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Feeding Baby Green: The Earth Friendly Program for Healthy, Safe Nutrition During Pregnancy, Childhood, and Beyond

Alan Greene

3.83 · Rating details · 123 ratings · 30 reviews

The new "baby feeding bible" from the award-wining author of Raising Baby Green

Called the "Al Gore of Parenting" by Parenting Magazine, Dr. Alan Greene has written the follow up to his best-selling book and offers parents a definitive guide for making nutritionally-sound decisions for their children. Offers parents green choices for feeding children from when they are in ...more

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Paperback, 296 pages

Published October 1st 2009 by Jossey-Bass (first published 2009)

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May 29, 2017 Erica rated it really liked it

I enjoyed the author's general philosophies about childcare and appreciated how he explains how to work with your child's development to encourage healthy eating. ...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Lorilin rated it really liked it

Shelves: parenting

I ordered this book because I really enjoyed reading Raising Baby Green. Feeding Baby Green actually covers a lot of the same information covered in Raising Baby Green, but goes into a bit more detail. I pretty much skipped the whole first section on what to eat during pregnancy, since Raising Baby Green already covered the topic.

Overall, the book is practical and useful. I especially liked that Dr. Greene covered formula/bottle feeding. I had not expected to need that section, but after having ...more

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Jul 21, 2015 Paul Smolen rated it it was amazing

In today’s discussion, I am gong to add another book review pedcast to the menu, based on the book Feeding Baby Green: the Earth-Friendly Program for Healthy, Safe Nutrition by Dr. Alan Greene. My first encounter with Dr. Greene was while cutting the grass and listening to the National Public Radio show The People’s Pharmacy. (http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/) I heard Dr. Greene talk about a variety of pediatric topics in this particular episode, and I was simply blown away. Articulate, informati In today’s discussion, I am gong to add another book review pedcast to the menu, based on the book Feeding Baby Green: the Earth-Friendly Program for Healthy, Safe Nutrition by Dr. Alan Greene. My first encounter with Dr. Greene was while cutting the grass and listening to the National Public Radio show The People’s Pharmacy. (http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/) I heard Dr. Greene talk about a variety of pediatric topics in this particular episode, and I was simply blown away. Articulate, informative, and cutting edge ideas. I had to hear more, so I bought his first of 2 books entitled “Feeding Baby Green.” Here is my review of his book. Dr. Greene is a Princeton graduate and Stanford pediatrician who has made it his mission to change much of what we do with children, especially the way we feed them. His goals are both to improve the nutritional quality and variety of foods that babies and children eat and to do it in an environmentally sensitive manner (hence the term Green in the title). He outlines all this in his 8 steps to gaining “Nutritional Intelligence.” He introduced me to some new concepts by including a lot of research that I frankly had never heard. For example, Dr. Greene contends that babies start developing an affinity for flavors and tastes starting before they are born and continuing through the first year of life. He argues that the reason that toddlers almost always become picky eaters is biologically based, a reflex that is called “neophobia” that keeps them from eating strange vegetation that may be poisonous. He argues that if a child’s palate isn’t familiar with a taste by the time they become a toddler, their diet is likely to be very limited: hence the modern dilemma many parents find themselves in with a toddler who will only eat a few low quality processed foods. Why shouldn’t they, he says; they were fed processed, bland food as their first foods all during their first year. We programed them to eat that way, so to speak. He wants all the rules to change. No baby food, no processed bland food, rather a variety of whole foods that come at your infant like a freight train hitting top speed. No one new food at a time, no 3 days between new foods, no tasteless processed food simply mashed up, but instead flavorful, organically grown, fresh, locally grown foods fed to your baby starting at 4-9 months. Dr. Greene argues that repetition during an infant’s flavor-exploring months coupled with the process of watching a parent eat the same food is what makes the babies palate learn to accept new flavors. Dr. Greene also makes strong arguments why parents should avoid all processed and fast foods, exclusively breastfeed their infants for the first year of their lives, buy locally grown, organic produce that includes a great variety of nutritional sources, not to mention safe fish, organically raised meat, eggs, and diary. He is a big fan of the Mediteranean diet and multivitamins. He is not a fan of artificial colors and preservatives. Almost every page of this book is an indictment of the modern food and agricultural industries. The book is organized into chapters mirroring baby development, from before pregnancy to toddler age and beyond. The chapters include anecdotes from real parents subscribing to the Greene way as well as tested recipes for both families and babies. The premise behind the book is not to indoctrinate babies to adopt certain food habits, but to learn from the environment around them. Parents and other members of the family should try to incorporate these habits as the growing babies observe everything and learn to eat from their parents. Additionally, Dr. Greene gives helpful suggestions to add flavor to foods using herbs, how to select fruits and vegetables, and even how to use certain spices and foods as remedies. Now for the negatives that I see in this book. I think many readers of this book will be overwhelmed by its content and the scope of change that is advocated. People would be healthier if we rode a bike everywhere, grew our own crops, spent most of our time outdoors doing physical work, etc… but this isn’t going to happen. This is simply impossible and impractical. Additionally, I felt Dr. Greene was being a little arrogant a few times in the book when he made some rather large leaps from the science we know today. He may end up being right, but I think the jury is still out on the safety of modern plastics, genetically modified foods, and the cause of the allergy epidemic we are witnessing in children. Advocating for avoidance of certain modern things is fine, but presenting correlation studies as if they are conclusive science in my opinion is arrogant and just wrong. I also feel that his recommendation for a multivitamin for all children is difficult to justify from science and may be harmful…has he seen how much sticky, dental-disease-promoting sugar is in many of the best selling vitamins? With those reservations stated, I think the obviously bright, impassioned, and extremely well informed Dr. Greene has written a accessible nutritional handbook to help parents and pediatricians find the ideal method of feeding babies, toddlers, and children. I think this book will influence us for a long time to come. I give it 4.5 out of 5 Doc Smo stars. - See more at: http://www.docsmo.com/feeding-baby-gr... ...more

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Oct 10, 2020 Marcella rated it really liked it

A good primer of how to engage baby’s pallets and generally think about food with a new born and in the first few years of life. Especially good for new parents

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May 18, 2011 Lucinda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Ok...the first sentence of this book had Al Gore's name in it AND offered praise to him, which caused me to shudder in disgust, haha! But, I read on and although I don't agree with everything he says, I did have some great "aha" moments as I gathered advice on feeding my baby. He is a pediatrician and he recommends kids learn names of foods rather than body parts so they will be familiar with many different foods. Because of this book I have been putting whole fruits and veggies in my daughter's ...more

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Oct 11, 2009 Christina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: health, food-nutrition, non-fiction, parenthood

The book "Feeding Baby Green," written by well-known pediatrician Dr. Alan Greene is an excellent book. Dr Greene manages to provide a simple approach to healthful eating that starts during pregnancy. All of my questions were answered regarding how I will meet my goal of having chilren who enjoy and prefer healthy foods.
Dr Greene helps the reader come to the realization of how central food is in our family life and it is the key to healthy living. I particularly like how he incorporates other a ...more

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Jul 07, 2016 Massanutten Regional Library rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed-by-patrons, food, nonfiction, self-help

Jessica, North River patron, July 2016, 4 stars:

Great book on raising non-picky, healthy eaters, but you definitely have to start early. It has specific suggestions on what kinds of food you and then the baby can eat and how to introduce them. If you're worried about the obesity epidemic and other health issues for your child, this is a good book for you.
He also wrote Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care, a broader book about raising a "green," hea ...more

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Mar 01, 2010 Hanako rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2010

this book has a lot of good ideas, and i like that it is well researched and he lists all his sources. i had read somewhere that a lot of the eating advice we have now is pretty much based on guesswork - he gives the research to back up his claims. it is a bit over the top for me personally with some of the green part of it, though i would *like* to be better about all that. anyway, got a lot of good ideas. great to read actually before you get pregnant, but great information at any time really.

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Jul 25, 2011 Karen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nerd

the mention of al gore made me roll my eyes, but the US would be a far healthier place if more people actually took any of the advice offered up in this book. artificial baby milk and heavily processed and chemical laden fast foods are sadly the rule and not the exception, and our health as a nation is decreasing steadily because of it.

nicely informative, and a great reminder to me of why we choose to feed our kids -and ourselves- food we make ourselves, why we garden, why we shop at the farmers ...more

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Feb 12, 2015 Lindsey rated it it was amazing

Loved this book. I wish I had had it while I was pregnant. There are lots of great ideas about helping your kids to learn to enjoy good food from a very young age. Greene includes practical strategies for making eating fun. He also cites many interesting studies about breastfeeding, organic vs. conventional produce, advertising to kids, etc. he also explains the nutritional needs for young kids, which I found very helpful.

All in all, great book. I enjoyed reading it and am looking forward to tr ...more

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Mar 09, 2012 Gail rated it liked it

Good information, but could definitely be condensed into a smaller book. It is nice to hear that you can just mash up what you are eating and give it to your baby, or cut it up in bite size pieces and give it to your toddler. So many baby food books make it seem like you have to cook a whole second meal for your baby or toddler, so it is refreshing to read one that says otherwise. After all, this is what parents have done for thousands of years. Has some recipes from a few specialty baby food co ...more

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Jul 10, 2010 Jessica rated it it was ok

Shelves: can-t-finish, parenting

Got from my MIL as a not-so-subtle hint that she would be doing all of these things if she were raising my boys, so I should, too. Several good suggestions, but overall I got the feeling that doing all of the things he insists on as being essential would be absolutely impossible. So much so that it makes me want to give up and purposely do something not green. The emotional equivalent of hearing the hopelessly high standards of a nutrition seminar (of course you'll make all your own baby food fr ...more

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Nov 02, 2010 Michelle Dodd rated it really liked it

This book gives so much great advice about how to influence your child's eating habits, even starting during pregnancy. Lots of explanation of reality - it's not going to be easy - but with plenty of strategies that could apply not only to getting them to eat well, but just dealing with them in general. The tone is firm but gentle and loving. I really want to raise a kid with healthy eating habits since it can influence lifelong health so much. I think this book will be invaluable. ...more

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Jun 22, 2011 Cheryl Greene rated it it was amazing

This is a great resource for expecting and new parents who want to give their baby the best start possible. It's filled with stories, recipes, and tips along with the hard hitting, scientifically based feeding system that Dr. Greene recommends.

The title is off-putting to some. This isn't just a "green" book. It's really for all new parents. ...more

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Jan 23, 2012 Jessie rated it it was ok

Shelves: parenting

This book was pretty much what I expected, only there was this totally insane list of all these different foods I was supposed to eat during pregnancy. Too bad the only things I could keep down were cheese, milk, and grapes--it really cut back on my amaranth consumption.
The section on toddlers was pretty short. Apparently I'm supposed to keep offering my toddler healthy foods. That's about it. ...more

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Apr 09, 2010 Christy Stewart rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, reviewed

Mostly common sense and information you can find on parenting websites but it's a good book on the subject.

Doesn't spend a lot of time trying to convince you of it's cause and addresses the issues of individuality in nutritional needs. ...more

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Jan 29, 2015 Patti rated it really liked it

Shelves: parenting

Thank goodness... a step by step guide for not ending up with a toddler that will only eat chicken nuggets! I especially loved the explanation of the developmental windows where it is easiest to introduce new foods and flavors. That is something that wouldn't have been intuitive as a parent. ...more

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Apr 09, 2010 Marlene rated it really liked it

Lots of good information! Will be passing it on to my son and daughter-in-law who will be feeding our new grandson. They plan to make their own baby food, trying to stick with organically grown produce and meats.
So the book will come in handy.

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Apr 06, 2010 Taylor rated it liked it

I received this book for free on Goodreads! I already knew most of the information presented in this book from previous research on this topic. For Mom's who are interested in feeding their babies (and themselves) a healthy diet this would be a good place to start. ...more

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May 10, 2014 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: about-food, parenting-birth

I liked a lot of his ideas and found his perspective fascinating in the beginning. However, the book suffered from repetition past a certain point, and I was like "enough already!" by the time I finished. However, good principles and ideas for raising healthy eaters! ...more

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Apr 07, 2010 Cheryl Greene rated it it was amazing

Great book for anyone with a baby, expecting, or thinking about conceiving. Following Dr. Greene's simple instructions, you can teach your baby to love healthy amounts of healthy foods by age two -- setting your child on a lifetime journey of good nutrition. ...more

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Jan 01, 2012 Heather Friedman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Really interesting book on what to eat when pregnant and what to feed babies - toddlers to get them to have a well rounded palette. Given I am a picky eater I was excited to find ways to open up taste buds for the next generation ha!

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Mar 04, 2012 Jessie rated it it was amazing

Love this book- I will be using it as a reference for many years...

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Dec 29, 2010 Becky rated it really liked it

I entered this contest hoping to win the book for my sister-in-law who was pregnant at the time. She is a very Earth Friendly woman who I know will be raising my niece as such. Thanks so much!!!

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Oct 21, 2009 KaTe rated it liked it

Shelves: green

recommended by seventh generation

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Nov 02, 2009 Kristin rated it liked it

This book was good but I didn't learn much new. It could probably be summarized by saying feed your baby what you are eating and eat foods that are healthy/organic. ...more

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Oct 01, 2010 lenzi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

very infromative and helpful for earth friendly parents

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Dec 01, 2010 Kara rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, parenting

Good overview and starting point for feeding solid food (it additionally covers pregnancy, the first 4-6 months and toddler years).

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Apr 19, 2010 Jan rated it really liked it

An interesting book to read if you want to rainse your child on natural foods Show how it is better to get a child used to eating healthy fooks from day one.

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