What if you could skip the tiny jars and pouches of bland baby food in favor of a more natural, flavor-filled, and family-friendly transition to solid foods? Baby-led feeding (also known as baby-led weaning) is just that. Feeding your baby a variety of healthy, wholesome solid foods, rather than relying solely on purees, is thought to promote motor skills and establish lifelong healthy eating habits. Here, author and food editor at Parents magazine Jenna Helwig gives an easy-to-follow introduction to this popular new method. With more than 100 ideas and recipes, this bright, photo-driven book includes chapters on the benefits of this approach, when and how to get started, essential safety and nutrition guidelines, frequently asked questions, basic fruit and vegetable prep, more complex finger foods, and family meals. All recipes have been reviewed by a registered dietitian and include nutrition information to ensure a healthy mealtime.

From the founders of Baby-Led Weaning: This is the authoritative guide to starting solid foods at your child’s pace—as they start the transition away from breastmilk or formula as early as 6 months—with no stress, no fuss, and no mush! Ten years ago, Baby-Led Weaning ended the myth that babies need to be spoon-fed purées. In fact, at about six months, most babies are ready to discover solid food for themselves. Today, baby-led weaning (BLW) is a global phenomenon—and this tenth anniversary edition of the definitive guide explains all its benefits: Baby participates in family meals right from the start, and learns to love a variety of foods. Nutritious milk feedings continue while Baby transitions to solids at his or her own pace. By self-feeding, Baby develops hand-eye coordination, chewing skills—and confidence! Plus, this edition is updated with the latest research on allergy prevention and feeding Baby safely, a guide to using BLW at daycare, and much more. Here is everything you need to know about teaching your child healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime.

Food consumption is a significant and complex social activity—and what a society chooses to feed its children reveals much about its tastes and ideas regarding health. In this groundbreaking historical work, Amy Bentley explores how the invention of commercial baby food shaped American notions of infancy and influenced the evolution of parental and pediatric care. Until the late nineteenth century, infants were almost exclusively fed breast milk. But over the course of a few short decades, Americans began feeding their babies formula and solid foods, frequently as early as a few weeks after birth. By the 1950s, commercial baby food had become emblematic of all things modern in postwar America. Little jars of baby food were thought to resolve a multitude of problems in the domestic sphere: they reduced parental anxieties about nutrition and health; they made caretakers feel empowered; and they offered women entering the workforce an irresistible convenience. But these baby food products laden with sugar, salt, and starch also became a gateway to the industrialized diet that blossomed during this period. Today, baby food continues to be shaped by medical, commercial, and parenting trends. Baby food producers now contend with health and nutrition problems as well as the rise of alternative food movements. All of this matters because, as the author suggests, it’s during infancy that American palates become acclimated to tastes and textures, including those of highly processed, minimally nutritious, and calorie-dense industrial food products.

From the founders of Baby-Led Weaning: This is the authoritative guide to starting solid foods at your child’s pace—as they start the transition away from breastmilk or formula as early as 6 months—with no stress, no fuss, and no mush! Ten years ago, Baby-Led Weaning ended the myth that babies need to be spoon-fed purées. In fact, at about six months, most babies are ready to discover solid food for themselves. Today, baby-led weaning (BLW) is a global phenomenon—and this tenth anniversary edition of the definitive guide explains all its benefits: Baby participates in family meals right from the start, and learns to love a variety of foods. Nutritious milk feedings continue while Baby transitions to solids at his or her own pace. By self-feeding, Baby develops hand-eye coordination, chewing skills—and confidence! Plus, this edition is updated with the latest research on allergy prevention and feeding Baby safely, a guide to using BLW at daycare, and much more. Here is everything you need to know about teaching your child healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime.

A complete recipe guide to weaning babies and toddlers into solid foods from the UK’s #1 children’s cooking author. For 25 years, Annabel Karmel has been the person families turn to when it comes to delicious, nutritious recipes for weaning children onto solid food. While lots of parents start out with smooth spoon-led purees, baby-led weaning (BLW) is fast growing in popularity. But you don't have to choose one or the other. Baby-Led Weaning Recipe Book is designed to offer a flexible approach to weaning. These expert recipes are designed to offer a flexible approach to weaning with simple methods and everything parents need to know about getting started with self-feeding. Baby-Led Weaning Recipe Book is a must-have resource for parents and is the perfect standalone guide for those wanting to explore this method exclusively.

An inspirational, accessible family cookbook that offers everything a parent needs to bring joy and love back into the kitchen, by the baby and toddler feeding experts behind Feeding Littles and the New York Times bestselling cookbook author of Inspiralized. When it was time to introduce solids to her firstborn, Ali Maffucci didn’t want to make baby food from scratch or buy expensive premade purées. Enter baby-led weaning (or baby-led feeding)—and Megan McNamee and Judy Delaware, the dietitian/occupational therapist duo behind preeminent parenting resource Feeding Littles—which skips spoon-feeding altogether so babies can eat what the family eats. As babies feed themselves, they explore a variety of aromas, shapes, and colors while developing fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, dexterity, and healthy eating habits. McNamee and Delaware also help their clients navigate—or prevent—picky eating at all ages and raise a generation of intuitive eaters who listen to their bodies and love a variety of food. Now, these powerhouse authors unite to provide a plan that will reduce stress and anxiety around mealtimes, nourish your loved ones, and satisfy everyone’s palate with fun, easy, nutritious recipes. Maffucci, Delaware, and McNamee offer: strategies for baby-led weaning/feeding, as well as safety and other common parental concerns how to meal-prep in a way that works for your schedule tips for dealing with challenges such as picky eaters and dining out a one-of-a-kind visual index for plating food that babies can feed to themselves 100+ delicious recipes in categories including Morning Fuel (with plenty of egg-free options), Less Is More (using five ingredients or less), and Mostly Homemade (no shame in using pantry staples!) modifications for families with allergies positive food language and how to promote body positivity and much more With this book in hand, mealtimes will be easier and more enjoyable for everyone—from your six-month-old, to your picky toddler, to the other kids and adults in the family. As parents, the authors know that getting food on the table is hard enough, so whether you’re making a five-minute grilled cheese or pumpkin waffles, it’s time to start celebrating every bite.

Fresh, healthy, and easy recipes for babies and toddlers, organized by age (from 6 months through 3 years) and progressing from basic purees through finger foods to toddler meals, accompanied by color photos, full nutritional information, and information on food allergies, strategies for picky eaters, and other useful tidbits.