First Meals And More: Your Questions Answered

by Annabel Karmel, Karen Sullivan

This book gives parents all the tools they need to get their babies and toddlers started on healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime. A great collection of quick, easy, and delicious recipes is partnered with a Q&A and loads of handy hints and tips on what younger kids will and won't eat, what's good for them and what isn't, some surprising exotic foods that are actually highly beneficial, and plenty of advice on how to awaken your child's interest in a variety of foods. Expert advice helps parents address the key issues likely to affect each of the five age groups in the book, with more than 400 helpful Questions and Answers from bestselling author Annabel Karmel, a leader in the field of children's food and nutrition today. Fifty tempting, nutritious 'recipes-to-the-rescue' will appeal to the fussiest eaters that children will love and want to eat over and over again.

Genres: Parenting

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Hasini Garikapati · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like it as it helped me answer many questions regarding baby 's first foods. I didnt want to resort to a Traditional way of feeding and also baby led weaning either. So this book was perfect as it adopts a middle approach and I keep referring to the book for the recipes.

[Kyleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I greatly enjoyed this book. I have been reading lots of pregnancy and baby-care books in preparation for my first pregnancy and I can definitely say that this book was the most inviting and pleasurable to read of the lot. Karmel's question and answer format presents the material in small, easy-to-conquer chunks. The layout with brightly colored pages, intermittent recipes, and the occasional drawing or photo made the book very appealing. Again and again, I found myself reaching for this book over other, more textbook-like tomes.[return][return]The content didn't quite live up to the appeal of the book, however. Most irritating, Karmel repeated herself over and over. Yes, if someone picked up the book just for toddler ideas they might get all the ideas that were presented in the first parts, but, how many times does she need to talk about EFAs (Essential Fatty Acids)? I was persuaded (and excited) to make my own baby food, and I suspect that Karmel has some great tips for encouraging toddlers to widen their food choices. I didn't quite trust her nutritional advice. From what I could tell she is not a nutritionist nor did she employ one in the writing of the book. I was very surprised to see her recommend red meat as much as she did, and of course alternative lifestyles were only given cursory mentions.[return][return]Overall it was very enjoyable, and something that I will keep on hand for tips and recipe ideas. I would definitely recommend it to first-time moms, especially those who have an interest in natural foods.

[Sean Evans]

This book has useful information and some interesting recipes, but like all parenting books, it shows the author's biases. Of course, when an author's biases don't match your own, you tend to think less of the book. In terms of the "Your Questions Answered" the book did a good job of addressing many different topics that new parents are curious about, although some of the answers were vastly different than our doctor gave us. As a cookbook, however, there was much to be desired. Most of which is no fault of the author. The interspersing of recipes with the question and answer things made it more difficult to find and use recipes, and the hardcover binding makes it nearly impossible to leave the book open to a specific recipe while preparing. Also, for us, by time our son was ready for the more elaborate meals in this book, it was simpler to tailor our own meals to his diet and make one meal for the family rather than preparing him one of the meals from this book.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great reference tool when you're first starting to introduce solid food to your youngster. I had a lot of questions and concerns, and this book touches on it all. It has info for breastfeeding mothers, and recipes for them, as well as info for transitioning to solids, up to and including babies who've been eating solids for a while. The recipes are great. I've tried a few of them. They are easy, and my baby enjoys them.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Filled with tips for healthy eating for babies and toddlers. I didn't agree with everything in the book but it had some good tips and recipe ideas.

[Amanda Harman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not particularly helpful or insightful, has a few recipes but overall repeats a lot of the same content multiple times in different chapters.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one - lots of practical questions answered, not just a bunch of recipes.