Super Baby Food

[SeattleRain]

Has anyone used the book "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron to feed their baby? I just bought it because it was suggested to me, but I'm having a lot of mixed feelings about it. First of all it seems extremely time consuming. Second of all it seems like the focus is on shoving as much nutrient dense food into a gruel as possible, would any regard to refining a childs taste. I don't know, it seems like the focus isn't on creating a well rounded eater who eats lots of foods, but on getting your child to eat "strange" foods like brewers yeast, decccicated liver, and combinations like tehina and yogurt.

I don't know, maybe I'm just not reading it from a good perspective. Has anyone used this book successfully? How did you find it? Didd you like it?

[aphel]

subbing.

I own the book, but haven't read it yet. It's quite dense!

[tzs]

i read it but ditched it. i wasn't into the whole order of foods thing. my kid got plenty of experience with a variety of foods (and strange ones too!) just eating what we ate. my SIL who lent it to me said she followed it religiously and kept track of the order, checking them off as she went, but she's also a very organized-type person. in the end, i really notice no difference in how her kids eat vs how mine eats. they all have the foods they love and the foods they hate.

[SeattleRain]

Originally Posted by tzs 

i read it but ditched it. i wasn't into the whole order of foods thing. my kid got plenty of experience with a variety of foods (and strange ones too!) just eating what we ate. my SIL who lent it to me said she followed it religiously and kept track of the order, checking them off as she went, but she's also a very organized-type person. in the end, i really notice no difference in how her kids eat vs how mine eats. they all have the foods they love and the foods they hate.

So I actually bought it because someone told me she stresses a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet for babies and I thought that would be easier for me kosher-wise if I focused on non-meat proteins. The only thing I've really gleaned is the idea of making a healthful porridge from scratch with ground beans in there for protein. Other than that, its a little too regimented for me. I thought it would give me more recipes and ideas, and less of a "food program."

[MsFortune]

I have it - it's the perfect book for people who want to dedicate their lives 24/7 to shopping for, feeding and planning foods for a baby or toddler. I ditched it and just went to a mix of simple purees for young baby (and some store bough purees) and then just feeding baby what we eat. I just can't imagine anyone really doing this.

[SeattleRain]

Originally Posted by MsFortune 

I just can't imagine anyone really doing this.

Exactly. I feel the same way, which is why I was asking if anyone has used it because the idea of someone doing this whole thing for their baby is astounding to me.

Unless I'm supposed to be eating Super Baby Porridge all morning also...

[tzs]

i hear ya'. i actually liked the idea of the baby porridge as a supplement because protein is hard/expensive to come by for us (at least before we started eating eggs at least once a day) and dd is low weight. also at the beginning she would gag on real-people oatmeal so the idea of grinding it all up was appealing. but i got lazy and we never tried it. i also got bolder with the "forbidden foods" so whole eggs and nut butters made an appearance on her menu sooner rather than later.

she also loved whole canned beans like they were baby crack. i would dress them in olive oil or a vinagrette to add fat and bam...we had our easy protein and she could practice her pincer grasp.

[help4newmoms]

Hi there.  I've read Super Baby Food and I wish I'd had it when I was a new mom. I'm such a ding-dong, I didn't realize you could simply mash a banana and feed it to my baby, I thought I had to feed from a jar!  I know the book is a bit big and a little overwhelming, but one you wrap your arms around the material (half the book is recipes for babies and toddlers), it's really easy to use.  Hey if, Kourtney Kardashian can do it, anyone can do it. Super Baby Porridge, like you mentioned, is a part of the Super Baby Food diet that Ruth Yaron, the author, suggests but only a part of a well-balanced diet for your baby which also includes, at the appropriate time,  avocado, yogurt, fruits and vegetables which she describes in detail.  She also teaches how to prepare your own baby food, freeze it, and reheat later, a great idea for moms who want to feed organic and more cheaply.  The book is divided by age in months, which is really convenient and it's really up to you what foods you would like to try. The author just put out a free app with more information and there's a couple of cute videos on You Tube with Ruth and Cindy Crawford where she answers all Crawford's new baby feeding questions.  Give it another try, you might like it after all.

[scrandall1173]

Yeah, I owned it but never did it (seriously, make CRACKERS from scratch?!)

We did avocados, beans, pureed our own fruits and veggies, sometimes bought frozen, and a few jars.

[bremen]

ummm i made those crackers from scratch, and they were delicious! wheat germ and yogurt, i believe.

before you think i am supermommy delux, let me paint the picture for you:

fist of all, i was the live-in nanny. there with 3 kids, 6yo, 3yo, and baby T. T was 7mos-19 mos during the time i was with them.

mom and dad took kids to school in the AM when they left fro work around 8:30.

baby T would go down for a 2 hour nap at 9:00. 

i had nothing to do! i cleaned up the minimal mess the kids made before school, did the breakfast dishes, put some laundry on, and it was still not even 10!

so i started reading the super babyfood book.

baby T was eating entirely processed food. he was eating flavoured baby yogurts, commercial baby cereal, and food from jars. he was still on about 18 oz of formula per day, but never really liked it. he was weaned completely from the breast at 5 months when mom went back to work, but never really enjoyed formula.

T was totally constipated, eating a lot of sugar, and i had plenty of time on my hands. each morning, i would feed the freezer with something for him to eat. i would make and freeze super porridge, mixed fruits  and veggies, whatever i could come up with, using the book as inspiration.

T thrived on the new diet, his constipation went away within a week, and when he stopped taking his bottles, around 14 months, i felt like he got enough varried nutrition.

if he was still bf, or even eating a substantial amount of formula, i would not have worried so much about his nutrition, but he was eating mostly food after a year, i felt like i needed to make sure he got a good diet.

i would play with T from 11-1, and the big sister would come home from school. i fed them both lunch, and then put them both  down for the pm nap from 2 til 3:30.

again, what to do?  i started making healthy snacks for the big kids. they preferred pureed food in general, like soups, so i started making them recpes from super baby food too. the wheat germ crackers were a big hit. big kids also ate a lot of processed food: cereal, granola bars, processed yogurt, so i started making more natural versions of those, too.

i really love to cook and experiment, and i had a huge amount of time on my hands. i was working "full time", 8:30- 4:30, but had 3.5 hours per day of sleeping kids!

we lived in rural ireland, where there was still dial-up internet in 2007, and tv was awful. i needed something to fill the time, and super babyfood really helped for me.

now, average mom has a whole lot more on her plate than me as nanny. all i had to do all day was cook for and clean up after the kids, play with them, and do their laundry.  moms have so much more on their plates, and not every baby naps the way T did. When T rubbed his eyes, i would put him in his crib, turn out the light, and he would be out for 1.5-2.5 hours. i know he was an exceptional sleeper.

so, like the other posters said, super baby food is something for someone who has nothing better to do all day than focus on baby's food.

it just so happened that i didn't.

[JudiAU]

It is pretty dated advice but I think it has some value. Grain-heavy.

However, we do use the instructions for homemade cereals and the kids have some variation of hot cereal 3-4 days a week for breakfast. The great side benefit is that they are rich in fiber and that helps potty learning.

As for weird stuff, healthy add-ins don't make your kid more or less likely to reject other healthy foods. It just gives them a bit of an edge on an off day. We always add wheat germ and flax to oatmeal for instance.

[help4newmoms]

Bremen,

Love that Super Baby Fod worked for you and your little ones!  Terrific!

[SeattleRain]

Originally Posted by JudiAU 

It is pretty dated advice but I think it has some value. Grain-heavy.

However, we do use the instructions for homemade cereals and the kids have some variation of hot cereal 3-4 days a week for breakfast. The great side benefit is that they are rich in fiber and that helps potty learning.

As for weird stuff, healthy add-ins don't make your kid more or less likely to reject other healthy foods. It just gives them a bit of an edge on an off day. We always add wheat germ and flax to oatmeal for instance.

I also found it to be quite grain heavy. I also found her "meat is poison" stuff to be off-putting. I didn't really feed Daniel a ton of grains, but after reading the book I bought him some Earth's Best Oatmeal and flax-meal and have combined them with milk to make a nutritious grain option for Daniel, since he was having a very yogurt-filled day.

The stuff I found to be dated has to do with the quality of food. Or maybe I just felt it didn't apply to me. Like most parents who consider themselves to be aware of good nutrition, I'm already careful about the kind of food Daniel eats. I only feed him organic grains and cereats and organic fruits and veggies. He doesn't eat highly processed food (though he does primarily get jarred Organic baby food) and he gets no added sugar. All of this stuff is readily available in most grocery stores now. I didn't have to travel far to get whole grain bay oatmeal, for example. So I guess teh question is why should I make it myself then?