Low Sodium Foods: As parents of a child with kidney disease, we've all been told to limit salt (sodium) intake. No salt or low salt you say! How the heck are we supposed to do that? First of all, every family member needs to participate.

Buy low sodium foods. Cook low sodium meals. Your nephrotic child needs to feel as normal as possible and this won't happen if he or she is fed one diet while everyone else eats whatever they feel like eating. High sodium foods can still be part of life for everyone, but just in moderation.

Having the whole family eat the same foods makes it easier for you, and easier for your nephrotic child. Your child will not feel out of place or feel as if he/she is missing something. If you stick to a low sodium diet all the time it's healthier for everyone. You are responsible for your child's eating habits. Choose wisely.

Try not to switch back and forth between a low salt/no salt diet to a high salt diet. This makes things extremely hard for younger children. They don't understand why they can have high sodium foods (eg: hot dogs) one day and low salt/no salt foods the next day. Sticking to a good low salt diet all the time will make your life a lot easier & your child's life a lot healthier.

Finding the salt content of foods can be a bit tricky, but generally speaking, the higher salt is on a list of ingredients, the more of it there is in the food. Whole Foods makes a wonderful pasta sauce with salt listed as the 9th ingredient out of thirteen!

Check out our low sodium links

Snack Foods: Name brand snack foods contain very high amounts of salt. Whole Foods baked cheese curls contain only the salt that you would find in naturally aged cheddar cheese! Brick cheese has a much lower salt content than processed cheese. Stay away from cheese spreads and cheese singles. Name brand potato chips are definitely out for a child on high dose prednisone. Veggie chips however offer a little salt, real potatoes & no genetically modified ingredients.

Pre-made foods, frozen foods, deli meats: Be careful with pre-packaged frozen foods. They are usually loaded with sodium (and fat) but there are some brands out there with low salt content. Read labels & you'll find them. Boars Head hot dogs contain 200 mg of sodium per hot dog which is pretty good for a hot dog. Veggie dogs contain even less. Turkey breast & chicken breast deli meats have the lowest sodium content of all deli meats available. Buy the lower salt version of canned soups. Buy soup crackers with unsalted tops.

Peanut Butter: 100% pure peanut butter found at any local health food store & some grocery stores contain no added salt. Pure peanut butter will contain one ingredient. Peanuts. You'll love the stuff once you get past the idea that peanut butter is supposed to be packed full of sugar, salt and vegetable oil. The added vegetable oil in name brand peanut butter is actually trans fats (the bad stuff). There are also a variety of other nut spreads available at health food stores such as almond butter and cashew butter. The oil floating on the top of all natural peanut butter is completely natural. This happens because there are no trans fats added to keep the product together. This is a good thing! Mix it together when you open the jar. Pure peanut butter must be refrigerated after opening.

100% Pure Peanut Butter Brands (look in the peanut butter sections, gourmet food stores or health food stores)

Crazy Richard's Peanut Butter
Adams Peanut Butter (Ontario and possibly the U.S.)
President's Choice Peanut Butter (Ontario)
Smuckers All Natural
Laura Scudder's
Publix supermarket store brand
Kroger's supermarket store brand

Have a look at our books for parents where we list a few low salt/sodium cookbooks.

Tips and tricks for low sodium foods: Make grilled cheese sandwiches using mostly Swiss Lorraine cheese. Add a little grated cheddar cheese for colour and no one will know the difference. Swiss Lorraine has a low sodium content. You can also use Colby Jack cheese from the deli and unsalted butter.

Canned pasta: Rinse 1/2 of your child's serving under water to remove all sauce. Mix with remaining pasta and you've got 1/2 the original salt content!

Ways to reduce cholesterol through diet- Broccoli, strawberries, blueberries, spinach, cheerios, oatmeal and flaxseed. Also switching to low fat and soy, rice and nut milks.

Search Google for Low sodium foods, recipes, where to buy all natural peanut butter and many other things!