Customer Reviews

Superfoods: For Babies and Children

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I don't know about you, but peanut butter sandwiches meal after meal, with an occasional dose of macaroni and cheese, just doesn't float my boat. How do the kids stand it? And is there anything that we can do to get them out of the chicken nuggets rut?

Let me hear a chorus of a resounding "YES!"

Enter SuperFoods for Babies and Children, a cookbook that gives more than kid-friendly recipes--it gives hope, encouragement and direction. Annabel Karmel (with a last name like Karmel you know a cookbook has to be good) breaks her book into age-appropriate food selection and introduction and the recipes to make it happen.

By the time the children turn three, they have been introduced to a wide variety of foods that even tempt an adult pallet. As if this isn't enough, every page has a sidebar that gives nutritional information nuggets like: "Raspberries contain ellagic acid, which can help protect us against cancer," next to the recipe that will make our kids eat them. She also has a key that indicates whether a recipe can be frozen, or is suitable for vegetarian.

SuperFoods for Babies and Children inspired me to try just a little harder to get my family to eat better. She gives such good, realistic information and tempting meal ideas that even this mother, who has fought the food battle for years, is ready to go the rounds again. And you know what? Yesterday's trip to the store yielded a cartful of produce that the kiddos happily munched all afternoon. That gets my two thumbs up.

Armchair Interviews says: An inspiring and fun cookbook for all ages.

With my first child I bought the usual baby food in jars and watched her make horrified faces when I put food into her mouth (except fruit of course) I didn't know a book like this existed. These recipes are absolutely fabulous! My second child loves everything I give her from this book. She hasn't refused anything yet - not even spinach with mushrooms and potato. Some of the recipes do require a bit of cooking, but usually nothing over 10-20 minutes and then I have enough for the rest of the month. She has been introduced to so many healthy nutritious foods that I couldn't otherwise give her because they don't come in jars. Easy, delicious - and the books has recipes for toddlers and older kids too.

I love this cookbook!

It starts out with purees and moves up to small bites and eventually to full fledge meals. Every recipe is healthy and tasty! You won't find boring bland foods here! She has curry recipes, thai curry, chicken and rice. And, she even has recipes for the vegetarian eater.

It seems she has a recipe for what I usually cook anyway. But, hers have less spice. My husband is from India so curries and rice dishes are the norm. But, with all the complex spices my son has a rough time of it. He has no problem with these. He just gulps them down.

He's six months old and eating avacados. I would have never tried this before. I don't know why, just wouldn't have thought about it. I think other recipes, like the mini vegetable burgers would be great for the young eater too. Because they are soft enough to chew. You just have to watch and cut in small pieces.

I would recommend this to everyone!

Beware if you are buying this book for an infant starter to solid foods! the first chapter starts off by giving a new solid food everyday of the first week, whereas most pediatricians recommend 1 new solid every 3-5 days to ensure there is no reaction from the child. The author starts by giving rice cereal on day 1 and moving onto apples day 2 and carrots day 3. Quickly jumping to the 7-9 months section of the book, she lists some "tooth friendly snacks" for our little ones teething and with new teeth...some of her suggestions are "cream cheese with mini bread sticks, mini sandwiches with peanut butter or egg salad, vegetable sticks on their own or with dip" just to list a few. some of these items are choking hazards, let alone peanut allergy issues with some pediatricians not recommending peanut foods until children are well into their toddler years.
the book is cute and has great recipes for older kids, as well as purees for the more experience solid food eating baby. This book is not nearly as good as some other baby "first" solids books available.

First the good: It's a good starter book for ideas..It didn't occur to me to saute chicken with onions, celery and garlic then puree for my son...so this is more than just a "puree peaches, then serve" kind of book. There is some of that but also actual dishes I would prepare for myself. I also REALLY liked that each recipe indicated if the food was suitable for freezing--important to me for the convenience.

Then the bad: Many of the recipes include foods that are HIGHLY allergenic-strawberries, peanuts/peanut butter, wheat. SHe does mention that these are allergenic but in the back AFTER the nutrition introduction and recipies, a place where it could be easily missed.

There are many things that I love about this book. First, I appreciate the straightforward information on nutrition; in the margins next to recipes she adds quick info on certain ingredients such as "this fruit has fats that are good for you (speaking of avocados)," or "this vegetable has great antioxidants." She presents information in a stepwise process; as in, after you introduce these first tastes, try these other fruits/veggies that are not as easy to accept such as zucchini and cauliflower. There are no-cook recipes as well as recipes with the option of steaming versus boiling the fruits/veggies first. My favorite no-cook recipe is bananas and avocados pureed together which has a mild sweet flavor and neither fruit is cooked so that the nutrients stay intact. There are a great number of recipes with beautiful photos, a must for any cookbook. I have only tried the purees so far because my baby is only 7 months old. He does not love everything that I make but he loves many of the recipes so I am satisfied. And there are such a great variety with fruit mix purees, vegetables mix purees, chicken and fruit/veggie purees, beef and veggies, lamb casserole, etc. I do not anticipate that I will go through the trouble to make funny animal shapes with the foods when my baby is bigger and able to appreciate it, but I think this book will still be useful for the basic pasta sauces and other "basic" recipes that it presents. Some recipes are time consuming, but I spend an average of 3 hours every 2 weeks to make 2 weeks worth of baby food (this includes clean-up time). Overall, a worthwhile endeavor because the foods you make will be so much healthier and fresher than the babyfoods you buy which are made to have a shelf life of YEARS. I have her other book "Top 100 purees" which is also a good book though not as complete as this one.

I just received this book, which I ordered because of the great reviews. After glancing through it, I'm very tempted to return it.

The recipes in this book are not appropriate for babies. For instance, she has you feeding red meat to 6 month old babies, saying that they need more iron and this is the best source. Red meat is more difficult to digest than fruits and vegetables, and due to the high protein which can put a strain on little kidneys, my pediatrician recommends waiting until 11-12 months. Better sources of iron are Swiss chard, spinach, broccoli, applesauce, etc.

In the 7-9 month section she has fish. Seafood is a major allergen for many children, and should not be given to children until 14-16 months of age. She also has many recipes in this section containing cheese...dairy is another major allergen that should not be introduced until at least 1 year. The same thing with tomatoes, which are not appropriate at this age.

In the 9-12 month section she ads in many recipes containing white rice, white bread crumbs and white pasta. Instead, these should have brown rice, whole grain breads and pastas (if your babies are eating wheat yet, which they shouldn't be doing until 14-16 months of age). There are also recipes in this section containing sugar. One in particular contains raspberries, peaches, ice cream and sugar. There is no reason a baby of this age should have dairy foods (unless they are human milk, formula or goat yogurt), let alone ice cream. And refined sugar shouldn't be fed to any child, let alone a baby.

I'm so disappointed in this book. I have several pregnant friends that I thought about giving this to, but I wouldn't want them feeding their baby these foods! My 10 month old son is doing great eating his millet with raspberries for breakfast, avacado with rainbow chard for lunch and carrots with sweet potato for dinner (this was just today's menu...he also gets homemade applesauce, green beans, lima beans, squash, pumpkin, banana, mango and many other healthy foods). I was just hoping for some more ideas and variety.

I hope this review keeps other people from making the same mistake. I much prefer "Simply Natural Baby Food: Easy Recipes for Delicious Meals Your Infant and Toddler Will Love" by Cathe Olson.

This is one of the best books I've read on infant /child nutrition. While many of the recipes are probably not as easy as she makes them seem (I can't imagine taking the time to arrange fruit on a plate to resemble a fish while my toddler is screaming because he wants to eat NOW) there is so much information on general nutrition and healthy eating habits. The book is arranged by stages of development and each stage contains a sample weekly meal plan to make the transition easier.

And while there is a slight bias towards organic foods, home cooking & vegetarianism, the author never makes the reader feel guilty about not living up to "Super Mom" status. Instead, she applauds every effort a parent makes to raise healthy children

The book itself is beautiful; the large color photos are enticing. I only wish it was spiral bound so it would lay flat.

This book has excellent recipes. I have not used much of it yet because it is more appropriate for toddlers. My baby is still 10 months old. What is excellent about this book is that the recipes can be made for the entire family. The recipes are excellent tasting! I have Anabelle's other book and several of the recipes in that book are included in this book. That is the only thing I did not like about purchasing both books. The baby purees are the same in both books. I think I could have just purchased this one since it has recipes from first foods to toddler foods.
You will not regret purchasing this book. Recipes are easy to make and freeze well. Your entire family will enjoy these delicious meals. I only wish I had purchased this sooner so my baby would have eaten this from the beginning. Initially she did not want to eat the meals because she was not used to so much flavor. But it only took a few tries and now she loves all meals I make her. My suggestion is to make the vegetable or chicken broth to use in the recipes. The broth will keep well in the refrigerator for a week. The meals come out tasting much better with the broth.
Also make sure you use a good food processor when making the purees. It will certainly make an enormous difference in the food textures.
You will love this book and your baby will too:o)

I simultaneously purchased this book and two others by Ms. Karmel. There are great recipes in all three; however, some of the same recipes are repeated in each book. Had I known that, perhaps I would only have purchased the one for infant recipes and the one for family recipes and not this one that's kind of 'in the middle' of the spectrum.