Customer Reviews

The Baby Cookbook, Revised Edition: Tasty And Nutritious Meals For The Whole Family That Babies And Toddlers Will Also Love

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I was so disappointed with this book. When I flipped to the recipe section, there really wasn't anything my children would eat in there. Stelline, sturgeon, "arabian stew", carrot raita, bulgur pilaf, asparagus omelette? Who eats this? I wouldn't even make these recipes for myself! There was also a heavy indian flair (curried foods) through the recipes. I'm sorry, but this just isn't for kids. And then there's the 50 pages of diary about her daughter's life in the middle of the book. How does this fit in?

I was looking for a book that would provide quick, easy to fix, nutritious meals that my kids would eat. I don't have time to shop in specialty stores for hard-to-find items. This would be a good book for a stay at home parent who has time on their hands to do all the specialty shopping. But for working parents who are looking for a quick, easy meal to make with items on the pantry shelf, this is not it.

I was looking for a book on preparing homemade baby food that was easy to read, straight forward and had simple recipes. This isn't it!I was very disappointed in this book. The chapters are not well organized and the recipes are far from simple. I found myself getting lost in the pages as well the ingredient lists. The recipes were unrealistic for our family. They are time consuming and the ingredients are not things we usually purchase (ie Lamb). The diary in the middle of the book which documents the feeding of their child from 6 months to 2 years old is completely out of place and a waste of space. Overall the book is not 'user friendly' and I would not waste my money on it.I would recommend "Mommy Made and Daddy too!" as a more pratical resource.

Of all my baby feeding books, this one is the one I kept going back to. Hard to find ingredients? I'm not sure what the other reviewers are talking about. Rice, eggs, chicken, fruit, vegetables, plain yogurt, canned tomatoes? These are all things readily available. The recipes are super easy, and most important, healthy. I know what I'm talking about as an avid cookbook collector with 100+ cookbooks, the recipes don't get much easier than this. And don't involve any processed food. Why introduce junk food to kids any sooner than need be? The sample menus and the detailed summary of what foods to introduce at what months is worth the price of the book alone. The easy fruit custard that takes about 2 minutes to make was a simple way to introduce something sweet to my infant without processed sugar and involved mixing canned baby food with a couple other things. As a working mom, it was homemade, fast and easy. This is not some health-nut type of cookbook, but rather healthy and simple. Even those who have hectic lives and eat out more than they make stuff will be able to quickly prepare these recipes without too much involvement and hassle. This is a book that moms will come back to over and over again. I agree with one review that the food diary about her daughter could have been left out.

As a practicing family physician, with a spouse who is a nurse, I was shocked at the advice given in this book. Many of the recommended dietary additions go completely against the accepted standards of the American Academy of Pediatrics. For example, whole milk and cottage cheese are recommended by the authors at a far too early age. I returned it immediately and would not recommend it.

I got this book and "Feeding the Whole Family" by Cynthia Lair for Christmas. This one is MUCH better!

First, I LOVE the sample menu section. It has encouraged me to give my daughter a much more varied diet! There are a lot of creative ideas in there!

The nutrition information covers all the basics without going into information overload.

There is also a food diary, describing what her daughter ate at what age. This is, in my opinion, the weakest section of the book.

By contrast, the Lair book recipes called for ingredients that you could only get at a natural foods store or macrobiotic grocery, and most of the recipes are really for ADULTS, not babies. There's just a little note at the bottom that says (for example) "reserve some of the beans and mash for a baby."

The Baby Cookbook uses food available at a regular store, and has recipes that can be served for baby and everyone else (after about age 9 months, when you're past the very plain food). As a stay-at-home mom, I like the snack recipes that make one adult and one child serving to share.

I wish the recipes specified what age to serve them to baby. Instead, you have to page back to the sample menus and the what-to-introduce-when charts to figure out if the recipe is right for your child's age.

I am glad that I received "Mommy Made and Daddy Too" before this book, or I may have actually taken Knight's advice on how to feed an infant. It seems that she introduces foods too fast (i'm not a doctor). Something very disturbing is that from 6 mos to 12 mos she writes "each meal should be accompanied by nursing, formula, or milk". I have seen nowhere else that cow's milk is acceptable three times a day instead of formula or nursing. I also didn't like the diary. It wasn't a true diary in that you didn't learn how she introduced foods to her daughter. Instead you saw a meal every now and then and something about how she taught her daughter to sleep in her crib by letting her cry herself to sleep. Not my kind of mothering all around!! I also question whether many toddlers would eat cold avocado soup or shrimp with almonds.

...just what I needed 5 years ago when I started feeding my 1st son. The information about nutrition, allergens, and when to introduce food was invaluable and neatly gathered in one place, The recipes were very interesting, some basic, some regional (California), some ethnic (Scandinavian). We just about wore out our copy before passing it along, and have purchased several copies as gifts. Now we're getting a new copy for our new baby. I cannot recommend this book highly enough - it's in the top 2 or 3 of it's category, and the one I find most usable.

I found this book 8 years ago when my first baby was just getting ready to try eating. I checked out a dozen likely-looking books from the library. The rest went back, but this was renewed until I bought my own copy. I devoured this book! The nutrition information was very helpful for me in general, the suggested order for introducing foods was something I practically memorized, and a great help especially with my baby who turned out to be allergy-prone. The diary was a nice break from all of the information, more of an anecdotal resource. It also helped to give me an idea where the author was coming from and how to put foods I wasn't used to into an everyday setting. The recipes are astounding - simple to make, wonderfully healthy, tasty for the whole family, and there's a little bit of everything in there. I've tried new foods from these recipes and been encouraged to re-do some of my own recipes with a more healthful eye. I've given away several copies and bought my most recent when my latest son arrived. He's 2 now and I still pull this book down for ideas 3 or 4 times a month. I can't imagine feeding a baby without this book - it's the best I've read! I cannot recommend The Baby Cookbook highly enough!

I found that in order to create some of the recipes listed in the book I would have to make a special trip to the market. I found the recipes eccentric and not at all what I was looking for. I was expecting a book that contained healthy, easy recipes for an everyday mom like me!

Raising a baby is enough of a challenge -- this book, given to me by my pediatrician, really saved my life! Quite readable too! Great job Ms. Knight