Preventative Care - ”Sick Days” It’s no surprise that eating too
much sodium, or salt, can increase your blood pressure as an
adult. However, it may come as a surprise that the amount of
sodium that children eat can affect their blood pressure even at
a young age. Earlier this year and for the first time ever, the
World Health Organization made recommendations to limit the
amount of sodium children consume. Depending on their age, size,
and energy needs, recommendations for children ages 2-15 were a
maximum of 2000 mg per day. Why is this such a concern for young
children? Believe it or not, more and more children are being
diagnosed with typical “adult health conditions” at a younger
age. Because the cumulative effect of high blood pressure over
the years raises the risk of stroke and heart disease,
decreasing the sodium intake in children at a young age may help
to delay the onset of diet-related health conditions. Anna
Nguyen, Healthy Kids blog Editor Despite the recommendation from
experts, parents are in