Background
How do you feel, if your child is given salt water to his mouth. Surely every parent will be wary of his son.
This hereditary tradition is still applied to most cultures in the archipelago of Nusantara or some in southeast asia.
In practice, when the baby is brought to a new home, the landlord will give some sugar and salt to the baby's mouth. In Aceh this tradition is called 'salt water'.
The purpose and hope of this tradition is that the baby grows up to be a sweet child he says and strongly faces the acid-salt of life.
Sounds sweet indeed, but we need to know, as little as any sugar and salt is not good for babies under one year.
Any amount of salt that enters the baby's body will burden the kidneys, causing the baby's kidneys to not function properly later on.
Not to mention excessive salt consumption since the baby can be a seed disease of hypertension, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and respiratory diseases as adults.
Just as with sugar, sugar does no good for your baby. Sugar can cause caries and tooth decay, suppress immunity, can also be a seed of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity (id.theasianparent.com).
Cultural Tradition
An Aceh historian HM Zainuddin (1961;555) in his book Tarich Aceh and the Archipelago wrote about the tradition of salt, he declared "From that start the child and as a child may be sent down to the ground (out of his household) - family home or to the home of someone else friend of his acquaintance. If this baby is brought home something, by which the house is given a little donation, if there is no money or goods that are expensive, salt alone tasted on his tongue. "
Syamsuddin (1994) also mentioned giving / tasting salt water to babies is still a tradition that is always done in welcoming the baby (etd.repository.ugm.ac.id).
From the two opinions above it can be seen that salt water has become a tradition of the community from the past, and has been ingrained until now in some areas of Aceh.
Conclusion
According to research that has been done and published we know that the provision of salt and sugar is considered dangerous for child growth. With the development of various information many of the people switch to replace it in the form of money to be given to the baby, although on behalf of salt water.
Bibliography
H. M. Zainuddin, 1961. Tarich Aceh dan Nusantara Pustaka Iskandar Muda: Medan.
etd.repository.ugm.ac.id.
id.theasianparent.com.
Photo Notes
Picture my baby when tasted 'salt water' in the form of sugar water.
