Super Baby Food

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Ruth Yaron cares deeply about what your baby is eating--so much so that her bestselling Super Baby Food is encyclopedic in both scope and size. Ounce for hefty ounce, this manual/cookbook/reference guide is worth its weight in formula, packed as it is with detailed information on homemade baby food, nutritional data, feeding schedules, cooking techniques, recipes, and other invaluable feeding tips. Yaron builds her compelling argument for making baby food at home on the simple premise that food profoundly impacts health, especially when an infant's developing digestive tract is involved. Parents will learn why babies should start out on rice porridge, bananas, avocados, and sweet potatoes before advancing to more difficult-to-digest foods such as wheat cereals and milk products. While Yaron's passionate stance and vegetarian bias may turn off some parents, others will be grateful for her strict attention to potentially harmful additives and chemicals. No matter what their eating philosophy, most parents will appreciate the economy and surprising ease of making baby food at home. This is not gourmet cooking; all you have to do is learn how to boil water and operate a blender. For veggies, simply steam some vegetable chunks and blend. For baby porridge, just grind some whole grains in a blender and boil. It's that simple. And when you're feeding your baby, simple is best. --Sumi HahnABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING you should know about feeding your baby and toddler from beginning solid foods through age three years. How and when to start your baby on solid foods, with detailed information on the best and safest high chair, spoons, bibs, and other feeding equipment.

Which foods to introduce to your baby during each month of his first year, with details on proper food consistency, amount, and temperature. How much you can expect your baby to eat and drink during the months of her first year with information on her digestive system at each age. Interesting details on your baby's physical, emotional, intellectual, and psychological development as it applies to self-feeding and mealtimes; how you can increase your baby's or toddler's self-esteem and self-confidence during mealtimes.

The age you can expect your baby to start finger feeding, drinking from a cup, eating table foods, and self-feeding with a spoon and fork. If you choose to make homemade baby food, this book will give you the knowledge and confidence to make your own healthy and safe homemade baby vegetables, fruits, cereals, meats, and other Super Baby Foods. Extensive information on food allergies; foods considered choking hazards; foods likely to cause digestive problems in young babies; and safety precautions to prevent burns and poisoning.

Thousands of money-saving and time-saving child care and kitchen tips. How to make meals fun! Food decorating! Cute cake patterns! Toddler party snacks and favors! Many other entertaining ideas! More than 350 quick, easy, delicious, nutritious, and sometimes entertaining recipes for babies and toddlers, including imitation homemade recipes for: Pop Tarts, Grape Nuts and other breakfast cereals, instant breakfast drinks, hot chocolate mix, Shake-N-Bake, Pam, Fruit Roll-Ups, Stove-top Stuffing Mix, homemade vanilla extract, Hamburger Helper, and more. So much cheaper and healthier (no preservatives needed!) to make for your toddler and family! Recipes for homemade play dough, finger paints and brush paints, bubbles for blowing, and dozens more children's arts and crafts recipes and ideas. Ideas for Halloween, Christmas, Easter, birthday parties, and homemade toddler toys and gifts.

All about nutrition and your baby, including nutrient tables of all major vitamins and minerals with convenient baby-sized portions to help you be sure that your baby is getting proper nourishment. How to save money by making homemade yogurt, fruit leather, and how to grow sprouts, fruit plants, and herbs in your kitchen for fun and food. Easy, economical recipes for homemade baby accessories, such as baby wipes, diaper cream, and many more.

Baby-safe and environmentally-friendly recipes for household cleaning products, such as baby-safe drain cleaners, furniture polish, window cleaners, and more. These recipes cost only pennies to make and are so safe that most are actually edible!! Tips for removing crayon, spit-up, and urine stains from baby clothes, carpets, and furniture. This book is the most complete and well-researched baby food book on the market today. Even though it is 600 pages, it is cleverly designed for the busy parent to read only a small part each month as baby grows.

Reader Reviews:

I wanted a book on heathy foods for my baby. This was NOT the book. It included a large number of recipes that had foods like honey and peanuts that are not safe to give babies. The writer was also unbelievably unpractical. She tells a story about a trip to a Chineese restraunt. She asked for things that were not even on the menu and then was upset that they did not have them. There are TONS of ideas about making crafts with baby food jars, but the book is against feeding your baby premade baby food. (Unless you buy the brand that cost twice as much as any other brand!) She also is insanely demanding. For example she tells you what colors you can paint your baby's room!I am a working mother (begrudingly), so I found myself getting angry with all of Ms. Yaron's "tips" and "it's easy!" comments which were essentially time-wasters designed to save a few (I stress FEW) pennies. Every second of my time with my daughter is precious to me and I just don't think making yogurt ("It's Easy!"....followed by 6 pages of garbled instructions and a full page of "Why didn't my yogurt come out right?") is a good use of time when I could be playing with my daughter or taking her out for a walk.

Even after trying to put aside my emotional reaction to this book, I found that many of the things in her book were inaccurate and impractical, not to mention poorly organized. As other reviewers have noted, she discusses feeding NUTS to a "baby" (I myself am allergic to nuts and my daughter will not be getting near them for a couple of years).

If you are going for the "Super Mom" award, by all means buy this book and try to follow all of her instructions (good luck), but if you are a busy mother who wants practical food advice for your baby, easy-to-read instructions, good balanced recipes and a well-organized format, I would highly suggest "Mommy Made....".I love this book, it is my baby bible! There is so much useful information from when your baby can eat what foods to safe ways to clean your house. It is written in a way that you can quickly look up information or read about it great length. Every parent will feed their baby so every parent needs to have this book. "Super Baby Food" is a wonderful book for any parent. It is full of useful information that you won't find on billboards and food advertisements. Its basic premise is that you can make healthy organic baby food for your child cheaply and easily. From there the book gives excellent information about everything from the scam of white flour to baking healthy carrot cake. The truth is most American doctors know very little about nutrition (it is not a required course in medical school) and every parent needs a copy of this book. Even if your children are not babies, you will find great information and fantastic recipes (spice to your own taste) in this essential resource.

We all understand that in order for a car to run well it needs the right kind of gas. It's time for us to realize that in order for our children to thrive they need to eat the right kind of food.

Jennifer Margulis, author of "Why Babies Do That: Baffling Baby Behavior Explained"As a dietitian, I have a lot of reference books on infant feeding and I must say that this was a great addition to my collection because of the recipes and confidence that the book gave me as I experimented with different grains, fruits and vegetables for my daughter. The Specific Fruits and Vegetables Reference in part V as well as some of the recipes in Part III and the grain section were invaluable. The techniques for storing pureed items was great as well. My daughter is an extremely good eater, in terms of content and variety, as a result of some of the ideas and recipes presented in this book. That said, my rating is only a three, because the book does not follow any traditional infant feeding guidelines, which some may feel are rigid, but which are simply good sense for many families, particularly those with an history of allergies. There were a lot of things that she recommended in this book that I did not agree with and simply would not advise a parent to do--such as offer nuts or seeds or tofu too early in the first year. She also warns very vehemently against meat which is fine if you are a vegetarian and that is your agenda, but if you are not, it certainly seems biased. This book is fine in the hands of someone who is knowledgeable about nutrition and knows how to take her advice with a grain of salt, but a feeding bible it is not and followed religiously it could definately cause some parents to introduce the wrong foods too early or avoid perfectly fine alternatives. My advice: Always talk to your pediatrician or dietitian before following any nutritional advice that you read in this book or elsewhere.
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