That's just bizarre. Not to stick up for the "parents", but did anyone here know that 4 teaspoons of salt could kill a child? I sure didn't.
Of course that doesn't explain the 11 bruises around the brain....
I really doubt the salt was the deciding factor (at least if it was really only 4 teaspoons), though disrupting electrolyte balances can be fatal. That's what happened to the little adopted girl who died from the "forced water drinking therapy" that her idiot adoptive parents were inflicting on her. Dilutes the blood sodium levels to where cells can't regulate their hydration level, brain swells up, and death ensues. From the sound of this story, though, the blows to the head and resulting brain damage were probably the main cause of death, per the details in the article in post #28.