Annabel Karmel’s New Complete Baby & Toddler Meal Planner: No.1 Bestseller with new finger food guidance & recipes: 30th Anniversary Edition

Bought as a gift. I had this book over 30 years ago and was really helpful. I was able to make my children baby food from scratch which incidentally was really easy and freeze it into ice cube trays. Much better for young infants than the shop brought highly processed food.

We purchased this book to get some ideas of what to cook for our little girl, she's our first and weaning just seemed like such a daunting task! I am having so much fun with it using these recipes! They are great and are easily adapted so that me and my husband can have the same meal as our daughter! I have found that it is actually giving us a healthier, more balanced diet, while introducing our little one to a whole new world of tastes and textures... She is really enjoying it. The recipes are easy and simple to follow and the guidance throughout the book and weekly meal planners just give a great idea of how to balance your baby's diet. Although a lot of the recipes in the first stages are suggested to be made as purées, you can adapt them to whatever your baby is ready for, my baby is fine with lumps at almost 7 months, so we leave her food lumpy! It's completely up to you, but the flavours and ideas in this book are great and if you're worried at all about starting weaning, then this really is the book for you.

This is easy to follow and a great start for any weaning baby. Most of the recipes can be frozen, so you can make up decent sized batches of purees and serve as they are needed. I used it for both my children at the puree stage, and continue to make their favourites (salmon footballs, for example). As a GP I recommend this to any intelligent and motivated parent who is interested in trying to feed a baby the best food possible without letting it completely take over your life. For those who just reach for the next jar of shop-bought flavourless mush, this would be a waste of money, but it offers a great deal of well-thought-out advice, as well as meal planners and superb recipes, so I think it is one of the best books to buy for the early years of baby-rearing.

I bought this book a few weeks prior to embarking on the weaning journey with my first baby. The book gave me a much needed confidence boost, helping me to be sure that this was the right time for my baby, which foods were suitable as first tastes, and how quickly to move through various food groups. For all these things the books is straightforward, trustworthy and fun. There are meal planners showing week by week, day by day meal suggestions, which I absolutely love. The only minor issue I take with the book is that towards the 9-12 month and older stages the weaning suggestions become full-blown, hours of preparation type recipes (for example Marinated Chicken on the Griddle, Lulligatawny Chicken). Although this is great because these recipes are suitable for all the family to enjoy, it also made me feel a litte insecure again - I feel the pressure to be the stay at home super Mum, which clearly I'll never be in combination with my full time office job. So except on special occasions, holidays and birthdays I doubt I will ever venture into the final pages of this book, it makes me feel bad.

I like the book, it has very useful recipes. many are simple and I already knew them but then the author provides new ways of mixing different vegs or serving them. For example making vegetable puree but with milk to make it more creamy. I have only used the baby section so far so cannot comment in detail on the toddler recipes but they look good and easy as well. Anyway I read several books on weaning and the good ones are very similar. It is important that it contains recipes, some advice on storage and food divided into sections for different levels of weaning. Gina Ford's book additionally ha some "case studies" which I found useful but this book does not have them. The only thing I would complain about is the pictures in the book. they are really too colourful and too perfect (a baby eating carrot pure with a carrot in his hand but with a perfectly clean white bib, and all the clothes, equipment in matching colours). Yet, since it has nothing to do with the recipes or advice the book still gets all stars.

I am very pleased with this book, not only does it contain useful information (so most times you don't have to google for info as your questions are answered in this book)but it also contains many delicious recipes for the baby which, some of these you can also follow to make non-puree food for the whole family. They're quick and hassle free to make as well. As compared to baby food that is sold in pots or pouches, these actually do have much more taste! (without even adding salt) All info and recipes are well organised by the baby's age so you can follow step by step. Makes the idea of weaning the baby sound easy and the process more enjoyable. The book also contains nice photos and illustrations which are a plus.

There is a lot to like about this book. It's clear, colourful, nicely laid out and full of interesting recipes and good information. But there are a few things that (so far) are slightly annoying. 1) every recipe I've tried, for purees from the stage 1 section, has come out far too watery. The pictures show that the purees are meant to be more solid but following the quantities faithfully results in a overly runny consistency. 2) the portion guidance makes no real sense. In particular, it seems to bear no relation to the Annabel Karmel range of trays for freezing. I would expect that her own range would tally with the portion guidance in these recipes but it doesn't appear to. 3) there is the odd inconsistency in terms of information. For example, page 23 says not to feed children peanut butter until they're five years old whereas page 15 says "peanut butter and finely ground nuts can be introduced from six months".

The indespensable guide for every first time baby cook. Very well researched, provides thorough advice and guidance. Thank you, Annabel Karmel! :)

Perfect book for young parents

This book is very useful for starting solids, it has lots of ideas and recipes.

El pediatra de mi hija no me daba explicaciones muy claras de como debía introducir los alimentos a mi hija, me hablaron de este libro y me lo compré. Es una de las mejores decisiones que he tomado! Las recetas son estupendas, las de más de 12 meses incluso valen para comer toda la familia junta. La mayoría de las recetas se pueden congelar con lo que haces una vez para varios dias. Con 13 meses mi hija come de todo sin problemas: desde salmón hasta curry! La gente que por aquí alucina porque la niña está muy bien de peso y come de todo. Me gusta tanto el libro que lo tengo en kindle y papel.

Easy recipes to follow