The Big Book of Recipes for Babies, Toddlers, & Children: 365 Quick, Easy, and Healthy Dishes, by Wardley B and More J. London: Duncan Baird Publishers; 2004.
The Big Book is an innovative cookbook that is organized into 5 sections: The Basics, Weaning, First Foods, 1- to 2-Year-Olds, 3- to 6-Year-Olds, and 7-Day Meal Planners. The organization style makes it easy to educate the reader about pediatric nutrition and the different nutrient and food needs of growing children. It also contains useful symbols that are keyed to identify recipes that are vegetarian, gluten-free, wheat-free, dairy-free, and with eggs and peanuts, as well as those that are good sources of iron, calcium, or omega 3 fatty acids. The book also has practical information such as coping with feeding problems, sensible shopping, and food storage. The design and food photographs in this book are simply beautiful and eye-catching.
What makes this cookbook unique is that it contains recipes and ethnic cuisines that expose children to a variety of foods, herbs, and spices at a very young age. Finger foods include dishes such as spinach dhal using such exotic spices as coriander and cumin or Moroccan lamb couscous with ginger, nutmeg, and coriander. These tastes are meant to stimulate a child's palate. Educating and offering children different foods and tastes at an early age will help lay the foundation for eating a variety of foods and developing a healthy attitude about eating for life.
My main concern with this book, however, is that many of these foods and spices are not typical in many American households and more information to describe the ingredients would be helpful. Although the book claims to have easy recipes, for many busy parents, a fair amount of recipes are not only time-consuming but also involving specialty spices and ingredients that most people may not have in their home. It would be good if there were more recipes to accommodate working parents and recipes that contain ingredients typical in most households. Most of the recipes are suitable for the family to eat together, thus, it would also be useful if the amount of ingredients and serving sizes were adjusted to feed a family.
In addition, research has indicated that some children do not like combination foods. They do not want to see "pieces" in their foods, such as with meat, soups, and vegetables. This book does not always take into account how finicky some children can be.
Overall, this book is a good family cookbook to include on one's shelf. The Big Book of Recipes for Babies, Toddlers, & Children: 365 Quick, Easy and Healthy Dishes may make parents more aware about the benefits of exposing children to a wider variety of foods, encouraging the use of spices and ethnic dishes at an early age, as well as educating parents about how to provide for their child a healthy diet and a positive attitude toward food.
Lisa Sasson, MS, RD