It has been just over a month now since Mr. Froggy Pants started on solid foods, for which occasion amnachaidh asked me to check out a baby food cookbook. I hadn’t really expected to find more than a couple books on the topic, but there were more than a dozen, so I found myself unable to get away with just one. So, here they are, along with a couple of useful Web sites.
Homemade Baby Food Pure and Simple by Constantina Linardakis This is the most comprehensive of the books I checked out, and toes the official medical line. It starts out with a detailed discussion of infant and toddler nutritional needs (including the advantages of breast milk) before proceeding to recipes. Starting with infant cereal (for which she recommends only iron-fortified packages stuff) and proceeding to more advanced recipes, all the recipes follow guidelines on when to introduce foods and include the major nutritional value of each dish. There is also a section of contributed recipes, which don’t include the nutritional profile, and one of recipes for supplies like homemade wipes and play-do. I don’t see us ever feeding Mr. FP liver, in spite of its high nutritional content, though. It’s a little on the dull side, and includes really cheesy little stories of fictional mommies happily breastfeeding or making baby food, but the advice and basic recipes are solid and useful.
Organic Baby Food by Lizzie Van This is a DK book, full of gorgeous, full-color pictures of yummy-looking food and adorable babies. Unfortunately, the pictures are the only aspect I can recommend about this book. The author seems to have no idea of current food recommendations for babies, although she is free with advice. The book includes not one single-food recipe, even though you’re supposed to start with single-ingredient foods. The first recipe has five or six different vegetables, oil and salt – and includes corn, which most experts say not to introduce until 10 or 12 months. I was horrified by one of the sidebar Q & As (paraphrased here): Q: I’m going back to work soon. Should I wean my baby to formula milk? A: No, don’t do it all at once. Wean your baby a couple of weeks before or after you go back to work. Pardon??? Not even a suggestion that returning to work might not necessitate weaning at all? Even looking at the recipes for toddlers, who have fewer restrictions, the recipes didn’t seem anything special. Not recommended.
The Baby Bistro Cookbook by Joohee Muromcew There’s no pediatrician panel backing this book, like Homemade Baby Food Pure and Simple and line drawings rather than the fancy full-color photos in Organic Baby Food. But this was our favorite. It starts out with simple single-food purees, as you might expect. Some of the early recipes are indeed overly simplistic. But move on, and there are lots of delightful recipes and suggestions for variations on standard food. It’s nicely multi-cultural, with simplified versions of ethnic cuisine – Mexican, Indian, Korean. Interestingly, where other people say not to give spicy food to babies, she says they often enjoy it, and to let your baby try. Maybe we could avoid Mr. FP having my spicy food handicap! Finally, in a Foods for Special Occasions section, she presents low-sugar recipes for treats, including some fruit drinks that look absolutely scrumptious. I especially appreciate that these are naturally low-sugar recipes – not using sugar substitutes, but made to taste yummy with less sugar. In general, the recipes look easy to follow, don’t seem to use obscure ingredients, and would be tasty for everyone, not just babies.
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com – While this web site doesn’t have a whole lot of recipes for older babies, for instructions for do-it-yourself cereals and purees, this is the place to go. It also has tables of when to introduce foods, sample menus for a week of meals for different age ranges, and discussions of baby-food-related topics like, “Does my baby need iron-fortified cereal?” I’m very pleased to note that the site has recently been updated to reflect the new AAP guidelines for delaying solids until six months. All of the cookbooks above say to start solids at 4-6 months – the old recommendation – but really assume that you’ll be starting at four months and ready to move on to more frequent and more advanced foods by six months. The newly updated advice on this site is wonderfully helpful. If all you want is the basics, this site has it covered, for free. They’ll even answer your emailed questions.
http://www.kellymom.com – This site isn’t strictly about baby food, and doesn’t have any recipes. Kellymom has evidence based information breastfeeding, sleep and parenting, though I have mostly only looked at the breastfeeding information. Evidence based means that they cite literature and medical studies for all the advice they give – very helpful, and very refreshing. For the purposes of this discussion, it also has articles on iron supplementation, and schedules on introducing food with the intention of keeping breast milk baby’s primary source of nutrition during the first year. This is helpful, since a lot of information still follows older recommendations of weaning or seriously cutting back breastfeeding by six months. It also has lists of medicines and herbs that affect breast milk, both positively and negatively – so helpful if you need to know if you can take something while breastfeeding. This is a site I reference frequently.
