Better Food for Kids: Your Essential Guide to Nutrition for All Children from Age 2 to 10

I enjoyed this book immensely. It has the perfect ratio of health and nutritional information to recipes. I did not feel overburdened or confused by the explanation of what is good for my child and why. Often, when doctors write books like this, it's more akin to sitting in a lecture hall trying to understand a complex graph, complete with the latest scientific data. Refreshingly, these authors were to the point, realistic and plain in their explanations. I was even more excited about the recipes. I would find one I liked, intending to copy it down, but by the time I reached the end, I wanted to write them all down! Not only were the recipes simple and easy to follow, but they included things that I already eat and more importantly, presented new things in ways I wanted to try and make. I appreciated the fact that the authors were not restrictive in fats or sugars. I believe that if you ingest these things as part of the recipes and as part of a balanced diet, avoiding superfluous extra snacking of empty calories, these ingredients as integrated with the many other excellent vegetable and protein combinations will not only be enjoyable, but will encourage your children to try new and interesting foods far into the future.

We've used lots of recipes from this book (one of my kids' favourites is the sweet potato pancakes). It has a wide variety of simple, fairly healthy meals and snacks made with readily available ingredients that you likely already have in your kitchen. Also full of great basic nutritional information specifically about young kids. Several of my friends own this book too. As a vegetarian family the dinner section is useless to us since it's all meat, but there are several good vegetarian meals in the lunch section.

Having a mother who is an RN, and yet not wanting to be a health-crazed maniac, I struggled with the idea of Gerber/prepacked baby foods versus doing it myself in our own kitchen. My mother recommended "Better Baby Food", as it was used by her hospital's cookstaff for pediatric menus. What an indispensible guide it proved to be and this continuation book "Better Food for Kids" is every bit as wonderful! The foods are really good in variety of taste, color and texture and our whole family enjoys the meals actually! Great tips on feeding picky eaters and special dietary concerns for both the healthy and the ill/child with mallady. As for the other review's notation about questioning recipies with butter, sugar, etc...a little, in moderation is what all doctor's or anyone of authority in the medical or nutrional world recommend, unless allergic or there's a known health consideration. My advice, if you are truly concerned about things like sugar, substitute apple juice or apple sauce, which if that is a health/diet concern you would probably already known anyway! Great book---I pair this with the Better Baby Food book and another little item for all baby showers I attend and so far no complaints, lots of thanks later on actually!!!

I love this book! The recipes are excellent, yummy (according to my 3 year old daughter) and easy to prepare. We especially love the Soft Banana and Oatmeal Cookie recipe when we have some left-over bananas. Definitely worth the investment!