Annabel Karmel's New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner

Annabel Karmel, Penguin Books © 2001

Over 200 quick easy and healthy recipes for babies and toddlers.

This book has lots of easy to make recipes for babies and toddlers, talks about the kinds of foods that children need and has an index at the back which really helps. The recipes are easy to make, have lots of cute pictures and it tells you what can be kept and frozen.

Sometimes the recipes are obviously English - using fish like plaice and cod, courgettes instead of zuccini and that kind of thing.

The meal planners give you an idea of what a balanced diet might look like over a week, but they start with a baby on solids at 4 months. It is now considered a good idea to start babies on solids after 6 months unless exceptional circumstances apply, to ensure that the baby's digestive system can handle solid food. This makes the meal planners less useful as the quantities and the rate of increase in meals and meal sizes is not necessarily going to be right for a baby who is 2 months older, but just starting solids.

Annabel suggests adding diluted juice to your babie's diet, which is probably not necessary and isn't great for those first little hard-to-brush teeth. Most sources I have come across suggest water and milk, especially breast milk, as more appropriate liquids for babies.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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