37 restaurants provided customers with accessible nutritional information, so don’t forget you can always ask if you are unsure, or it is not clear!

toddler girl eating spaghetti

Tips on how to easily keep our children’s salt intake on the lower end:

  • Keeping language around food neutral and not demonising foods is super important with children. It is all about moderation not elimination and supporting a balanced, enjoyable diet.

  • If you can keep a breezy, easy, and relaxed eye on their salt intake, then it will be super beneficial for their health without affecting their relationship with food.

  • Explore making pizzas and dips at home without adding salt, this is not only a fun way for kids to connect with food, but they will contain less salt than pre-prepared sauces and pizzas which are often high in salt (and sugar).

  • Check the labels of foods so you begin to understand how much salt is in different foods.

  • Brands of foods of the same foods may vary in their salt content so don’t forget to check the label. I recently found that while Meridian peanut butter contains 0.02g/100g of salt, Essential Waitrose crunchy peanut butter contains 0.93g/100g of salt and Tesco smooth peanut butter contains 1g/100g of salt.

  • Add flavour without using salt and let the food’s flavours shine through. You can use ingredients such as onion, garlic and ginger or citrus fruits such as lemon and lime to boost flavour.

  • Look for lower salt options such as Kallo stock cubes.

  • Explore herbs and spices, these pack a flavour punch without the need for salt.

  • Think about the whole day not just one meal and don’t worry if it doesn’t go the way you want! If there is a higher salt meal just think about balancing it out with the other meals during the day.

tins of vegetables showing the nutritional labels

Final Word

It’s clear that keeping an eye on how much salt our kids consume is important for their health. By being aware of the recommended guidelines and being conscious what they are eating, we can help them avoid health issues further down the road.

And don’t forget it doesn’t have to be perfect every day or even change overnight, consistent small tweaks to reduce salt can have big benefits over time.

About the Author of this blog

I am a Registered Associate Nutritionist and Mum to Lucas, who had feeding difficulties and was eventually diagnosed with a paediatric feeding disorder (PFD).

I have an MSc in Eating Disorders and Clinical Nutrition and have been lucky enough to support other families with children with PFD.

I have my own practice supporting children and their families with all aspects of nutrition from fussy eating to plant based diets.

Follow me on Instagram @thelucasladder where I document Lucas’ feeding journey and share all things nutrition. 

Jo Lenz