Super Baby Food

This is the most comprehensive baby food book available. Yaron delivers excellent advice and this book is a wealth of information. I read this book cover to cover, however you can use it as a reference and read sections when needed. I enjoyed the following about this book: #1: She describes new foods that can be introduced to baby on a monthly basis beginning at 6 months. #2: Detailed instructions on how to make your own healthy cereals options #3: How to make your own yogurt #4: Things I never knew before like how to tell if an egg is fresh or still good #5: Reference and appendices sections where you can look up a vegetable/fruit individually and get facts like how to prepare, age to introduce and nutritional information #6: You will want to make healthy food not just for your baby but for yourself. You'll find yourself wanting to try some healthy options for the whole family. The only thing that I seriously disagreed with is her low opinion of meat. The emphasis is on legumes/beans etc. for protein and the role of meat in the diet is down played. This is the kind of book where you can find pieces of good advice and use what you want and not use what you don't want. If you are not a stay at home mother you will never be able to make food the way she describes. But if you do work you can still make some of your baby's food and that's better than not making any of it. Fantastic book. It would make an excellent baby shower gift as well. ******In regards to (Good reference, but some key inaccuracies, January 3, 2001 By A Customer)****** The No. 1 review has some glaring errors. Please see below: The first time I read this review I thought it had very good commentary to offer. Even though this reviewer points out a number of concerns with Yaron's Super Baby Food book, I bought the book anyway. I was glad that I did because "A Customer" actually was highly misleading in terms of what Yaron actually recommends. It's really a shame that so many people found this review to be helpful because of the misleading information that "A Customer provides. I guess just because a person says they are a physician does not mean that they correctly present facts or correctly quote books. These are the following inaccuracies that I found this the above review: #1: (she doesn't give a specific time frame to start) - Actually Yaron DOES give a time table to introduce baby to nuts. She specifically describes introducing nuts at 8 months and not introducing them any sooner than 8 months (page 101). She explicitly says on page 32 that experts recommend waiting until age three to introduce peanuts. She refers back to page 32 when talking about peanuts multiple times. Furthermore, in the table on page 33 she plainly lists nuts as a high risk allergy food. As a parent you have to decide when to introduce what nuts when to your child, plain and simple. Yaron gives guidelines and simply describes the nutritional benefits of nuts/seeds. #2: (Yaron makes comments such as, "the good old days" when you can buy tofu in a refrigerated bin where you can bag your own tofu...well this was ended for a specific reason, IT ISN"T SANITARY) This statement is just blatantly taken out of context. I will type the sentence from Yaron's book following what "A Customer" quoted. "I remember the good old days when blocks of tofu were sold in an open refrigerated barrel at my local natural foods store and customers would bag their own. BUT TOFU IS NO LONGER SOLD THAT WAY, DUE TO THE LIABILITY OF UNFRIENDLY BACTERIA. FOR YOUR BABY, BE SURE TO BUY TOFU IN SEALED PACKAGES ONLY. It made me very mad that a "family physician" would take that out of context. Furthermore, Yaron is overly cautious about bacteria and keeping things clean. She recommends that you boil all water first before you give it to you baby and who does that? Yaron always recommends being over cautious and overly safe in terms of keeping bad bacteria away from your baby. So, what this reviewers calls "glaring statements" I would call either not reading closely enough OR taking statements out of context. I have no idea about the validly on nitrates in spinach and carrots, but since all other concerns that "A Customer" discussed were inaccurate I would be inclined to research that myself before believing this person. When I saw that this person was a family physician I was more likely to believe what they said, but after completely reading Yaron's book and I have different opinion. I have a Master's degree in Environmental Chemistry, does that make what I say more credible? Well one thing I learned from my degree is always back up facts with proven research and credible sources for information. I put all the page numbers from Yaron's book and used direct quotes, I am not defending the actual recommendations. I am just trying to make sure that everyone knows that this person's review was biased and misleading.

I know there are some negative reviews on this book and everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I think you need to use good judgement and always confirm with your pediatrician if you are unsure about certain things. For example giving my baby nuts too early is definitely something I would avoid. That being said I found this book so fabulously informative and full of new ideas, recipes, awesome suggestions and time/money saving tips!!! I am recommending this book to all of my mommy and soon-to-be mommy friends and family!!! I don't think I can or want to live without it anymore! Some reviewers complained about the author's disorganization of the book however I found it VERY easy to read with a lot of points in the book where she refers you to other sections for extra info. I think it's difficult to write a book with this much info...don't think I could've organized it any better myself!! I even love that many of the ideas are for older children which helps me out a lot since I have a 4 month old and a 5 year old! One suggestion is to freeze not only homemade babyfood but also sandwiches/lunches for school aged children so you don't have to make lunch every day during the work week. I work full time so that's a great time saving tip!! So many more wonderful ideas, like this, in the book!! I'm also excited to try making my own homemade fruit leather!! I can't say enough great things about this book other than go get yourself a copy. I have mine on hand with me throughout the day and when I have a few extra minutes I read a small section. Lastly I will say it doesn't have to be read in order...I flip all around and go back and forth. It's so full of info....from cover to cover! Hope you all find it as helpful and informative as I have. :)

SUPER BABY FOOD is an inspiring, but fundamentally flawed book. My copy is fast becoming dog-eared. I use it a lot, but I wish fervently that Yaron would get a good editor or a co-author for the next edition. That said, I am a mother that works a full-time job in addition to housekeeping and mothering, and I have been using the SUPER BABY FOOD techniques for four months now. Things I love about SUPER BABY FOOD: - LISTS: Monthly lists of healthy foods and ideas on when to introduce them to my baby. - TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES: Detailed tips on how to start making baby food in bulk, so that it does not take up much time. It makes it clear that healthy, homemade baby food is doable. - ENTHUSIASM: It's an inspiring book to read. Huge enthusiasm for healthy eating and for raising a child that eats well. - GREAT BOOK IF ALLERGIES CONCERN YOU: I had already determined that my baby was sensitive to dairy and wheat based on his reactions to what I eat (he's breastfed). This book offers a great method for introducing new foods and watching to make sure that you have not introduced something that's a problem. - SIMPLE RECIPES: Contains some good simple recipes. Things that vex me about SUPER BABY FOOD: This list is longer, but I am still glad I got the book, and still go to it for ideas. - FOOD COMBINING: Yaron espouses food combining. The idea that you need to combine protein sources at a vegetarian meal in order to get the protein you need is long out of date. For example, see Frances Moore Lappe's renunciation of the idea in the 1982 edition of DIET FOR A SMALL PLANET. - INCONSISTENT ADVICE: On page 32, she notes that most experts recommend delaying the introduction of cow's milk until one year. On page 88, she lists whole milk yogurt as one of the first foods to introduce. There are similar issues with the other foods that are most likely to trigger allergies, such as peanut butter. At the very least, it would have been helpful to note these items in the monthly list of foods to introduce. - BAD INDEXING: A good index in a cookbook is invaluable. This book lacks one. For example, I went to the index to find the applesauce recipe. There was no entry. There was an entry for apples. The page that mentioned apples referred me to the page with the applesauce recipe. Looking around more, I realized there is something called a Recipe Index, but it simply re-lists the recipes in the order they are printed earlier in the book. So, for example, you must find the heading called Fruit and then scan through all the listings to find Baby Applesauce. Neither the groupings nor the actual recipes are in alphabetical order. This makes the book slow and tedious to use. - INCOMPLETE ADVICE REGARDING FISH: Mercury is such a high profile contaminant that it would have been useful to mention. Yaron just mentions "pollutants," and skips some of the fish that have that issue. - DESSICATED LIVER: Yaron recommends this supplement. I would say more about finding liver you would want your baby to eat. Since the liver is a blood-cleansing organ, it is likely to have a burden of pollutants that the animal was exposed to. Again, Yaron is not concerned about pollutants. - SCOPE CREEP: In actual fact, this book is also a book of housekeeping tips. There are two pages of advice on loading and using your dishwasher, for example. It's fun, but I could have done without it.

This book is very useful for my family. I learned many new knowledge about choosing, planning, preparing, cooking and even serving healthy organic food to my children.

I love this book. It is full of ideas, advices, inspiration. I used it on everyday basis for the first 2-3 years after my son was born, now i turn to it for birthday, parties, quick no sugar desserts when there is nothing in the house. You will love it if like me you don't eat junk, don't feed junk to your children and like to try out (sometimes weird) things in the kitchen. It gave me so much ideas about feeding babies and preparing his first food with my breast milk, freezing tiny portions, what to feed the first etc. It is 'too crowded' so you have to be bit patient to get to know the book and discover over and over again where is what, but that is a minor issue compare to value.

Love this book, it's an excellent resource that lays open on my counter most days. I wish I had it pre-solid food as well, its loaded with great info for the liquid and solid eater. Lots of nutritional info, receipe and meal plans from the beginner to toddler stages. Love Love Love. My tiny asterix usually comes along with most parenting/resource books. There are some viewpoints I did not agree with, however I always take parenting recommendations with a gain of salt. Overall 5 stars from me.

Very good book

So much great information in this book. Highly recommend it.