Her food can feel too plain, and you worry she will not eat without a little namak or gud. But flavour is never what we hold back. Spice and ghee are welcome from her first bowl.
1Why we hold salt and sugar back
There are two reasons, and they are separate. Salt is hard on her kidneys, which are still growing and cannot handle extra yet. Sugar is different: this first year is when her taste is forming, so the flavours she meets now quietly become her idea of normal food. And added sugar gives her nothing she actually needs.
2Honey waits for its own reason
Honey waits for a safety reason beyond the sugar one. The worry is that honey can carry a germ that can make a baby under one seriously ill, and cooking it changes nothing. After her first birthday she is old enough for honey to be safe. It is still an added sugar, though, so like every sweetener it waits until she is two. Her honey page has the full reason.
3Is jaggery any different?
To her body, jaggery, honey and white sugar are all the same one thing: added sugar. Jaggery feels natural and homely, and older feeding advice really did reach for a little gud for energy, so the instinct makes complete sense. But that advice has moved on. Jaggery is not a healthier or iron-rich sweetener for her, and the current Indian guidance counts jaggery, honey and white sugar exactly the same under two.
Spices are welcome: A gentle tadka of jeera, a pinch of haldi, a good drizzle of ghee over her soft khichdi are all welcome from her very first bowl. It is added salt, sugar, jaggery and honey that wait, never flavour or fat.
4The plain-food habit, and where salt and sugar hide
At her next meal, lift out her share before the salt or sugar goes into the pot, then season the rest for the family.
Keep offering the same plain food; a new taste can take many calm tries, so a slow start means she is still learning it.
Salt and sugar hide in biscuits and rusks, instant cereal and health-mix sachets, sweetened gripe water, janam ghutti, fruit juice, flavoured yoghurt and cheese slices.
Her food is not bland forever: ripe banana or sweet potato sweeten it themselves.
5 Questions moms ask
Someone at home keeps adding a little salt or gud. What can I say?
The pinch comes from love, so no need to make it a fight. One calm line settles it: the doctor said no added salt or sugar for her just now, so I would rather keep her food plain. One biscuit at a family visit is not a disaster. It is the daily habit that shapes her taste.
Can I give her a little honey for a cough, or local honey since it is purer?
Not before her first birthday, and the reason is safety rather than purity. Even local honey, raw or cooked, can carry the same germ a baby under one cannot handle, so no kind is safe for her yet. For a cough, ask her doctor for something safe for her age. Her honey page has the full reason.
Is a piece of mishri or a hard sweet safe to soothe her?
Two reasons to skip it. It is added sugar like any other, and something hard like that is exactly what a baby can choke on. If you want to settle her, ask her doctor.Choking vs gagging ›
Until what age do I really keep salt out?
There is no single day it switches on. Keep her own portion unsalted while she is little. As she starts sharing from the family plate, her share can carry a little, kept light, never the full amount an adult would add. Some doctors keep her portion unsalted for longer; if yours does, follow her.