I brought this book when I was about 20 weeks pregnant as it was £5 in asda in their sale, and didn't really give it much thought after that. I didn't really know who Annabel Karmel was and what she did.
I read this book towards the end of my pregnancy and thought that looks like a good book with lots of healthy homemade recipes for my baby.
I have always wanted to give my baby the best start with breastfeeding and homemade purees/foods, I didn't really want to buy in jarred foods and had read that jars of baby food can have a shelf life of 2 years or more, so cannot possibly contain anywhere near as much goodness as a meal that has been freshly prepared with fresh ingredients, really made me want to make my own food for my baby.
I liked the way the book was set out and set up into sections:
Introduction: giving an insight to weaning, baby's needs, foods to avoid, allergies and other really helpful information. It was veery useful for me to have it there in black and white to go back and refer to it if I got stuck.
First Stage weaning (6 Months): There are lots of vegetable and fruit purees, some you would think well I could have made that without the book, for example apple puree, but these were just the start recipes. The purees then built up into having 2 vegetables etc.
What was useful was the little tips on each page, so it may say, "carrots contain beta-carotene which is good for...."
After first tastes (6-7 months): Chicken and fish is introduced in this section, and my daughter loves the lovely lentils recipe.

Second Stage Weaning (7-9 months): introduces more ingredients and texture
Growing Independence ( 9 - 12 Months): recipes such as stews, Bolognese etc with more lumps.


I didn't really get to this stage at first as I had already introduced lumps really early on as she wanted the lumps, but I also brought the AK complete meal planner for babies and toddler, which had a lot more recipes in it.
Also my one of my dogs decided the book itself tasted quite yummy and chewed up half of it, so I now only have half a chewed book!
I have since gone back to the book along with the other book I brought and change my daughter's recipes each week so she gets a huge variety of food.
Not once has she refused any of the purees or recipes from either book, and she has always had every last spoon.
All recipes have been easy to make and straight forward and I make batches of the food up too so we have enough in.