Customer Reviews

Super Baby Food

5 star:		(404)
4 star:		(107)
3 star:		(81)
2 star:		(85)
1 star:		(69)

 

 

As a family physician and new mother, I bought this book with interest. Overall, excellent principles of healthy baby diet, and excellent ways of preparing baby food at home. However, I was astounded by several key things. -Yaron recommends feeding a baby nuts - she doesn't give a specific time frame to start, but talks extensively about how to prepare and feed them to "baby." Nuts are HIGHLY allergenic, they are definitely not recommended before the first year and longer after that if a mother can help it. I have heard of a child suffering from anaphylactic shock from eating home made peanut butter at 8 months. -Yaron recommends preparing Spinach and Carrots at home, these two vegetables are not recommended for home preparation because of their high concentration of nitrates. Baby food companies screen these two vegetables so that only those from areas of the country with low nitrates can be served to baby. -Yaron makes comments such as, "the good old days" when you can buy tofu in a refrigerated bin where you can bag your own tofu...well this was ended for a specific reason, IT ISN"T SANITARY.

These glaring statements make this book one that I would not recommend for my patients. If you are aware of all the facts above and will double check some of her principles with other authorative text, then this is a good book on home preparing food in a wholesome, organic manner.

There is a lot of great information in this book. However, there is also quite a bit of nutritional misinformation to go with it. So I found myself having to double-check any recommendation I didn't already know about with another source which somewhat defeats the purpose of buying the book. That said I'm a complete kitchen klutz so having a book that explains exactly how to shop for, prepare and freeze each food is very helpful.

I'd just be very, very careful about using the exact diet as recommended for a baby under 1 year without consulting with your pediatrician first. For example, in order to avoid the "evil" meat, the book recommends introducing nuts, seeds & soy into the baby's diet from a pretty early age. These foods are all high allergen foods and really are not any better for a small baby than some pureed chicken. The book also recommends liver powder -- but organ meats are high in toxins. It also recommends cottage cheese starting at 6 months but cottage cheese has all the same problems as cow's milk and should not be given until you are ready to start straight cow's milk.

So in some senses I think the "cure" (a diet full of allergy-causing foods) is worse than the "disease" (eating meat once in a while).

The book is also not very bfing friendly... if you push solids in the amounts recommended here and as early as recommended here, you could easily have supply problems or your baby could self-wean by 9-10 months.

I am shocked at all of the poor reviews this book was given, and I hope they don't turn people away from a book that I really appreciated. When I first opened the book, I read instructions on how to prepare and store almost every fruit or vegetable you can imagine (what a great resource!), but also saw things like grinding your own millet for cereal, making your own yogurt, adding kelp for nutrients and I thought, boy am I in for a long read! But what I thought would be terribly complex wasn't complex at all. Her directions are very simple and easy, and I felt she always kept the idea of less time and less money is best. I was consistently surprised how easy it was to put my baby on a wonderfully healthy diet, and it gave me such a sense of pride to do this for my daughter.
Still wondering if its for you? This is for mothers who want to make their own food, but is also aware of the extreme importance of nutrition. Friends of mine who had and had not made their own baby food would gasp at the time and energy they thought I put into my baby's food, without realizing that it wasn't very time-consuming at all and was very rewarding. If these are your thoughts, stay away from this book. If you aren't willing to really read and learn about nutrition, stay away from this book. If you roll your eyes at "tree-huggers" and think organic farming is nonsense, you may not want to buy this book either because there is touch of this attitude. . She never sounded "preachy" to me, she just sounded well-educated, however I personally have strong views on human nutrition and how we treat our bodies AND communities by the food we consume.
Also: Im pretty sure that the comments about the nuts and nitrates in carrots and spinach ARE mentioned in the book. I think some people read only some parts and were ready to ring the alarm bells. If you read further, there are warnings for issues such as those.
On a final note: After I bought mine, it came with me EVERYWHERE so I could read a few chapters whenever I got a chance. I bought it for a friend and I laughed because she was carrying it with her in the diaper bag. For those of us who loved the book, we know it's worthwhile. I recommend checking the book out from the library first, and then buying a copy if it seems like something you would really like.

I have the first edition of this book and bought the second edition when it became available because it contained even more recipes and tips for food and play.

Yaron brings together expert advice and common sense from a variety of sources. In this one volume a reader can find nutrition information we previously had to gather from a variety of books, experts and real-life experience. Her information on nutrition and safety is cutting-edge. While I gathered tips and advice from my pediatrician and from parenting newsletters available through my state Extension service, Yaron's book delivered more information in more detail and an easy-to-read format. Nutrition information can be referenced food by food or by a child's age of development. Whenever I had a question about the appropriateness of a certain food for my baby, I could quickly look it up. I learned quite a lot about general nutrition that's been helpful to my own diet. The book will be of special interest to vegetarian or vegetarian-leaning parents.

The recipe section is invaluable for those "I don't know what to prepare" snacks and mealtimes. Yaron's tips are also money-savers for those on a tight budget. The new edition has more "do-it-yourself" ideas for play and parties and serves as a nice reference for the times when the reader's own creativity is lacking.

This book is for everyone with children. We have been using this book for eight months now with amazing success. Parents can use the information for making homemade babyfood, nutrtion info., food intro. timelines, many tot (my toddler that is) tested and approved recipes etc. I liked this book because I was nervous about not giving my infant enough nutrients,food allergies, as well as preparation techniques (I had NO experience in the kitchen) if I made my own babyfood. This book is for parents of all levels of experience. It will answer ALL of your questions (you can email the author if you have any unanswered) and walk you through step by step, and take the fright out of dealing with your child's health and nutrition first hand. If you think you don't have the time or the energy to do this, think again. Check this book out at the library, read a little and I'm positive you'll want to add this book to your permanent collection. I could never have done it with so much confidence without this book. I have the HEALTHY 14 month old to proove it! I only gave this book four stars because there is an extra section that does not pertain to nutriton (kids crafts) that I do not use and really adds a lot of bulk to the book.

I have never written a review of a book on amazon, but based on my experience with Super Baby Food I feel compelled to submit a review of this book. While this book has good tips on how to make and prepare your own baby food at home (and I found these to be very helpful), there are several major flaws that parents should be aware of:

1) This book is not well-organized and could be written with 1/3 the number of words utilized by this author. It is also chock-full of extraneous information and helpful "tips" on completely unrelated topics.

2) Alarmingly, this author promotes nuts and nut butters and recommends introducing these at 10 months of age. Peanuts are SEVERELY allergenic and can even cause anaphylactic shock, which can lead to throat constriction and even death in children and adults. The information on nut allergies is mentioned in a completely separate allergy chapter of the book and is not discussed in the chapter on nuts and nut butters. Because this book is incredibly dense, it is easy to forget about this reference by the time your baby is 10 months old and it is time, according to the author, to introduce nuts. Early introduction of nuts can reduce the likelihood that a child will outgrow this allergy. Most pediatricians now recommend waiting until 2 years to introduce nuts.

3) This author recommends home-prepared carrots, which I learned from another source contain nitrates and are dangerous for newborns.

4) This author has a superior attitude about her methodology, which is a little annoying. Her only scientific support for her approach is that she has two kids and they seem to have been sick less than other kids.

I would buy this book for the useful tips, but go in with eyes open to the flaws

Wow! Where to start? First, I bought this and The Healthy Baby Meal Planner by Annabel Karmel at the same time. While Karmel's book is "prettier" and has some interesting looking recipes, this one far outweighs it as a resource tool, which was what I was looking for. I admit, I was intimidated at first by the sheer volume of information contained in this book, but after reading the author's suggestion on how to read the book, I felt that I had a better handle on it. The book is very well organized, from when to introduce specific foods, to how to prepare and store them (one of my favorite sections!), to the recipes, which I really haven't gotten to yet. Yaron doesn't make the reader feel guilty about having a few jars of commerical baby food on hand, so in this sense, she's not militant about doing Everything from scratch.

The only area which I feel is a bit weak is the very short chapter on meat, which she states she added for the "readers who (no matter what I say!) have decided to feed it to their babies." Yaron is very obviously a vegetarian, which is fine, however, I (and many other moms) are not. This does not stop me from enjoying her book, and I probably will start preparing more grains-and- legumes meals as a result of what I'm learning, for variety, if not for the health benefits.

This is definitely the book to own if you can only buy one!

Wow! This book, while offering some great information, is desperately in need of an editor. As a graduate student in the medical sciences, I am not intimidated by long/difficult books...Super Baby Food however could have probably gotten its message across more effectively if about 350 pages had been trimmed off. The author does put out some good information (it is all opinion of course, but Yaron is responsible about telling you to check with your pediatrician), and as a strongly pro-organics and whole grains person I applaud her efforts. She gets quite bogged down though in the at first amusing and then just annoying "Tips" and "Reminders"--do I need to be told to fill my ice cube trays "left, right, left, right" or to keep my hand on the blender lid while using it? You just may drive yourself nuts trying to flip back and forth through this book to follow threads of information...the same common sense guidelines are out there in more streamlined, user-friendly books. My advice is, if you know your nutrition basics but like Yaron's principals, skip this and keep looking for a more "palatable" book!

A comprehensive guide to feeding your baby, loaded with misinformation, arrogant tones, and no credentials.

Ruth Yaron is a mother of two. She decided to write a book about what she fed her children.

She has some very good ideas for parties, healthier versions for fruit snacks, great manners in which to prepare baby food and offers loads of information about each fruit and vegetable. The advantages for making your own baby food are you can control what goes into the food. This is wonderful if you have children with allergies. Also, you can control the texture. When I fed my children homemade baby food, they seemed to adapt quicker and easier to new foods and table foods much easier than their friends who ate from store brands. Despite that my children are picky like everyone else's, they love fruits and vegetables and I get comments all the time on how well they eat.

Unfortunately, despite the wonderful potential this book has, it is also loaded with extra misinformation. Ruth Yaron recommends feeding nut butters as early as ten months of age. Most pediatricians (if not all) do not recommend giving children any food considered a high allergen until they are older. Imagine having an infant suffering from an anaphylactic reaction? Would you be able to identify one? Or would you feel safer following your doctor's advice and wait until your child is older where the symptoms would be easier to recognize? Also, she suggests feeding spinach and carrots early as well. Depending on where you are getting your spinach and carrots, they can be loaded with chemicals.

What adds to all of the misinformation in this book is the fact she writes with a patronizing attitude and has absolutely no official training outside of parenting. She is not a nutritionist, nor is she a dietician, and she is not even a doctor!

Then, as if that was not enough, she strays off topic from her book's title, Super Baby Food and suggests tie dying stained onesies, not owning an iron in the house as it may be too dangerous, making your own crayons, a section on bibs, and how to clean your house. Some readers may find this extra information as a bonus. I found this to be an annoyance. If I wanted a book on how to clean my house, I would have bought one. I wanted a book on feeding my baby. What she may have considered was renaming this book to suggest that these types of suggestions were included in this book, or come up with a second book.

Parenting is a tough job. No one wants to be told that what they are doing is wrong. Each child does not come with his own instruction manual. Then, you get this book where Ruth Yaron preaches her beliefs and basically infers if you do not raise your children her way, then you are not being a good parent. After reading this book, it would be really hard for any mother not to take her tone personally.

If you are an intelligent person who can sift through the information in this book, listen to your doctor and use your instinct for raising and feeding you child, than this is a good book. But, if you are a person that believes everything in print, and you plan to follow this book like it is the Bible, then this book could be dangerous to you.

My suggestion is for someone who is a registered nutritionist get together with a pediatrician, and revise this entire book. There are too many people out there that take everything at face value and do not research on their own. Having a book like this on the shelves was a wonderful idea yet it was poorly executed.

Good comprehensive information on cooking and storing fruits and veggies, and the monthly food intro charts are helpful. However, by 8 months my daughter was eating any food she could steal from my plate so I pretty much abandoned the recommended sequence!

I was concerned about some of the food choices, however. Since the book is intended as a lacto-ovo-vegetarian lifestyle, there are several highly allergenic substances, most notably nuts, that the author recommends including earlier than most pediatricians would permit. Also, the book does not indicate until halfway thru that it is intended as a vegeterian lifestyle, so if you plan to introduce meats to your baby or toddler it doesn't help much there (except to make you VERY paranoid about doing so!). The author's stance is clearly "anything prepackaged is bad." I chose to feed my daughter homemade baby food most of the time but we also did commercial foods which are MUCH more convenient when travelling or going out.

Also, many of the toddler recipes are just plain gross. I certainly wouldn't eat them, so why would I expect my child to! It's possible to eat a healthy diet without resorting to such draconian measures as putting brewers yeast and desiccated liver powder into a sort of soybean gruel for breakfast -- ugh! The information is not backed up by any sort of research, merely the author's chosen diet plan and the evidence that her children are healthy.

Also, some of the other "hints and tips" range from laughable to downright disturbing! Example: to make your own organic bug repellent, collect dead bugs from around the house, grind them in your blender, mix with water and put in a spray bottle! Hopefully this is NOT the same blender that the author recommends you grind your soybeans and brown rice in!