Customer Reviews

Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health: Birth Through Age Six

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Of all the books I have read on feeding babies, toddlers, and children, I find this the most realistic and most the clearly based in scientific research.

It's clearly written and well organized, and doesn't recommend any strange foods you wouldn't put on the table for guests or tuck into yourself.

That said, I was disappointed at the authors recommendation to start kids on refined breads and crackers because 'they don't need the extra fiber' -- along side the suggestion that you not start your child out on anything you don't want them to prefer. It seems contradictory to me, and my little guy is getting whole grains only. I was also disappointed at the author's lack of knowledge about breastfeeding. In the parts of the book that deal with slightly older children, they have some misleading and out of date information that discounts the benefits of extended breastfeeding and overstates the benefits of cows milk and artificial baby milks.

But, even so, I must say that they have some extremely wise and useful information about how children think about and respond to food and some excellent advice for how to raise a child with a good relationship to food -- it's balanced (an occasional piece of candy at a friend's house or a packet of chips after swim class won't kill most children) but weighted in favor of whole foods and higher nutrition.

Just what I was looking for!

I would recommend this book for all parents. I wish I'd read it when my oldest was born instead of when he was 2 1/2 and my youngest was 1. Good, practical tips for getting toddlers to eat veggies. OVerall healthy eating practices recommended. Debunks some myths/wives tales, ec. Pediatricians should be recommending this, too. I think I do a good job with my children's nutrition, especially when I see the junk that most of America and even some of my friends let their children eat, but this definitely inspired me to do much better.

As a registered nurse and Mom this book is essential. It goes through the stages of feeding starting with breast vs. bottle, including exellent info on breasfeeding. You dont even need to buy a seperate breastfeeding book. Then moves on to babys first foods, including which foods to introduce at certain ages. Gives sample menus for babies of all ages. Also helps parents understand that pushing food on kids only makes them not want to eat. Helps with tips for picky eaters. How to get your kids to eat the foods you want them to eat with them knowing it.

The best thing about this book is the advice to avoid making feeding times a battleground, and using non-nutritious food as a reward to eat nutritious food. It is excellent in providing sample menus and charts at different stages. I reccommend it to many new parents.

A couple of caveats: I do wish it had more recipies. I mostly use my adult cookbooks instead, but I would love more healthy "brown bag" lunch ideas. I also think the reader must keep in mind that the approach of "keep putting it on their plate" does not always work, sometimes a child (just like an adult) simply won't like the taste of a food. Finally, the authors don't encourage giving whole grain foods (bread, pasta, crackers) to toddlers because they have a low fiber requirement. However, the authors do advise getting the child to like healthy food early on. To me this is contridictory as I would never feed my dd more white bread if I can give her less whole wheat.

All in all I think this was money well spent.

This provided helpful advice as my baby moved from baby to table foods. As she has moved into toddlerhood, it also is an effective resource of ideas for dealing with the numerous food issues that crop up. It offers practical, realistic advice.

Please note, I have done a lot of reading on feeding my 5 month-old son. What I was looking for were guidelines to supplement my intuition, not black and white rules to follow to the letter. That is how I used this book.

What I really like about this book is how nutritional needs at each stage of your child's life are explained in a simple manner. I also liked the moderate approach to feeding your baby. This is something I can do and it fits well with my lifestyle. It does not require that I spend half of my life tied to the kitchen creating strange, special meals for my son and then cooking something completely different for me and my husband. I skipped over the breastfeeding section, so I really can't say anything about that. I prefer this book to "Super Baby Food".

This is a good reference book to keep on hand if you're not sure where to start, as far as feeding your child a healthy diet. On the other hand, SUPER BABY FOOD is probably more comprehensive.

This book is really quite informative and helpful (but I must warn that most parents may feel at least a tad disappointed in what they have fed their children to date, the authors are a bit unforgiving in that area, which is why it got 4 and not 5 stars). I only wish that I had had this book 4 years ago when my first child was born. The book has lots of wonderful information that frankly I have not found anywhere else. It tells you how much of each nutrient your child will need at various ages and suggests some child friendly sources for those nutrients. What the book does not have is an instantaneous solution for getting a vegetable hater to eat vegetables. Their answer to this problem is to keep offering it and eventually they will eat their vegetables (or whatever else it is you want them to eat). I have been trying this forever with my daughter and it only works with non-green vegetables. They do provide some excellent advice on preventing picky eaters (which I have followed with my second and which works). One way I judge books such as these is to decide if the book could have been condensed into a useful magazine article, or if the content really needed to be put into a book. The information in Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health definitely belongs in a book. There are not many wasted pages or irrelevant information. I highly recommend this book to all parents of young children, with the caveats discussed above.

I read this after my childrens' pediatrician recommended it to me. I found the information to be very helpful and the suggestions to be surprisingly effective. I agree with most of the other reviews here, but I see that the only negative review of this book comes from someone who seems to have allowed her defensiveness on the issue of breastfeeding to prejudice herself against the book. It's a great book! Whether you need help with a problem or you are just looking for some guidelines to follow, this is the best nutrition book for anyone with young children.

Drs Roberts and Heyman have struck the right balance of solid medical facts and personal experience with their own children in Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health. And balance is just what we need on this topic! I've found other child nutrition books to be heavy-handed, with agendas that are not always about doing what's right for your child and without much scientific backup. This book provides realistic strategies for dealing with an often-difficult and emotional issue - without the guilt! My own experience with my two-year old daughter tells me that they are dispensing very sensible advice. My daughter is a healthy and adventurous eater. It makes life so much easier when mealtime is a pleasure, not a battle. The two points I found to be most helpful: 1) if you don't want them to have it, don't keep it in the house; and 2) whatever a child eats within the first 2 years of life is what they come to know as "safe" or acceptable foods, so variety is key in that time-frame. I hope many, many parents read and benefit from this book.