Super Baby Food
by Ruth Yaron
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Book Reviews of Super Baby Food
Book Review: The perfect resource for the new parent!
Summary: 5 Stars
It can be overwhelming at first. A baby, happily subsisting on one easy to provide substance (breastmilk or formula)now needs more complex nutrition. What do you start with? How much should you feed her? What food is healthiest for him? Do babies really need to eat that stuff in all the tiny little bottles, or is real food ok? Look no further, your ultimate baby food reference is here!From very specific instructions on the first feeding, to detailed lists of foods and amounts, over 350 recipes, advice on cleaning and food safety, kitchen craft ideas, and a crash course in nutrition... this book really covers it all! There are not only exhausitve details about making your own baby food, but schedules and how-tos that make it easy and not overly time consuming. Several friends recommended it to me, and I see why! You really don't need any other baby food book.
Yaron is informed and authoritative, without being pushy. She even admits to having a few bottles of the jarred food on hand for emergencies and travel. Be flexible, do what works for you... that's the message here!
I was a bit concerned when I read several of the reviews below: the author didn't know the danger of nitrates or food allergies? Well, clearly the reviewers didn't read the book thoroughly or carefully. Yaron writes on pages 38-39 in detail about the nitrate problem in spinach and carrots, what causes it, the dangers, and what age most doctors agree it is safe for babies to eat these foods. Pages 28-34 deal in detail with the problem of food allergies, including egg whites and peanuts. General recommendations are made, as well as advice if your family has any food allergies, and constant encouragement to discuss your feeding plans with your pediatrician. For example, she does use egg yolks in her baby food, but only the complex proteins in egg whites are considered a high-risk allergen. Not only that, but she gives lists of high allergy danger foods, and tells parents how to recognize potentially dangerous allergic reactions. Again, perhaps some people just didn't read the book cover to cover. In my opinion, if anything she is a little too obsessive about food safety, but then again I eat raw cookie dough and don't write books about baby food.
If your feeding plans are to fill your baby with pre-processed, pre-packaged baby food you don't need this book, and Gerber sends out a little advertisement/checklist to every new Mom in America anyhow. If you are serious about giving your child the best nutritional start in life, then this is the book for you!
Book Review: Excellent resource! I love this book!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is excellent! I'm a vegetarian attorney and have been looking for information on nutrition and how to feed my baby something other than Gerber food. I've hardly spent time in the kitchen in my life and didn't know where to begin. I'm so glad to have found this book. Don't be fooled that the book was written in 1998; it's still relevant and fresh. The author also has corrections/updates (so far 26 paragraphs) posted on her web site.
I'm truly surprised about the negative reviews. Frankly, my advice is to ignore them. The reality is that there isn't a more thorough, detailed book of its kind out there. If you want books written by doctors and nutritionists, they're out there, but they don't help you put together a system of food preparation. For those who criticized the book because it gives, in their opinions, some "questionable" input, gimme a break. If you are unsure of what to feed your baby, run your ideas by a doctor, nutritionist or book or other resource written by a doctor or nutritionist first. Even Gerber has a 24-hour hotline for such questions. This woman gets an A from me for putting together a great resource for parents.
By the way, I have yet to read a resource book of any kind, on nutrition, diet, exercise, real estate, money, investments, language acquisition, you name it, that doesn't have more information than I care to know or read about. I just skip the parts I don't want to read. This comes from someone who is 33, been in the workforce since she was 15, and has four degrees (three advanced). Some of these reviewers are being really petty (too much detail?) and have made very misleading comments as to the author's actual statements.
Another book written by a nutritionist (Healthy Foods, Healthy Kids, A Complete Guide to Nutrition for Children from Birth to Six-Year-Olds by Elizabeth Ward - another excellent resource on nutrition) also suggests introducing peanut butter at approx. 10-months plus. Sadly, children can have severe reactions to all sorts of foods, including milk, wheat, nuts, fruits and so on. As with any introduction to foods, one must do so cautiously and with special care to the foods most commonly known to cause severe reactions amongst allergic children. Also, the author is clear to state within the first 45 pages that home-made carrots, etc. shouldn't be given to newborns. The author consulted with countless doctors, nutritionists, and other experts in addition to innumerable written resources when she wrote the book.
Book Review: Disappointed in Super Baby Food
Summary: 2 Stars
I read through a lot of the other reviews and was very nervous about the negativity from othe readers, but as a new Mum I was suggested to get this book by my Pediatrician. I hoped that as a SAHM I would have the necessary time and dedication to read the book thoroughly and hopefully make sense of it. But, it appears that even with more time this book is very confusing, I found that if you start at the first chapter and attempt to read all the way though you are constantly being referred to different sections and you end up having to jump about from section to section in the book. I had so many pages turned down to know which sections had been read and that I had to go back to, I lost track of where I was.
I asked my Pediatrician which foods my daughter could NOT have till certain ages and found a lot of inconsistencies with what the author suggested. I ended up creating a spreadsheet of all the foods the author recommended at certain ages and then cross referenced this with what my Pediatrician said, then I had to go back to the book and make a note of the correct age that I will be allowed to offer the said food from.
I understand that I am a first time Mum, but I am not stupid and this author seemed to write this book for stupid people. Come on... I really don't think you need to write about how to shut a zip-lock bag and get the air out by sucking on a straw in the corner! I wanted to be thorough about feeding my baby, which meant I had to read all through this kind of drivvle to get to the relevant stuff about feeding my baby.
I have skipped the whole section on Arts & Crafts as this is my baby's food book, if I had wanted a section on Arts & Crafts I would have brought and Arts & Crafts book. It is a shame this section couldn't have been used for more receipes or useful information about food.
My last concern was that I was a number of chapters in until I found that this is a vegetarian cook-book. I know that the author added an area on meat at the request of readers, but this IS a vegetarian cook-book with an after thought on meat. I want meat to eventually be part of my baby's diet, I am not a Tofu or Soy eater myself and I don't believe I am going to make my baby into one either. I am now finding out more thorough information / recipes for meat in babies diets.
If I had to do this all over again I would not purchase this book, even though it is recommended by Pediatricians and has been on TV shows as the one most parents purchase.
Book Review: Wonderful book--I'd recommend it to anyone!
Summary: 5 Stars
A lot of people are writing about the flaws in this book, but I simply don't think any of them stand up. In the book there are many cautions about nuts, dairy, soy, and nitrates (which seem to be the main complaint) and Ruth clearly states many times that her information was right for the time, but that new information is always available and to go with your pediatrician's recommendations.
That being said, I'd also like to refute the FIRST commentor's issue of the 'good 'ol days' of tofu by saying that Ruth DOES say it's not sanitary, and THAT'S WHY SHE LIKES THE NEW PACKAGING!
I feel that Ruth is covering 'all the bases' and leaving it up to the consumer to decide what they want and don't want to do. If you don't like dessicated liver powder, then don't use it. If you're worried about nitrates, don't feed them high-risk foods. If your pediatrician says 'no dairy or nuts!', then don't feed them dairy or nuts! (A side note about nuts, it is usually PEANUTS that children are allergic too, which Ruth notes, and not other nuts).
I feel that any negative comments about this book are simply the product of someone not reading it front to back. Yes, it's a lot to read. However, you're learning how to feed your baby natural, nutritional foods from the start and since most people don't know how to do that, there's a lot to learn. There are dangers with any foods you choose to feed your child, and she makes sure you are informed about all of them.
One thing I'd like to say, though, is that protein complementarity is still a valid theory, however it has now been found that you do NOT need to eat the rice with the beans (or whichever combination you use). As long as you eat these foods within the same day, your body will still be able to make complete proteins. I found this out after looking up 'protein complementarity' on Google and reading a revision of the book she sited that idea from.
This book is simply amazing and really challenges you to think about what you're feeding your children. Even if you don't follow her diet to the letter, it is still a great book to use to learn about how to make foods, how to clean your house safely, and make lots of fun arts and crafts.
The only thing I'd say you MUST do is read the ENTIRE book before getting started. As you can see from other comments, if you haven't read the whole book, you really don't have the whole story.
Book Review: Our Baby Food Bible
Summary: 5 Stars
This book has been so helpful to us as anxious new parents--it really lays out clearly and cheerfully what to do each step of the way and is a great reference tool. When we went in for our son Eli's 6 month checkup, and it was time to think about starting solid foods, we really wanted someone to tell us what the best way to go about solid foods was. We wanted to know what to feed first and how to prepare it and what to do, but our pediatrician was almost too laid back and didn't really tell us anything but "wait 4-5 days between each new food you start". Another mom in my mom's group had recommended your book, so we had brought a copy with us to the doctor; when we showed it to him he said "sure, try that if you want to". Well now we've tried it for about 3 months and it's been great. I feel confident that Eli is getting super nutrition and he's happy and healthy (though I must admit he's had 3 colds so far in his little life...but I blame those on traveling on airplanes!) and a great eater. He's up to 3 meals a day now at 9 months old and shows no signs of slowing down. :)
I do agree with some of the other reviewers that this book can be a bit over the top in terms of hygeine warnings, make-your-own ideas, and nutrition tables, but overall I prefer having more suggestions than I need. We use this book for the general Super Baby Food diet suggestions, the what-foods-to-introduce-when timetables, and the fabulous food cube method. The one thing we have not yet tried (but will shortly) is making our own Super Porridge from scratch. We were worried about our son getting enough iron, so for the first few months we chose to go with the iron-fortified Earth's Best whole grain boxed cereals. But after asking our doctor at Eli's 9 month checkup about iron supplements, he told us that it wasn't really as necessary as we thought (neither were vitamin supplements as long as the diet is well rounded) so we're going to start making our own now. Hopefully Eli will like his homemade Super Porridge as much as he likes the boxed kind! (This morning he scarfed up a huge portion of oatmeal porridge mixed with egg yolk, brewers yeast and asparagus...mmm....)
We're still definitely playing around with Eli's diet, trying to get the nutrient balance right, but I have every confidence that we'll get it right, thanks to the tons of helpful info provided in this cheerful, friendly, chatty book. Thanks, Ruth, for putting this book together!