Customer Reviews

Feeding Baby Green: The Earth Friendly Program for Healthy, Safe Nutrition During Pregnancy, Childhood, and Beyond

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book has everything! If you're like me and a picky eater, you've probably wondered how to get your kids to eat things you don't eat. I was fed a very limited variety of foods as a child, and as a result I've always been very picky. This book explains why me and countless other Americans prefer the taste of packaged, processed foods loaded with salt and sugar, over fresh, wholesome, good food. So what did people do before the bland, jarred baby food of the industrial revolution hit store shelves? Read this book to find out!

What is included:

The definition of "baby" food
How to eat while pregnant to maximize the chances of your baby being an adventurous eater later on
How to introduce foods in a way your baby will find intriguing
Recipes
How we inadvertently teach our toddlers to become picky eaters
Facts about what's actually in baby food
How jarred baby food came to be in the first place
How to approach eating as "fun" and create enjoyable food experiences

You not only become educated on what to feed your baby, you become educated on the entire process of how consumers came to depend on Gerber and other baby food companies as the only way to feed a baby. I was always told that it wasn't safe to introduce too many varieties of fruits and veggies to a baby at once, but this book dispels that myth and so many others.

Skip What To Eat While You're Expecting and just read this.

I will have to agree with another reviewer who says this book is good for beginners. For those who have a fairly decent knowledge of nutrition and healthier alternatives and those who did their research while pregnant, on the other hand, this book may simply be more of the same.
While I enjoyed what the book had to say regarding the "magical" properties of herbs etc, my largest complaint would be the lack of recipes throughout the book. There are some, and while the text does not call itself a cookbook, I believe more recipes, with a background on why they are the best choice for your child, would have been more suited to my own personal needs. A lot of the information is what you would find in any pregnancy guide, magazine or website.
If you have already had children or are one who is extremely health conscious, you are not likely to find a host of profound information in this book that you have not come across previously. That being said, it is certainly a viable guide for those who want to change their nutritional lifestyles for themselves, their kids and their environment (if they have not already done so).

this is one of my favorite baby feeding books! forget the bland, jarred purees with BPA leaching caps, the constipating cereals, and the different "stages" that commercial baby food manufacturers try to sell us. dr. greene shows us why it is so much better to make our own baby foods, and how easy it can be! dr. greene (like dr. sears) also recommends the using a "Treasure Tray," a fun tray filled with healthy finger foods for baby (or toddler or even older) and letting him/her explore different foods, tastes and textures. we also always let our baby nibble off of our plates, and did what is called 'child led introduction to solids' and she loved it! today, at 3 1/2, she eats any and everything i put in front of her-- including kale and broccoli.

I ordered this book because I really enjoyed reading Raising Baby Green. Feeding Baby Green actually covers a lot of the same information covered in Raising Baby Green, but goes into a bit more detail. I pretty much skipped the whole first section on what to eat during pregnancy, since Raising Baby Green already covered the topic.

Overall, the book is practical and useful. I especially liked that Dr. Greene covered formula/bottle feeding. I had not expected to need that section, but after having had serious problems while breastfeeding my son, I was thankful that he gave suggestions for keeping bottle feeding as "green" as possible. However, I think he also covered that topic in Raising Baby Green, as well.

In short, I did like this book, and I found it to be helpful. If I had to do it over again, though, I would check out Feeding Baby Green from the library and buy Raising Baby Green, instead of the other way around.

Baby food is a myth. At first glance, this seems like an overly simple statement, or maybe even an outlandish sales pitch. But as I continued to read, the weight of Dr. Green's bold statement hit me. Does he realize he's going completely contrary to a foundational belief in our society? What are his intentions and how does aim to support such a claim? The answers to those questions quickly became clear, along with a solution to our ever-growing problem of toxic chemicals in our children's food.

I know - you're wondering if it's really a smart idea not to follow the Stage 1, 2 and 3 exactly as you've been told. You're thinking that it will take too long to prepare fresh food for your baby. And then what if you're not sure you can provide your baby with a balanced diet?

Drop the worry, let the fear go and dump your pre-conceived ideas about how babies should be fed. Dr. Greene has orchestrated an amazing - and doable - journey for you. Feeding Baby Green is so much more than a "how to" book - it's a stolen look into Dr. Greene's own journey to freedom and joyful family meals where baby is included instead of separated.

And those concerns of BPA and toxic preservatives harming your baby's health? They become drastically diminished in a world where you prepare one dinner for the whole family, without the need for jarred and canned baby food. In the process your child will learn how to enjoy healthy, unprocessed food for life.

Pros:
*The writer was not brought up eating the healthiest. So, I feel that I can somewhat relate as opposed to someone who has eaten healthy all of their lives and didn't have to make a change.
*Easy to understand, not very technical yet comes across as very sound advice.
*The cover has a "waxy" feel, so it probably won't get messed up if you get food or something else on it.
*I really like how he advocates learning opportunities for you and the kids (letting them pick out fruits/veggies at the store, having a little herb garden to pick from, etc.)
*Although this is a very wordy book, there are some bullet points (or lists) that he gives you that you could highlight and refer back to later. He has a "biodiversity checklist" at the back (about 3 total pages) that I think is neat and would be a great exercise to do with your kids when they are older (besides doing it yourself).

Cons:
*not many "recipes" as I thought there might be, although not a big deal to me.
*I'm a little surprised that he did not talk about foods to eat (or avoid) for breastfeeding. I know that could be a large topic in and of itself, but I thought he would have at least touched on it. (yes, he tells you to limit caffeine, no alcohol, etc.) but I'm talking about foods themselves that will enhance your supply or might give gas to the little ones.

Notes/Neutral:
*152 pages (out of 257) covered his background, pregnancy and up to a baby 3 months of age). Just trying to give you an idea what most of the book is spent upon.
*At times, he does list brands of things he's recommending.
*Basically, if you don't grow it yourself or get food from a co-op, he recommends organic food/formula.
*Although this book is about being "green", to me it seemed more about eating wholesome...so I didn't feel like I was badgered by the "green police" ;)
*I had never heard of him before, but here is his site if you want to read up first: [...]

I ordered this book (through the Vine program) when my twins were toddlers and pretty good eaters (although not wholesome as I would like). Although we are on the older end of the book now, there are still some good ideas. It also gives me some inspiration to better my nutrition.

Overall: I think this book is "best" suited for someone who is pregnant...then next suited for someone who has just given birth (but do you really have time to read? :)

This book kind of blew my mind. I am already a proponent and (mostly) practicer of "green" eating, but Dr. Alan Greene (haha) convinced me that eating whole and organic foods will become even more of a priority when (if) I become pregnant.

"Feeding Baby Green" walks through the various stages of pregnancy and the first few years of a child's life, laying out both a comprehensive eating strategy and examining in depth specific strategies to employ at each stage. The central message is that children will become adults who seek out the foods they ate both in utero and as infants, so parents should actively think about and feed their children the foods they want them to wind up eating as adults. Greene makes it sound like common sense, and in some ways it is, but he also backs it up with very compelling science.

Did you know that babies in utero drink amniotic fluid, and that it conveys the flavors of the foods the mother has eaten? Or that there have been studies that show that animals will seek out the foods their mothers ate while pregnant, even if separated from their mothers after birth, and so lacking the social cues that might direct them to those foods? Even if those foods are not things the animal would be expected to seek out? Wow!

There's also a significant amount of science surrounding the benefits of eating whole and organic foods in preventing allergies, eczema, asthma, and more. And about the negative behavioral effects food dyes have on children -- so negative that many European nations have banned the dyes we (and our kids) eat regularly!

Although Greene says you can begin these strategies at any time in infancy or toddlerhood, he also repeats over and over that it'll be easier the earlier you start. I recommend this book wholeheartedly for the not-yet-pregnant and the newly pregnant, and only slightly less enthusiastically for parents of toddlers. I think it will be especially compelling for people who themselves have an interest in "eating green", but are interested in specific strategies for doing so during pregnancy. And it'll likely provide some extra motivation to *not* pick up a fast food burger out of desperation. The book might be frustrating for those with toddlers and older, because so much of getting a toddler to try something new seems to depend on whether or not they've already had good experiences with both similar and wide varieties of other foods. That said, his strategy of "taking charge" could be helpful for parents of children of any age. (You may also want to check out How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk for general parenting strategies along those lines if you're in that situation.)

Overall, a compelling read for anyone thinking about having children, whether or not they're already pregnant, and especially important for newly pregnant women.

***[EDIT] After reading other reviewers' comments about formula vs. breastfeeding and the relative weight placed on both in this book, I wanted to add another note -- yes, Dr. Greene provides information about the best formulas, and gives advice to mothers who aren't breastfeeding. However, it seemed quite clear to me that he was strongly recommending that all mothers who *can* breastfeed do so, but that he was also trying to be helpful to those mothers who find themselves medically unable to breastfeed (as was his wife, after she was diagnosed with breast cancer). I don't find his credibility at all undermined by his recognition that breastfeeding may not be viable for everyone, and I disagree strongly with the reviews that assert that Greene doesn't advocate breastfeeding strongly enough. One of my favorite sentences in the book was something along the lines of, "Breastfeeding is the ultimate in eating local."

I really liked this book, and was happy to read his opinion that we don't need to feed our babies "baby food", but can feed them a mushed-up version of what we are eating ourselves, as long is it is healthy. I appreciated the age-appropriate suggestions and advice, and I especially liked the fact that it was written by a pediatrician, so I know his opinions are based on research evidence.
It has actually encouraged me to start buying more fresh fruit and vegetables for myself too! I only wish that the book had some more actual recipes.

This is an excellent guide for eating in the most heatlhy way during pregnancy! It then goes into the best foods for babyhood. I was very impressed by the info compiled here-I have had to hunt and peck for this info all over the place!! I had my first baby 7 years ago and I'm so glad things are finally evolving to include the proper way to feed babies-NOT just the way the food giants want us to eat. If you've read Michael Pollens work then you'll be thrilled to find this version of exactly what to do for your little ones.

With a child on the way, it seems like a very good thing to start getting as much information as possible regarding the health of the mother and the baby.

Essentially Dr. Greene is advising us to take a step back, go to a simpler time. A time when we made our babies food right there. In a world where everything is very commercialized and even cheerio's come in special formulations for babies, it does seem like this view point is very refreshing. The other big thing is about flavor. Making sure that what are children are getting at a young age are the 'real deal', instead of what a baby food manufacturer thinks a baby would like, this will allow them to transition better, and essentially 'naturally' pick better/healthier foods when they are eating solid foods/snacks.

There are a lot of theories and ideas about how to raise your children, and while I don't think I will follow everything outlined in this book, it offers some good practical advice, and notions that hopefully will make our new family healthier.