Sodium intake and health in infancy

Although the healthy infant can tolerate the range of sodium intakes normally present in the variety of diets offered in Britain without developing hypernatraemia or evidence of serious disease, there is enough evidence to suggest that care is required in the amount of sodium given to babies. The consequence of excessive sodium intake may be short term or long term. The most common short term complication is hypertonic dehydration. In the long term, the fear is that high intakes of sodium in early infancy may predispose to hypertension in later life, though this is as yet unproven.