Nourished Beginnings Baby Food: Nutrient-Dense Recipes for Infants, Toddlers and Beyond Inspired by Ancient Wisdom and Traditional Foods

First I want to provide some background, I am a 3rd time mom who has been on the natural journey with our family for a decade now. Even though I am familiar with many of the blogs that this author has been featured on, I was previously unfamiliar with her blog entirely. I can't even remember how I came across this book, because I really wasn't looking to get a new resource on infant feeding...but I am so glad I did! This book has a lot to offer even though much of it isn't exactly "new" to me and/or it fits really well with ways we already cook and nourish ourselves, with just enough added knowledge and tips to make it an awesome resource that hasn't really left my countertop since it arrived (it lays open nicely too, which is a big bonus when you're cooking). Thankfully other reviewers covered how this book is NOT just about infant feeding, but really whole family nutrition, because that was what pushed me over to buying it. It has great info for starting an infant with foods and then transitional recipes and ideas as they age into joining the whole family more and more. So far, we have done a lot of the purees (plus we are doing some baby led weaning) and our daughter is loving everything thankfully. As others have noted, I love the suggestions of healthy fats to combine with the fruits, veggies, and meats. I am not as keen on the dairy for younger infants (milk and yogurt anyway, but we are big butter fans admittedly), but her book makes it easy to choose a different path if anything doesn't resonate with you (in our case, coconut alternatives work great). I am super excited to move into the whole family recipes. The book is an easy read, yet packed with great info...she makes it easily digestible (pun intended I guess, hahaha). I am very guilty of excitedly buying books and then not really utilizing them as I intended. This buy hasn't turned out that way, I am thrilled with just how much use we are getting from it and look forward to exploring more and more of the recipes. Wish I could go back to our first guy and have such a book companion for our feeding adventures!

This has been such a helpful resource for introducing my baby to food! I love that the recipes it has for his first foods are necessarily bland and they are healthy for his growing body. This book also has a section on meals for the whole family. The writing is pretty small which can be hard to read for my eyes, but other than that I recommend this book!

I bought one of the used versions of this book to save a few bucks, and it didn't disappoint! It came in excellent condition and looked brand new. As for the book itself, it has an excellent variety of wholefood baby food ideas. Many are surprisingly easy to make. Update to add: the baby food recipes offer great whole food options for baby. I have LOVED the recipes for older babies/ adults. The spatch cooked chicken and restaurant style pasta have already made their way into our regular rotation. This book is one of my favorite cookbooks now and I plan to gift it to other new parents!

Great book! Simple but nutrient dense recipes. Really appreciate all the extra info. It’s well put together and has lots of photos, which I appreciate! I will probably be buying more as gifts for other new moms.

This book is wonderful. My family enjoys the recipes in it very much. Our favorite tried and true recipe is the pastured chicken soup it is absolutely amazing and so comforting. It is a favorite of mine to bring to families who just had a baby. So nourishing and delicious. We also love the nutrient dense soaked oatmeal, I love how you throw everything in a pot the night before and then warm it up in the morning. I rarely make a review but this is one of maybe the 5 out of 20 cookbooks I am regularly pulling off my shelf.

Our family regularly makes nutritious, healing and flavorful bone broths with different types of meat, fish, veggies, and medicinal herbs. They’re good for everyone - from babies to grandparents. It’s deeply rooted in our culture and not too well-known outside of it, so it’s refreshing to see similar ideas in this cookbook. The pictures in this book are gorgeous and the recipes call for simple, easy-to-find ingredients. Luckily, there aren’t many recipes that rely on dairy or egg in case your little one has food allergies like ours does.

I bought this book as a reference for first foods to feed my baby. The book has many nourishing recipes not just for baby, but for the whole family. Some of the recipes do include raw egg yolk which I’m not comfortable feeding my infant since we only have access to store bought eggs. Some of the recipies also include ingredients that most people would not have readily available, such as keifer and molasses. But the foods are indeed nourishing and very nutrient dense. A good book for the “crunchy” moms who want nourishing first foods for their child!

I very very rarely leave reviews, but I feel that in this case the author truly deserves some accolades. I appreciate that first foods are introduced in a way that enhances the bioavailability of nutrients (with fats, bone broth, etc.) and have made most of the single ingredient purees, but I feel this book truly shines in the family meal recipes. I am already an avid cook, but it's difficult to come up with many ideas for meals that my teenagers and my 7 month old will eat. The Italian stuffed spaghetti squash (I used the ground beef option and spinach rather than kale because that's what we had) is so amazing and will be one of our usual from now on. I just pureed it to slightly chunky for my little guy and he absolutely loved it. We also loved the simple broccoli soup (with grilled cheese for the rest of us), and the tropical fruit smoothie is so good that it's almost impossible to belive that it's healthy. My baby loves the nettle and hibiscus infusion (and mixed in some lotion it did wonders for his irritated skin). I am excited to keep working through this book and very much recommend it!

I bought this book hoping for a soaked-oatmeal finger food solution to my son's digust of his morning oatmeal. Given that it has "toddler" in the title, I figured that it must include finger foods for toddlers and likely something with oats. That was a huge disappointment--there are none! It's not very helpful at all for someone already familiar with WAPF. I regret my purchase and wish I could get a full refund--including somebody else to package it and take it to the post office!

The perfect introduction to food but also great for adults!

I have had 5 kids and used this book, it has been priceless. I now purchase it as a baby shower gift for new moms. If you are not familiar to the traditional way of living and eating it may take a small amount of time to change your mindset, but Renee explains everything with grace and gentleness and the recipes are simple. Purchase this for you and your baby's health, well being and future.

My HBHC clients love this resource! The recipes are simple and the Instructrions are very easy to follow! A must have for all parents! The recipes use foods most ppl usual purchase.

A lot of recipes and nice photos with every one recipe. Most important - there is not written to give to child stupid unhealthy grain foods. I feel sorry I didn't have it with my first child. She would not have any exams or stomach problems now.