Customer Reviews

The Contented Little Baby Book of Weaning

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

 

 

Weaning...sheesh. Where to start? What type of food to introduce first? When to introduce the next new foods? When do move to finger foods? Table food? AHHH. I really found weaning intimidating with my little one, feeling that if I put a foot wrong, my little one would turn into a fussy eater. So this book was a HUGE help to me. Gina Ford lays out in her no nonsense manner a day to day approach to weaning, what foods to introduce, what time of day to fit in their solids, and how to do all this combined with milk feeds. She has great recipes for each stage, and I feel very much in control of my little ones diet and it is not a battle for her to eat :) perfect - I would highly recommend this book if you are a new mom and need a step by step approach to weaning.

This book is absolutely out-of-this-world fabulous! I am a first time mother and had no idea about weaning. This book has given me the tools to help my daughter be an exceptionally good eater. It has recipes in it, a day by day guideline for the beginning stages of weaning and fantastic information. It is the only book I've needed for weaning. There was only one small piece of information that was missing from the book; after we started weaning my daughter started crying when eating, and I did some research and learned that in the very, very beginning food should be really runny, like water running off the spoon. She was just learning to get it off the spoon, and if it is too thick, their choking-mechanism kicks in. I have a very healthy daughter, who is exclusively breastfed and this book is designed to help increase your baby's iron levels as they start to diminish after 6 months (if exclusively breastfed). This is an absolute must for any parent who wants their child to eat healthy right from the start. 10/10!

UPDATE July 2011: I am using this book for the third time with the weaning process. This book has continued to be one of my main cookbooks in my home with my toddlers and babies. It is completely thrashed with splashes and notes in it, but it is one of my most treasured possessions in my kitchen. It is in metric so some conversion would be needed (easy to google a conversion website though) and she usually includes the faranheit degrees for oven use.

Wonderful, informative book. A classic that was referred by another mother. The only drawback are the recipes which are based on English cuisine.

I nearly didn't invest in this book as I already owned the CLB book. But since her first book had proved so beneficial to our family, I decided to buy this one too. Now I look back, I can't imagine having tried weaning my son without this guide!!!! Being the type of person who likes to 'have a plan' and 'do things the right way', this weaning guide really makes it easy to give your little one the best introduction to solids and prevents not only allergies etc but also the dreaded fussiness!
There are some amazing insights in this book - what she says about her 'feelings' on commercial foods certainly proved true for us. There are also some really useful case studies where you can gain further insight on how to either resolve or prevent feeding issues. Not to mention the yummy recipes and menu plans!
Do yourself, and your bub, a favour and invest in this book. It certainly has paid itself back for us!

I am the kind of person who researches everything and all the books I read have slightly different advice but this has really worked for me. The recepies are easy although as a working mum i'll admit to having improvised a little once I got throught the first couple of months, it is winter so fresh is in short supply and there is huge selection of organic fruitjars out there so unless I have time I tend to feed him earth's best fruit and earths best cereal. I haven't resorted to raiding the british store for wheetabix yet either though it's tempting! On the other hand the selection of protein meals and other stuff in jars is lousy and I'm much happier feeding him meals I make myself. He is about the least fussy eater ever at this point, I just fed him bumper mac and cheese and then filled him up on green beans, no objections what so ever! The only thing I would say is that I invested in a hand food grinder (the kind that has a sieve like thing on the bottom) on top of the electric hand held blender for the meat dishes to get all the strings out. I didn't start feeding until 6 months(doing the exlusive breastfeeding thing) and at 8 months, I think he's a little behind Gina's schedule he still gags on lumps despite having been able to sit unassisted since 5.5 mths and we are only just starting to try finger foods, I think by 9 months we should achieve the 7-9 mth plan more or less. It's also a little out of whack with the 4 day - 1 week rule you often hear from the pediatrcian so I've taken things a bit easier on introducing new foods. Without this book I would have been lost though, and it's nice to know I'm feeding him stuff I would (and have) actually eaten myself.

I had read Gina's 'Contented Little Baby' book and found it useful to know what to expect and how to manage a typical baby day. However, I have not stuck rigidly to the times etc as I like to keep things flexible and a bit more easy going. This book I am using in a similar way. It is helpful to understand the principles behind her suggestions, and to know reasons for not introducing food too quickly, letting the milk drop too rapidly etc.
I would recommend this book, but do think it could be presented a little better - a few charts relating to age and intake would have been helpful as easy reference rather than all long hand script.
One criticism is that she wastes pages and pages on a selection of extremely simple recipes (water plus courgettes / apples / sweet potato...) that are essentially all the same process - just with the differing main ingredient.

i have bought from this seller before and had no problem so i didnt think i would have one this time but i had originally ordered the contented little book of weaning but recieved the contented little baby book. i was very annoyed as i had waited for weeks for it to arrive and i was in need of some help and advise on weaning my son. i have kept the book as it has some useful information and i could not wait for the book i actually wanted to be sent.