Makes Introducing Food To Your Baby Easy (Annabel Karmel's Superfood for Babies and Children - Annabel Karmel)

Member Name: soutram

Product:	Annabel Karmel's Superfood for Babies and Children - Annabel Karmel
Date:	30/07/09 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent meal planners and easy to make recipes

Disadvantages: None

A few weeks ago I was starting to think about how I start introducing my little girl to food, personally I found the thought of it a bit daunting, I didn't have a clue on what I should be feeding her, when I should give it to her or even how much she should have. I ended up talking to my sister in law about it as she has two children and she said she had a great book she would lend me which would tell me everything I needed to know.

The book she gave me was Annabel Karmel's Super Foods for Babies and Children. One evening I sat down and started to have a read through it, I found the book a very interesting read, it starts off by explaining that your child needs a balanced diet and if you introduce lots of flavors when they are young then they won't be such fussy eaters when they are older.

The book explains which vitamins you get from each group of food and how they can help boost immune systems etc, it tells you all about growth foods (protein), brain foods (Natural starches, Iron and Fatty Acids) and energy boosting foods (carbohydrates). It explains why each of these sections are important to the development of your child. I found these sections very interesting to read, I just didn't realize that certain foods contain such goodness.

Everyone starts feeding there baby at different time, this book has a feeding plan that starts at four months, this is the earliest they recommend you introduce food. The first section is for 4-6 months, it explains which foods are best for your baby and which foods to avoid, it explains all about what to do if your baby rejects a certain food, how much to give your baby, what temperature and gives you a list of everything you will need to enable you to feed your baby.

Next the book has meal planners, the first one is for the first two weeks, you give you baby their normal milk and for one meal a day (lunch time) you give them food, it tells you exactly what to give them so for example day one is baby rice, day two is apple day three carrot etc. Then weeks 3 and 4 you feed your baby twice a day (breakfast & tea) and again it tells you what to give them and after week four you give them three meals a day.

The book has all the recipes you need to follow the meal planners, it gives you all the ingredients and exactly how to make it (most of the recipes make up to six portions so you have to make sure you have lots of pots to enable you to freeze what you have left). It even has no cook recipes for those meals where you just don't have the time to cook food. The meals are incredibly varied; they range from simple apple to dried apricot with banana or mixed root vegetable puree, I must admit some don't look very appetizing but my baby girl has not refused any of them yet.

The next section is 6 - 9 months, its all about exploring new tastes and textures, again it has a couple of pages explaining which foods are good to give then at this stage and why and also has a section on how to ensure your babies teeth are looked after. You also have the meal planner in this section which again gives you an idea of what meals to give your child.

The book continues the same way until your child is three years plus, I doubt anyone would follow the book religiously for that long but it does have a vast amount of recipes which are very easy to make and which give you child all the goodness they need so it is definitely a book I will be keeping on a shelf and referring to occasionally to get meal ideas.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is thinking of introducing food to their child, it made the whole process so easy for me, what I thought was going to be a nightmare thing to do turned out to be so easy end enjoyable.

You can get the book from Amazon for £9.50 new or for £4.70 used and some of the money goes to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.

Summary: This book made introducing food to my baby easy and enjoyable, I highly recommend it