Born to Eat: Whole, Healthy Foods from Baby's First Bite

by Leslie Schilling, Wendy Jo Peterson

You don’t have to cook another entire meal to feed your baby, nor blend everything you eat into a mush to support healthy growth in an infant. With a little patience, presence, and skill, you can transform nearly any meal into a baby-friendly food. Who knew a little planning could have the whole family eating together and better?

In the past, humans thrived without “baby food” (which came about in the mid-nineteenth century). Think about it: the human race has made it this far largely on whole food. Only in recent decades have we begun overthinking and over-processing our foods, which has led to chronic dieting, chronic disease, disordered eating, body distrust, and epidemic confusion about the best way to feed ourselves and families. Eating is an innate skill that has been overcomplicated by marketing schemes and a dieting culture.

We, as humans, are Born to Eat, and it seems only natural for us to start at the beginning—babies are born to eat, too. When babies show signs of readiness for solid foods, they can eat what we eat and become healthy, happy eaters in the process. By honoring self-regulation (also an innate skill) and focusing on a whole food foundation, we foster healthier children and families.

Aside from the United States, almost every other country is accepting of this approach, known as baby-led weaning. With advice, instructions, and recipes from nutritionist and wellness experts Wendy Jo Peterson and Leslie Schilling, you can ensure that your infant is introduced to healthy and tasty food as early as possible.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Nutrition, Health, Cooking, Cookbooks

256 pages, Paperback

Published May 16, 2017

About the author

Leslie Schilling, MA, RDN, CEDS-S is a nationally recognized registered dietitian & nutrition therapist. Through her years as a nutrition professional, Leslie has practiced in many settings, including infant nutrition, general pediatrics, and children with special health care needs. In addition, she focuses her own private practice on counseling families, those of all ages with disordered eating issues, and professional athletes and performers. With her warm, compassionate, and entertaining personality, Leslie been featured in Women’s Health, BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post, USNews, Pregnancy Magazine, The Yoga Journal, and on HGTV.

Leslie owns Schilling Nutrition, a Las Vegas-based private nutrition and wellness coaching business. Leslie is a self-proclaimed anti-diet dietitian who teaches health through self-care and pleasurable eating. When she’s not counseling, writing, cooking, or hiking with her family; you can find Leslie using her social media channels and speaking platforms to deliver science-based, non-diet lifestyle and wellness messages with a dash of humor. Leslie the creator and co-author of Born To Eat.

Reviews

[Valen Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m new to this conversation and we haven’t started solid food introduction for our baby yet — don’t know how it will work with daycare and multiple caregivers — BUT I loved the ideas here and felt so empowered learning about intuitive eating, healthy body trust, joy in food, and self-regulation. This book challenged me to examine my relationship to food, American diet culture, and the American tendency to value efficiency and time in food over joy and connection. Made me want to read more about intuitive eating and circle back to some of Michael Pollan’s work that I’ve read in the past. Good stuff!

[Chloe (Always Booked) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book that explained the theory behind Born to Eat and what the benefits of baby led weaning are. The middle goes in to abilities at different stages and I enjoyed reading about where my daughter is and will reference the later parts when we get there. The end was recipes and the importance of the family table and while I think some of it was very helpful, the recipes are very meat focused and it didn’t seem very sensitive to people with whom a family table may not be possible. Overall I liked this a lot and will refer back to it as my daughter grows.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is more like what I thought Baby-Led Weaning by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett was going to be when I read it. The information is better and more up to date, the book is less repetitive, and the authors cite research to back things up. For those interested in BLW, I would recommend skipping straight to this, even if the illustrations and the tone are a little cheesy at times.
Read on eBook and paperback.

[Hannah Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good concepts that are presented well. I liked how research-based the approach was and good reference materials and making it doable. I don't agree with every aspect of their approach, but will probably use the basic concepts overall with my children.

[Cherie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of background info on WHY BLW and the nuts and bolts of it…I didn't find the recipes super inspiring but got some good ideas.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a good overall introduction to Baby Led Weaning/starting solids with whole foods.

I haven’t even started solids with my baby yet, so I was mainly looking for info on those very first few weeks. That’s only a small part of this book. There are lots of recipes at the back. but most of those are for older babies. I was hoping for more detailed instructions on how to prep their very first foods. It does talk about steaming vegetables.

I found some of this information contradicts other BLW resources. Katie Ferraro, for example, says their first meats should be shredded beef/pork/etc, never steak or things you have to cut into pieces. This book has a steak recipe and says to give it to beginners.

It’s still a good reference and I’ll probably continue to use as my baby gets older.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was actually a really good resource. I do feel like the beginning of the book had an over abundance of fluffy “you can do this!” But by part of 2, it really dove in to the technical nutritional info about why it recommends the foods that it does.

One of the things I really liked about this book is that it isn’t just nutritional info for your kiddo. It is a lot of that, but it also talks about the importance of parents/family having a healthier approach towards food. Feel like I actually learned a healthier approach towards food in addition to learning how to help foster a healthy environment for my kiddo to approach food.

Also - I listened to this - I’d recommend it sped up, but sped up southern accent works real well for the narrator 🤣

[Jeremy Duke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got kids? Feed them real food. Food you made. The same food you're eating. This book does a great job at breaking down the common sense above with rationale as to why and advice and ideas on how to achieve these goals. Coming up on two years old, our little buddy has been off the boob for a full year and eats what we eat, with us (generally). A lot of credit for that goes to this book.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I had to recommend one book on self-feeding, this is it. Super easy to read (albeit a bit cheesy with comics at times), split into sections to reference based on age/feeding development, recipes with tips on serving based on feeding development, AND very recent research. This book is based on the OG BLW book, which I also read, and just seems like a more accessible, helpful guide.

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't get me wrong, the message is great. But the book is fairly simple. At times, it sounds like a sales pitch. I think the whole book could have been reduced down to 5 chapters and would have been just as effective

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent resource for baby led weaning. The book covered what I was hoping it would in the first half. After that, I feel the book tried to cover too many other nutrition topics and didn’t keep me interested.

[Niccola Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as a Dietitian and first time mum in preparation for introducing solids to my baby.

So far this book is a little bit preachy rather than summarizing facts and evidence. I am hopeful of some practical advice.

[N N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful starter guide. Would have liked them to give more specific instructions on how to prep certain items (eg beans, lentils) to reduce choking hazard for infants. Some of the content was very very basic general nutrition info for anyone (not just babies) that I could have done without.

[Aliz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential book for new parents who want to know how to progress from milk/formula feeding to solid foods. The book is easy to read with practical suggestions.

[Nina LC · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you're weaning your baby this is the book to give you confidence and stay away from all the nay sayers

[Kari Heggen (checkedoutbooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good intro to Baby-Led Weaning

[N · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skimmed. Bit light on information

[Kennedy S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Repetitive about the “why” you should BLW. I am already sold on that - skip the how!

With that in mind - really good charts and easy to understand and use in practice.

[mraziyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and informative read about baby led weaning. I feel more confident to start feeding my baby solids when the time comes.

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this looking for tips on how to encourage my 8 month old to feed himself, but I did not find it helpful from a practical point of view.
It would be a useful book for someone who can't cook or eats a lot of junk food, but it recommends foods such as Nutella, ketchup and marmalade, so would not be so good for someone who already knows how to eat healthily.

[Grace]

This is the quickest I’ve read a non-fiction book. I think I finished it in about three sittings. It was easy to digest & covered everything you could expect and more. I’m grateful to have this book & to be able to use it as a guideline when I have kids. I feel solid about my knowledge on this aspect of parenting now ✅

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! A good follow up to the book “Intuitive Eating.”

[Kelsey Mouacheupao]

Very practical and informative.

[Jef · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who is about to have or looking to be a future parent this is a simple yet powerful insight into healthy eating habits and attitudes towards eating.

Provides some fun and easy recipes as well and an interesting read for someone who isn't yet considering becoming a parent