Super Nutrition for Babies Review and Give Away

I hope that you have read my interview with the authors of Super Nutrition for Babies last week. (New Book: Super Nutrition for Babies - An Interview with the Authors) and the excerpt I shared from the book all about Mama nutrition (Super Nutrition for Babies excerpt- Super nutrition for moms!).

Today I have 2 copies of the book to give away! But first I would like to give my review of the book. I received a copy of the book for free. I was under no obligation to give it a favorable review and I will receive no compensation for giving it a favorable review.

I have always been concerned with healthy eating and was doubly concerned with my babies, but did not learn about the Weston A Price foundation and it’s recommendations till my older child was 2. At that time there was the book Nourishing Traditions which explains healthy eating for people of all ages but no books dedicated to healthy traditional eating in infants. The times have changed though and there are a few books out that talk about healthy eating for infants from a traditional foods perspective. Super Nutrition for Babies is the first of these books that I have read and I must say that I was very impressed by it.

First I loved it’s pro breastfeeding stance. The book unapologeticly recommends breastfeeding for at least 2.5 years. The authors do acknowledge that sometimes that isn’t possible and does offer options for families where breastfeeding isn’t an option but they make it clear that the best for babies (and moms) is breastfeeding.

Next they have put all foods into 4 categories. I think that this makes is easier to make decisions about what is best to feed your baby (or yourself). If you are thinking of foods as only good or bad that makes it hard to find optimal nutrition. This method helps you understand what foods you should be focused on and which ones should be minimized or avoided completely.

POWER foods- Protective, Optimal nutrition, Wisdom of the ancients, Enriching, Regenerating

• Power foods include organ meats, eggs, cod liver oil, fish roe, raw milk and probiotic foods.

PURE foods- Pasture based, Unadulterated, Rich in nutrients, Enzyme containing

• Pure foods include organic fruits and veggies, pasture based animal muscle meats, sprouted whole grains and legumes.

OKAY foods- Ordinary, Knockoffs of real food, Adequate, not optimal, Yield subpar health

• Okay foods include organic meats from grain fed animals, non-organic produce, organic pasteurized whole fat dairy, unsoaked nuts.

CRAP Foods- Chemicals, Removes body’s nutrients, Addictive, Processed (not natural)

• Crap foods include white flour based foods, white sugar based foods, fast food, vegetable oils, and non-organic dairy and low fat.

The book has 5 chapters devoted to different ages and stages of babies eating development. The book is full not just of recommendations but of reasons behind the recommendations that are based in science. For each stage they have recommended foods and they explain why those foods are good for then. They also have several recipes in each chapter of foods you can make for your baby. I so wish that I would have had a resource like this when my girls were babies!

I also love the old advertisements that are sprinkled throughout the book letting us know that these ideas for what to feed babies are not new. Famillies used to understand what real power foods for babies were and seek them out. Now we are offered vitamin fortified calorie rich, nutriend void foods as first foods for babies. I am proud to say that I never fed either child baby cereal but I so wish that I would have understood that I needed to focus on animal foods, not produce, for their first solids.

Now there were a couple of things that I didn’t agree with in the book. The authors recommend that a nursing mom wait 2 hours after consuming an alcoholic drink and pump and dump before feeding her baby again. This article explains why that isnt necessary or even helpful.

It also gives the impression with it’s eating schedule that babies should only be nursing a few times a day. They have just 3 nursings a day at 11 months old. My nurslings were much older than that when they nursed that infrequently. It may give new moms the impression that they are doing something wrong if their baby wants to nurse much more often. I don’t think that the authors intended this to be a schedule to be adhered to or even to be a goal but instead an example of how to fit solids into a baby’s day but that was not made clear in the text.

They also make the common mistake of saying that cooking greens eliminates the worry from oxalates. Oxalates are not reduced at all from cooking but some may leach into the cooking water of boiled foods and if you discard that water the final product will have a lower oxalate level. Read “What are Oxalates?” to learn more.

These are minor problems however in an otherwise very good book with lots of great feeding advice. So lets get to the give away!

Just as a reminder I will be checking that you have done everything that you say you did. Those who haven’t will be disqualified. For my last give away I had to pick 7 names before I found 3 who qualified. Be sure you respond to the opt-in e-mail for my newsletter or you are not really signed up.
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