Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Presentation But Short on Substance
Review: I've read most every baby food/nutrition book on the market. This book is by far the prettiest: it has beautiful color illustrations that make you feel as if feeding your baby will be an exciting and colorful journey. However, once the romance of the first feeding is gone (and after you've scrubbed dried brown banana off your child's tray for the thousandth time), I fear that this book will get lost in the dusty recesses of your kitchen bookshelf, as my copy has.My main criticism is that the book doesn't deliver what the cover promises: "Fast, healthy, and fun foods." The book should be subtitled "Fun foods to make if you are in culinary school and have a whole lot of free time on your hands." Check out these suggestions: vegetable croquettes, apple, mango & apricot muesli, paella, chocolate profiteroles & puff pastry mice. Even the purees are exotic and complicated: dried apricots with semolina, spinach, potato, parsnip & leek, tasty ground meat with rutabaga & tomato. Now if someone wants to really knock themselves out for a special occasion, I think that these menu suggestions could be very inspirational. But, the average parent just needs someone to tell them that they can steam carrots in the microwave with a little water then mash them with a fork. I really lost hope when I noticed that they devote an entire page to "making purees with a mouli." Where would I even begin to find a mouli, and if I did, where the heck would I find room to store it? Have these folks never heard of a food processor or blender? Why make life so complicated? I've got to imagine that the authors of this book live a very priveledged life or that they've never had small children clinging to their legs! I also think that the time estimates for the recipes are inaccurate. Many of the recipes involve quite elaborate decoration suggestions, yet the prep time is listed as only 20 or 30 minutes. Again, the pictures are lovely, and I really do wish my food could be so inventive. But the pictures remind me of the Christmas cookie covers of magazines that showcase all those elaborately decorated cookies that I could never hope to reproduce. Hey, we are not talking high art here, a good day for me is when there is more food in the baby than there is on the floor. Another complaint I have with this book is that it covers too much ground without much depth. This book begins at birth and goes to five years, and it's only 145 pages. With so much space taken up with glossy pictures and exotic recipes, there is not much room to cover any one topic effectively. All in all, I think this book might be a good supplement cookbook to have. You might pull it out some day when the sun is shining and you are feeling especially ambitious. But, on the average day, I can think of five other cookbooks I'd pull out before it.
Rating: 
Summary: my son loves every recipe
Review: i bought this book when my son was 9 mos old and it has been so helpful. it uses easy, common ingredients and the recipes are so easy to make. i do agree about the presentation part but i just ignore those sections and make the recipe without worrying about whether its in a star shape or not.
Rating: 
Summary: This book could have been better
Review: I bought this book so I could feed my baby healthy meals without resorting to canned baby foods. Unfortunately the recipes focused too much on presentation. My baby has allergies to milk and eggs,so some of the recipes I could not use.I also feel some of the suggestions were unsafe when it came to giving your child certain foods at certain stages due to serious choking hazards. But I did find the daily meal planner to be helpful in the back of the book.
Rating:
Summary: I Returned This Book!
Review: Although the illustrations were lovely and there appeared to be some good nutritional information, I felt that it offered suggestions that were unsafe; e.g., offering babies things like raw carrot sticks, which commonsense as well as my pediatrician says is a choking hazard. Additionally, I felt there was a little too much emphasis on presentation than is necessary for a baby. (I know my 9 month old really didn't care if the bread was cut into a star shape or square, although this would undoubtedly be of importance to an older toddler.) To me, the book just wasn't what I was looking for; i.e., easy, nutritious, safe and tasty recipes for my 9 month old.
Rating:
Summary: wrong measuring from British-American recipe?
Review: I followed some recipes as much as I can, tried a couple of times but I believe some measurement conversion was wrong. When I tried chicken nuggets recipe, the contents out of food processor came out so liquidy, I could never possibly "cut" the shapes out using cookie cutter. Book was published in England first, so I suspect some conversion error. Well, I hope so, I have been cooking for quite some time. But otherwise, it is quite a nice book.
Rating: 
Summary: Perfect Solution for "What am I going to feed my child?"
Review: This book is the perfect solution for Moms who need ideas on what foods to introduce to a child, how to prepare them, and illustrations that make you want to fix them. I never considered making my child's babyfood, but if that floats your boat, this book is full of techniques and food purees to try. I'm the Mom that needed the help in transitioning from babyfood, to fingerfoods. I'm still trying out different foods that will give my child a fun food experience and at the same time test the waters of her palate. Word of mouth is a powerful thing. . .a lot of Moms in our playgroup have bought the book as well. You buy cookbooks to use on your family, why not a special cookbook for the newest addition to your family? I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Great "First Meals" for first time mom
Review: As a first time Mom I wanted to start my baby out right with good nutrition, but did not want to pay the price of jar food. Annabel Karmel's book easily displayed directions for starting the process of making your own baby food. As a mom working full-time, I had my doubts if I could do this. However, I was surprised how easy, and fast this was. The book has wonderful illustrations, examples, and nutrition tips. It aslo gives recipes, the the older baby, toddler, and child would enjoy. A great book--a great resource.
Rating:
Summary: Great, easy-to-follow ideas !
Review: This book is full of great nutritional advice for all ages and stages, followed by creative and tasty recipes. I was already trying to cook my seven-month-old's meals, but I didn't know what to fix, how to fix it, and how to make it age-appropriate. This book gives you all the basics, from cooking to storing. Once you get started, it is easy to adapt and create for your own child's needs.
Rating:
Summary: Great ideas and advice for first and second (etc) time moms!
Review: Aside from providing great ideas for healthy, easy to prepare meals, First Meals helps you transition your infant from strained food to regular table food.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful pictures, sound advice, but how practical?
Review: I have mixed feelings about this book. The advice about nutrition is heartfelt and sound, the pictures as in all books by this publisher are great, and I certainly got some wonderful ideas. However, I really wonder how many busy mothers of today (and that includes mothers at home, as I am) have time for many of the recipes and ideas in this book. When you have a young child ready for lunch, do you really have time to make them Chicken Sausage Snails that really look like snails, or Sleeping Cannelloni that look like little sleeping girls? I understand that some recipes would be for a special day, but so many of the recipes in this book are quite complex. And maybe that's fine---maybe I should be making more things like those! And I very well might try after being inspired by this book.
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