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Baby-led Weaning: Helping Your Baby to Love Good Food - Gill Rapley
by brokenangel As a first-time mother much of my current to-read pile consists of books about child development and various aspects of parenting. As my son (somewhat unbelievably to me) approached four months old I wanted to learn more about weaning. After hearing about baby led weaning from a health visitor at my local sure start centre I was keen to ... find out more about it. This specific book was recommended and lent to me by the leader of my postnatal NCT course. ** What is baby led weaning? ** Weaning is the gradual transition a baby makes from living on an entirely milk based diet to eating a typical diet based on solid food. Like most other topics surrounding babies and childcare, there is a great deal of debate between parents and experts over when and how this process should begin, develop and be completed. Essentially, baby led weaning happens when your baby is given solid food in a grab-able form (not purées) from 6 months and is allowed to gum / play with / eat as much or as little of it as they want. The idea is that they will gradually eat more and more but will remain 'in control' of their food and will eat to suit their appetite while experiencing a range of textures and tastes. This differs from the 'usual' approach of parents spoon-feeding their babies puréed foods alongside selected finger foods. In 'conventional' weaning parents decide when the baby is ready for solid food and which solid foods they are ready for. In baby led weaning the baby 'decides' (although of course the parents still provide the options). The key difference between this approach and a more conventional one is that Rapley and Murkett advocate avoiding purées entirely. In fact, they are rather evangelical about it, suggesting that baby-led weaning has myriad benefits and no real flaws while stating that purées have numerous flaws and scarcely any benefits. It is a shame that their approach is so strict as it seems very likely to alienate some readers in its totalitarian approach and exaggeration of the benefits (of finger foods) and flaws (of purées). After all, given that most adults alive today will have been weaned using some puréed food it seems exaggerated to claim, as these authors do, that feeding these to babies increases the risk of diabetes, obesity and fussy eating. ** Why the change of strategy? ** The authors argue that conventional weaning methods are the result of babies being weaned too early in recent decades. They give a short history of official advice from the 1900's to now with some explanation of how and why the advice has changed. I found the history very interesting and it helped me to understand why some people say that you can wean from four months old and others say you shouldn't start weaning until six months old. The current advice from the Department of Health and the World Health Organisation is that all babies should be fed on an exclusively milk diet until they are six months old. This is because milk is specially formulated to provide babies with all their nutritional needs up til this point and their developing reflexes and gut may not be quite ready to handle solid food until this time. The authors of this book state that if you are feeding a baby solid food from six months rather than four months, they should be physically developed enough to start handling it themselves, rather than needing it to be mashed up. Rapley and Murkett also claim a wide range of benefits from using baby-led weaning, although some of these are a little dubious. For instance, they insist that baby-led weaning is less time consuming for parents because, rather than spending 'hours' creating purées they can simply feed the baby the same food they are eating. This sounds quite reasonable, until you think it through. My diet isn't perfect and although I enjoy cooking I do make frequent use of ready made sauces, pies and filled pastas. In order to minimise a baby's exposure to salt, all these kinds of foods should be home-made and any salt added at the table. Less time-consuming? Similarly, the authors state that eating out in restaurants will be easier because, rather than asking the restaurant to heat up jars of baby food, you can just feed the baby from your plate or even order them a small dish or let them share some tapas style dishes with you. Again, this seems disingenuous. How difficult is it to ask a restaurant to heat up a jar? How difficult might it be to order a baby friendly meal with no salt, limited sugar and food cut into appropriate shapes for the baby to grip? By insisting so hard on these kinds of advantages the authors actually undermine their own argument, which is a shame. There are definite advantages to baby-led weaning, not least the fact that it might make parents eat more healthily and enjoy more fresh fruit and vegetables, but there are also some difficulties and it would be better to acknowledge and address these. Instead, they create multiple 'benefits' by stating that (a) families can enjoy eating together and that (b) babies won't have to eat alone. Spot the difference? The demonisation of spoon-feeding is also problematic. The authors equate spoon-feeding with force-feeding and are insistent that it leads to unhappy babies and stressful mealtimes. I am sure that this can be the case, and equally sure that it is not always the case. Parents who have previously spoon-fed children may justly feel offended by the implication that they were in some way harming their children. Perhaps to mitigate such feelings, there are many statements throughout the book from parents who struggled with spoon-feeding. Does anyone really need this book? You may be wondering whether this approach is really so new and unique that a book is required to discuss it. This is a worthwhile question and, if you've already happily weaned children using purées or a mixture of purées and finger foods then you may feel you have very little to gain from reading this. However, if you are a first time parent considering your options or an experienced parent who would like to consider a change in strategy then this book may be of use to you. Personally I found it very interesting reading and I found that it seemed to involve a lot of common sense. For instance, babies love to copy their parents, so surely they would rather copy how and what their parents are eating. However, I would question the length of the book. The basic principles are easy to grasp and I quickly became impatient with the endless repetition of the basic points re-worded and explained under slightly different subheadings. There are only 256 pages, but this is about 200 pages more than necessary. Once you grasp the idea that babies can be fed almost everything you eat if it is suitably presented and prepared, you only really need a bit of guidance regarding preparation. Presumably the reader is already interested in the concept of baby-led weaning or they would never have picked up a book with this title, so it seems rather pointless to repeatedly oversell the benefits of this way of feeding. There are a few Q and A sections and a final troubleshooting chapter which constantly refer to earlier parts of the book. This is because the vast majority of the answers involve repetition of earlier chunks of the book. This is not surprising since the questions are the same throughout. In fact, I can sum up all these exchanges as follows: Q: "My _ month old is playing with her food / not eating a lot. I / my partner / my parents (in law) are worried that s/he may not be getting enough nutrition." A: "Milk is a baby's primary food until they are 1 year old. They go through phases and may eat less food at times. You need to trust them to eat what they need." After a while this becomes rather boring and I skimmed the trouble shooting section in seconds rather than minutes, learning little that was new. I did appreciate the BLW stories interspersed throughout the book. These are anecdotes from a variety of parents who have tried this method of feeding and found it worked well for them (unsurprisingly, given the focus of this book). I found the anecdotes reassuring as there were clearly a number of people other than the rather insistent authors who had found this a viable and indeed positive way to feed their children. It is important to note that this is a guide to the theory and practice of weaning and not a recipe book. Rapley has subsequently published a baby led weaning cookbook which can be purchased separately. (I find this interesting since Rapley and Murkett insist in this book that special recipes are not required...) ** My baby is precious... Can I trust the advice this book gives? ** The only difference between this book and the department of health advice is the embargo on purées. I do not believe there is anything dangerous being advised here and the authors are clear that, if you have any concerns about your child's eating or weight then you should see your child's GP. Although I feel that the benefits of this way of weaning are over stressed and the possible difficulties minimised, the advice given is largely common sense and would be safe to follow. I was a little disappointed by the lack of references and research based information in the book. While I found that almost everything the authors wrote appealed to my common sense, I was conscious throughout that nothing they say has been independently, scientifically verified and tested. In fact, the 'references' section of the book is laughably short, containing a mere nine references, two of which are to Rapley's previous publications on this topic and one of which is a dictionary definition. In an attempt to gain credibility, there is a short section titled 'the history of baby-led weaning' which explains that this theory essentially arose from Rapley's work as a health visitor for twenty years and her research for her masters dissertation. Clearly she has a lot of practical knowledge in this field, which I found reassuring, but there is rather a lot of guesswork. Baby led weaning may / could / might / possibly / seems to have certain effects and strengths, (these words are used exhaustively throughout the book,) but in the end this is an anecdotal and theoretical book rather than one based on solid research and data. If that makes you uncomfortable then this isn't the book for you. ** Is it worth buying? ** £10.99 feels costly for a paperback, especially one that's so repetitive. However, it is comprehensive and offers a great deal of reassurance to parents trying this way of weaning. If you think baby-led weaning might suit you then this is probably the best book on the topic to read, written as it is by the lady who developed the theory behind the practice, but I would advise borrowing this from a library or buying a cheaper copy, perhaps second-hand, to check that you find this useful enough to invest in. There are lists of suitable first foods and there is clear advice about allergies and nutrition. Overall, this is a thorough guide to the topic and nothing has been left out. I am planning to try baby led weaning myself, although I do not intend to religiously avoid pureed food, and I am seriously considering buying a copy of this - although not for nearly £11! Read this if: - you are keen to try baby-led weaning and would like to know what it's all about; - you are happy to adopt a common sense approach that is logical but has only anecdotal evidence to support it; - you have a grandchild / nephew / godchild whose parents are following baby-led weaning and you are concerned about their development / nutrition. Avoid this if: - you find yourself irritated by repetition and bias; - you prefer to choose parenting strategies that are supported by scientific data and widely published research; - you find yourself irritated by repetition and bias. Read the complete review |
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Baby-led Weaning: Helping Your Baby to Love Good Food - Gill Rapley
by sarahrichmond5 As a mum of 3 I was eager to get my hands on this book as I had weaned both previous babies at 4 months but was now told by the health visitor I had to wait until 6 months. The book challenges all the previous things you are taught if you have previously had a baby. In a nut shell it says you should now feed your ... baby a milk only diet and then skip out the mushy pureed baby food and go straight onto giving your baby the same food as you eat. When I began my research into Baby led weaning I discovered that in fact this method had been around for some time and was now acknowledged by some health professionals. The basics of it are that when a baby is ready to sit unsupported you can try offer finger foods eg a breadstick, toast, stem of broccoli etc. The baby then only puts what it wants into its mouth and as by the age of 6 months they are able to chew it means they can chew food and swallow it rather than have mush force fed to them as has previously been done. The idea is that babies will eat only how much they want so this will help reduce obesity and also they should have confidence to try a bigger variety of foods, it also gets babies involved with family mealtimes right from the start so they benefit socially aswell. This book is great and explains the 'baby-led weaning' im much more detail. It is broken into two parts - Part 1 - baby led weaning and part 2 - The recipes. Within Part 1 are the following chapters:- Chapter 1- Baby led weaning the basics Chapter 2 - How babies learn to feed themselves Chapter 3 - How to do baby-led weaning Chapter 4 - What to eat Chapter 5 - Making mealtimes simple Part 2 is then full of recipes and explains how to get started the recipes are all in different sections to make it easy eg soups, mains, fish, vegetable based etc. The book is very readable and has pictures throughout which makes it good and easy to read through. You can use the book as a point of reference and just keep going back to it if you are unsure about anything. The recipes are great as they can be used for all the family so gone are the days where you have to spend ages making separate meals for your baby. I would recommend this book it's a great source of reference and also a practical cookery book, well worth a read. Read the complete review |
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Yummy Little Cookbook - Rebecca Gilpin
by milliesmum123 My daughter adores anything sweet! Whenever we go shopping we always end up popping into a bakery for a treat but recently we have started to bake our own. When she is at school she comes home with all kinds of treats that they make at school and so I thought it was time we began to make our own things too! I was bought this book by my ... mum for Christmas and it's lovely! So simple and straight forward so easy for me too! Baking I am hopeless at baking, I always get great ideas and believe I am some wonder chef and then when it comes down to it I'm hopeless. There is something really nice about baking though, the smell it fills your home with is just something which is always appealing! I think baking is quite an important skill to learn, I never did any really and it's made me realise how rubbish at it I really am, maybe if I'd have done more with my mum when I was little I would be better so I think it's nice to bake with my little girl now. The book This is a little book aimed at young children to get them interested in baking. Saying this though everything within this book is perfectly edible and appealing to adults too so it's not just a childish book. It is split into sections so that you can see various things such as a Christmas section and an Easter one too. There is also a chapter on wrapping and storage which is nice as it shows you how you can wrap them up nicely and give them as gifts. I must admit the ideas are very simple yet I hadn't thought of them! The recipes vary from very, very simple things to a little bit more difficult. I wouldn't say any are very challenging but it will depend upon how expert you are in the kitchen. The easiest recipe in my opinion is one which is dipping fruits in melted chocolate. That is very straight forward and then a more difficult one is making a big Easter cake and decorating it. The recipes are easy to follow with pictures giving you a step by step guide with simple written instructions too. There are a few safety things pointed out such as to make sure you wear oven gloves at one time and so forth which makes it show that it is aimed at children but really this isn't any different from a normal recipe book. All of the recipes you can make are appealing to children because they are very bright and attractive. They are all also very yummy too. One of the sections which is popular in our house is the chocolate and sweet section which shows you a variety of recipes to make yummy finger foods. We have made the chocolate dipped fruit, coconut ice and the chocolate truffles. All of the recipes were easy enough to follow and all ingredients were easy to get from our local supermarket. There wasn't anything that I hadn't heard of. All of the recipes have parts in it which children can be involved in. There is no way that my little girl could do any of these on her own, we always make them together will me doing about 70% of the work as she can't do it but she is able to get involved in about 30% of the things which is usually the stirring, rolling, helping to put on an oven tray and so forth. Although I do most of the work my daughter still feels really involved and really loves making them. She helps to follow the instructions and the pictures are very clear so it's easy for her to do so. Education Both my daughter and I have learnt lots since we have had this book. When we first got it I told her to go through the book and choose something she liked the look of and we'd bake it. We now have worked through several. It has helped to teach me very simple recipes but also some which are a little more complex but we have managed it! My daughter has learnt a lot about baking, she has been able to be hands on and has learnt about how putting ingredients together and doing various tasks then leads to a lovely creation. It has also taught her about patience too as some of the recipes involve a lot of waiting- the chocolate truffles for example need to have a 20 minute wait and then a further 90 minutes before you can complete them so she has learnt that things do not always happen right away which is an important lesson. I think learning about food is really important, it helps us to be more aware of what we eat and how it is made. I think it is an important skill to have too and I hope that both myself and my daughter will learn some good baking skills from this book. My little girl has also learnt some basic kitchen safety too, she already knew lots about not touching knives and going near the oven and so forth but I think using this book has really helped her to understand why, she's able to see first hand the processes which take place. Fun Baking should be fun! Baking should be very fun when you're young especially and this book does make it fun! It helps because everything in this book is so appealing and bright and yummy! It isn't a book that's pretending to be healthy and trying to force low fat/low calorie options at you and I like it for that. There's nothing healthy in this book but that's fine! Because everything is so appealing it makes it look so much more exciting. My daughter loves sitting with this book and going through the pages choosing which thing she'll make next. We also have fun then finding the ingredients and ticking off our shopping list as we go. Baking together is really fun, we love watching our recipes come to life and then especially enjoy testing them afterwards! We haven't tried any of the wrapping options yet as we haven't made any for presents but I think when it comes round to Christmas time we will be making use of this section and I imagine that will be even more entertaining too. Conclusion This is a book which will help your children get into baking without it taxing you too. If you are an experienced baker then this book will appeal because your children need to be eased in gently but there is still plenty of scope and inspiring recipes. If you don't know how to bake very well then this is also appealing to you because the recipes are very easy to follow and the majority of them are very easy. I love this book as it is so varied, it has lots of ideas in it which I never would have thought of. Previously we just made buns or rice crispie cakes but now we make chocolate truffles and flap jacks! The majority of the recipes are for small items so you can also help your children with portion control too, nothing is healthy but at least they are only small. This is a really lovely book which will help children learn about the joy of baking in a really friendly and enjoyable way. We highly recommend it especially as you don't need lots of fancy equipment or a huge baking knowledge to make the recipes. They taste yummy too! Read the complete review |
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Author: Russell Norman / Cookbook / Hardcover / 320 Pages / Book is published 2012-07-05 by Bloomsbury Publishing |
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Genre: Food & Drink / Cookbook / Dieting / Author: Rose Elliot / Edition: New edition / Hardcover / 240 Pages / Book is published 2012-07-05 by Collins |
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Genre: Cook Book / Cookbook / Author: Reza Mahammad / Illustrated Hardcover / Publication Date: 2012 / Publisher: Quadrille Publishing Ltd |
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2 reviews Genre: Food & Drink / Cookbook / Dieting / Author: Rachel Allen / Hardcover / 352 Pages / Book is published 2011-09-08 by Collins |
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Genre: Food & Drink / Cookbook / Dieting / Author: Rick Stein / Paperback / 208 Pages / Book is published 2011-01-06 by BBC Books |
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Genre: Food & Drink / Cookbook / Dieting / Author: Roger Protz / Edition: Revised edition / Paperback / 888 Pages / Book is published 2011-09-15 by CAMRA Books |
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1 review Genre: Food & Drink / Cookbook / Dieting / Author: Gill Rapley, Tracey Murkett / Edition: Revised / Hardcover / 192 Pages / Book is published 2011-03-22 by Experiment |
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1 review Genre: Food & Drink / Cookbook / Dieting / Author: Levi Roots / Hardcover / 208 Pages / Book is published 2010-08-02 by Mitchell Beazley |
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1 review Genre: Food & Drink / Cookbook / Dieting / Author: Michel Roux / 304 pages / Book published 2008-10-03 by Quadrille Publishing Ltd |
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ISBN 0316905593 / Cookbook / Genre: Food & Drink / Dieting / Author: Albert Roux / Co-Author: Michel Roux / 253 pages / Book is published 9 Sep 1993 by Little, Brown & Company |
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