Do you modify your use of salt? When I cook for DH and I, everything starts with sea salt and pepper, onion and garlic. I also often use things like Lowry's and chili powder, which I now realize also have salt in them!
Thus far if I'm making, say, chicken breasts, I'll make ours as usual and then make DS's sans salt. I just believe that we have totally ruined our taste buds to the point that we can't appreciate the natural saltiness in foods, and thus require more and more salt to enjoy the flavor of foods. . . and I don't want that for DS!
That said, what DH and I eat sure does taste better, imo , and it would also be much easier to cook everything exactly the same way for all of us.
So - do you modify your use of salt for your LO? If no, was that always the case, or did it begin at a certain age?
And, while we're talking about it, what about your use of fats, i.e. olive oil?
(Sorry, I know this has been asked before, but I didn't pay attention to the responses!)
Re: If your LO eats what you eat. . .
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My answer is yes and no!
If I know Stella is going to be eating what we're eating I'll use less salt when cooking and we'll just add more once it's on our plates. However, I have not limited her use of other spices because I don't want her to have (what we call in my family) a wuss mouth. She loves spice! I also don't limit the use of olive oil when cooking. I don't put butter on her pancakes though. Other than that I don't really worry about it.
Half the time she wants to eat off our plate though and it's when the food has been seasoned to our liking. I don't worry about it because she doesn't end up eating much.
Absolutely! She's not at the age where she can safely handle salt yet, so I always cook her portion separately from ours. I use other flavorings like Mrs. Dash, and garlic powder, but in general, we are very strict about her sugar and salt intake.
ETA: I do cook some of her food in olive oil, and in addition to avocado, those are the main sources of fat she gets from food.
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I would say I don't use much salt in the cooking process and season on our plates and just don't season his the same way. I use garlic salt some when cooking meat and olive oil, I use those in the same way for his food as ours.
I didn't start giving him exactly what we eat until about your 14-16 months, before that I made sure his food was more bland.
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She eats it how I cook it. I do cook with sea salt/pepper/garlic and other spices. I don't use a ton of salt when I cook and dh will usually add additional to his after he makes his plate. I mostly use olive oil when cooking, not alot of butter. But I will add butter to potatoes or fresh corn and on pancakes.
pretty much this. I salt/pepper meat/veggies, use butter, but olive oil mostly. I don't butter her toast/pancakes/waffles because I figure if she eats them without, why add it?
This has really been on my mind lately. I worry that she gets too much sodium...from deli meat, cheese, etc. She has been eating so much of that stuff since I can't cook these days...her BP is probably through the roof!
When cooking, I use a small amount of salt on things...I don't like a lot of salt. The most salt I ever use is when roasting vegetables...then everything gets kosher salt, pepper and olive oil. I've found that a little kosher salt goes a long way.
Maybe I should switch to sea salt...doesn't it have less sodium?
This is one of those nutritional red herrings in my opinion -- the use of salt during cooking while spread out over the entire dish and then served in a small portion to a child has, IMO, a limited effect. DD does eat what we eat, and we don't eat a lot of processed foods so the majority of her sodium intake as it is comes from food we cook. I'm completely comfortable with serving her whatever we eat how we eat it. Salt doesn't just add saltiness to food, it changes the way your taste buds taste the flavor, it actually spreads the flavor over the tongue. Eating is, at its core, an exercise in taste and exploration of flavor. I want my DD to have that experience. If it was just about fuel we could all live off protein shakes.
Same thing goes for fats like butter and olive oil.
This is us, too. DS loves him some deli meat
Also, we eat out a lot and, while we try to order the best thing possible for DS, I of course recognize that there is more salt/fat/etc. in restaurant dishes than in what I would make him at home. . . which makes me feel pressure to make his at-home meals as good as possible.
It would just be so much easier if I didn't differentiate between "his food" and "ours" when cooking. I claim he eats what we do, but he also has his own separate shelf of leftovers and etc. in the fridge
Me too
I dont, but I dont use a ton of salt cooking anyway
I also make him drink a ton of water, so I feel like that negates the salt