A question posed on my neighborhood list serve about feeding toddlers caught my eye.
Hello moms,
I am looking for a book that discusses eating, behavior, learning (everything) on raising a 12 m growing boy.
This is the fourth time I had heard this question in as many weeks, so I thought that my reply might be worthy of a blog post.
My favorite book about what to feed toddlers is Ruth Yaron’s “Super Baby Food“.
It was my go-to bible for many years and I still use it as a reference source even though my kids now eat just about anything adults eat. She has great suggestions and recipes for everything from baby food purees to healthy finger foods and snacks.
One of the things I found most helpful in this book was the schedule for introducing babies to new foods. Even if she doesn’t inspire you to prepare your own wholesome baby food, you’ll get great ideas for making healthy and nutritious toddler foods.
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I liked her book when I had a baby to feed, but there are many dangerous recipes in there if your family has any history at all of food allergies.
But, if you avoid the ones you disagree with, there are still many good ones that are good ideas.
As far as tone goes, I take what I like and ignore the rest. I figure it was *my* way or the highway when it came to feeding my child so her tone didn’t bother me much.
As always, I enjoy your posts!
Hi Lisa – thanks for reading!
I felt the same way with every baby instruction book I ever read: take what works and feels right for you and your baby and use it to suit your needs.
If your baby suffers from allergies, you will learn to be extra cautious when introducing any new food, of course, and modify any recommendations to exclude what you believe to be unacceptable. However, the great majority of the population (more than 90%)do not experience anaphylactic allergic reactions to any foods.
What I’ve learned in my research is that ANY substance can cause a hypersensitivity reaction in a sensitive person, not just or only the usual suspects of peanuts, shellfish, etc. I see children in my practice who are sensitive to rice, for example, which is traditionally considered one of the safest first foods for babies. As a result, I no longer believe there are any hard-and-fast rules for avoiding allergic reactions before the allergen is identified (see my post “How to Decrease, Asthma, Allergies” for more about this).
Like you, I believe that as a parent, you always have to choose what you think is best for your unique child. 🙂
I gotta say, I could not get past her tone. I had a hard time sifting through her “it’s this way or you’re doing it wrong” attitude. I also felt like it could have benefited from a better editor as it was scattered. I just popped onto Amazon to read some of the reviews to make sure I am not remembering a different book (it’s been two years since I last looked through it), and was struck by what one reviewer said: “The organization of the book is astoundingly bad. There is hardly a single page that does not refer you to another page which in turn sends you to an appendix or yet another page. It is mind boggling how this got past an editor…”
That being said, I think she surely had a lot of good ideas and solutions in the book. You just have to take it with a grain of salt, so to speak, and remember to always check with your pediatrician before heavily supplementing your child’s diet, etc.
That’s funny — I read it from cover to cover almost 9 years ago and never had a problem with the organization or editing…and I actually liked her tone. I’m learning that people either love her or hate her!
As with everything, you add to your information bank and use all of your knowledge to make your own decisions.