Customer Reviews

Baby Greens: A Live-Food Approach for Children of All Ages

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Baby Greens is a delightful and informative book on adding raw foods into the diet of children. In the introduction, author Michaela Lynn describes her search for answers about raw foods first for herself and later for babies and kids. She mentions her frustration at not finding a book on those topics. She finally comes to realize that she is supposed to write that book! Lynn makes it clear that Baby Greens is not meant to promote a rigid diet but rather to help families of all dietary persuasions add more living foods to their repertoire.

Part one of Baby Greens is a collection of essays on health and bioenergetic nutrition written by Michael Chrisemer, N.C. Chrisemer's essays are readable and educational. He covers a variety of topics ranging from enzymes, toxins, sea vegetables, vitamins, and water to breastfeeding. Each essay is short and to the point. They are packed with information that will inspire the reader to explore each topic more in-depth. I was fascinated to learn about the homeopathic qualities of sea vegetables. I was likewise pleased to read that Chrisemer makes correlations between breastfeeding behavior and later eating habits. His bits of wisdom make perfect sense to me. In his essay "Putting it All Together," Chrisemer discusses children and their need for autonomy. He shares an anecdote about a pudding pie he craved after seeing a TV commercial. Instead of denying him the experience of the pie, his mother bought it for him. He found the pie to be much different from his expectations and he never asked for another. Had his mother denied him that experience, he might have missed out on an important opportunity for growth.

Part two of Baby Greens is all about food recipes and activities. This is where the book really shines. Each page is filled with whimsical drawings, helpful hints and great recipes. Lynn covers everything from pregnancy nutrition to feeding a baby old who is enough for solids to getting your bigger kid to help prepare the meal. I decided to truly put this book to the test. I would need to prepare and consume (with my kids of course!) as many of the meals as possible. We started out by making Cupid's Soup from page 72. This is a delicious mixture of beets and apples that my children both happily gobbled up. The next recipe we tried was from page 92, the carrot-raisin salad. This is a twist on the traditional made with mayonnaise. The flavor of this new carrot raisin salad is fantastic! I made it for a playgroup, and it was very well received by everyone. Since I've had the book, I've made about a half dozen of the recipes and have been very pleased with all of them. I also found the games and resources in the back of the book to be especially fun and helpful. I even located a source for organic avocados right down the road from me.

Baby Greens is such a lovely book and should be in the library of every new parent. The authors are never judgmental. They offer gentle suggestions for improving on current diets rather than advocating for a raw-only lifestyle. You can hear the respect and love in the tone of the writing. I find the compassionate language used throughout the pages to be very soothing. This book is such a pleasure to read and I cannot recommend it enough. --Mona Harris

Micky (Michaela Lynn) was running a vegan daycare in the small town where I live, and all the kids loved her. Even kids who aren't vegetarian and whose parents tought they didn't like vegetables enjoyed the food and starting asking for raw veggie snacks! I couldn't say enough good about Micke and her book. A must for any parent!

I was very sceptical of ordering this book as it had mixed reviews.
I owe many raw food books and have been using them for 3 years now. That said, I really enjoyed this one!
My husband and I are 80%+ raw and its a bit more challenging with our 4 year old. With this book- the great recipies I try- she loves and its easier to transition her to being mostly on living foods!
YES I do recommend it!

I was frustrated with most of the books out there on how to make baby food and food for toddlers. When I read "Baby Greens" I found it to be informative in reasons to use raw foods for digestion and health. She had a lot of supported research which I found helpful. Additonally, the recipes were well received by my infant son, who had been on mainly breast milk since birth. Since beginning solid foods I have found he does not have a "sweet tooth" that my pediatrician was concerned about with a fruit heavy beginning to solid foods. He does like his fruit. He also likes a wide variety of vegetables, cheese, nuts, grains, lentils, pulses and meat. Interestingly, he is not a fan of heavily processed foods. Given the climate of food security these days I think this is a good thing! I would definltely recommend this book to anyone, and have to all of my newly pregnant friends!

I really appreciated this book for its non-paranoid view towards food for children.It seems like all the books suggest processed fortified rice cereal for first foods to avoid "allergies"??? Isn't the best way to avoid allerigies to fortify the body with living healthy foods? My son will be starting solids next month or so and I bought this book in attempt to learn WHY every other baby food book on the market cooks the hell out of everything, including foods like berries, before giving it to your infant? It is a straight forward book with a very holistic approach to feeding your child.

I love this book I wish there were more like it. It has some amazing information on nutrition for everyone and some yummy raw food recipes for baby, toddlers and adults. I wish there were more recipes in it though. But I love this book and have learned a lot from it. My favorite part is the page that tells when to start baby on which raw foods.

I enjoyed this book, even though I was already familiar with much of the information. It is a wonderful resource for quick statistics and creative recipes. Another book that one might want to read before or after this one to help them on their path to raw or vegan eating is Eat to Live. Once you understand the science of health and hunger, you begin to realize that it is very natural to eat raw and vegan. In fact, my own children from the very beginning of their solid food journeys have always prefered fresh, clean, raw foods with little exception. Even when their corrupted parents decide to have a "treat" they often decide they don't like it after a couple of bites. Anyway, I can't compete with some of the other, more thorough reviews of this book right now, but believe them that it is a very enjoyable and educational read!

A book that I've read twice myself, and referenced quite a bit during pregnancy and for all three of my children at different stages. I love this book and recommend it to any friends and family that come to me asking about Raw Food and kids.

If you are like me and would like to feed your baby more raw, living foods then his book is a wonderful place to start gathering information and confidence for your journey.

I think this book would also make a great baby gift for ANYONE... whether you/they are a raw foodist or not it is very important to include fresh fruits and veggies in the diets of our children and this book offers many ideas about how exactly to do that.

This book is okay, and probably good for someone new to raw foods and having babies and young children. It just doesn't hold my interest for some reason and I don't believe it has a lot of recipes or suggestions.