Ruth Yaron

I knew I wanted to make my own baby food, and this book was a gift from a friend that had made her own when her kids were younger.

I really love this book, and I also think this author gets a little overboard with doing everything.

Why I love this book:
The valuable information on each of the fruits and vegatables as to what age to introduce the food, how to tell if it's ripe, and the best season to buy. Month by month chapters on how much formula to solid food your baby should be taking in. show more Simple and easy storage ideas for the baby food and neat tricks for making playdo, goop and party cakes.

Why I think this book goes overboard:
The author really pushes organic/locally grown/farmers' market fruits and veggies. She also says how easy it is to make your own yogurt and fruit leathers (fruit roll-ups). Easy for her, but for the working moms... not so easy. Or at least I don't think so. For getting all the air out of ziplock bags, using a straw to suck out the last bit of air before putting the baby food in the freezer - just seemed like a little much to me.

Overall ~ I say this book is a really good resource if you want to make your own baby food. I would buy it for anyone I know who is thinking about doing it, but I would also warn those I give it to that I didn't follow everything the author said and I didn't buy only organic/locally grown produce for my son's food. show less

This book is written in the most ridiculous way. Yaron uses smiley faces, like an email writer and the book is full of cross references (flip here, flip there) some of which are actually wrong.

That said, I found the book immensely helpful in planning and making baby food for both of my children (now ages three and one) and the nutritional information about balancing a child's diet (especially a vegetarian child's diet) is good enough that I have packed it away in my head and now don't really show more need to reference the book much.

The most helpful things I found were the monthly charts of foods to introduce and the overall eating goals for a day of a baby's diet. Though I now know more about nutrition and would quibble with some of Yaron's insistence that a baby get exactly everything exactly every day, the overall picture is complete and helpful.

If you think you might want to make homemade baby food (which is much cheaper, healthier and more interesting for your baby than jars), get this book well before you will need to feed your baby solids and read it cover to cover (ignore her instructions to flip around). Then you'll know what's helpful later when you are more pressed for time and energy.

Making baby (and toddler) food has been one of the very most fulfilling aspects of parenting for me. I strongly encourage everyone to try it! show less

Overall, this was a really useful book. I'd like to photocopy large parts of it to use as a reference. She gets sidetracked from talking about food sometimes to all the other aspects of parenting, organic living, etc., which bogs the book down. In addition, I grow weary of books that are packed with "useful" information that most adults don't need (how to make a shopping list, useful kitchen tools). I really like her sample menus, her easy instructions on how to prepare each vegetable, and show more her recipes for super cereals, etc. (I'm not feeding my kid liver flakes, however, no matter how good for her they might be.) show less

I picked up this book while visiting my parents in Tulsa, OK with my son who at the time of this review is almost 7 months. It has been a wonderful reference - especially the timetables. Very detailed and well worth picking up. There is a great section month by month of what food to choose from, developmental changes and warnings especially pertaining but not limited to allergies that can affect your child's life. There is a lot of information on nutritional aspects and healthy recipes. show more There were things I would have never thought about -- especially ways to test the safety of a high chair. There are lists of baby safe recipes for cleaning and crafts. Fun food ideas for groups of children. It's a well researched. I highly recommend it. show less