The Contented Child's Food Bible

The complete guide to feeding 0-6 year olds

Gina Ford & Paul Sacher

Any parent who already follows Gina Ford’s guides to baby-care - and there are certainly many who do - will welcome this latest book. The ‘Food Bible’ provides information about what kinds of food children need for good growth, health and development, and also about what a parent should avoid feeding a child.

Much is made of in the media about the way we feed our children all kinds of junk food - so this book is well-timed. However, a parent may well feel relieved when reading ‘there is no such thing as junk food, only a junk diet’. If chocolate or crisps are eaten occasionally - along with other balanced diets - these will not harm your child.

I like the way Ford warns against listing food as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ because this makes the ‘bad’ food seem even more desirable. I am a great believer in offering different foods to children over and over again. Don’t give up if they turn up their noses at first, don’t make a drama out of it but keep on offering up a selection of different foods.

We have all heard of children who have become more and more fussy, and whose sole diet gets more and more restricted perhaps with an odd combination such foods as fish nuggets and cucumber day in and day out. There is plenty of advice about helping a fussy eater and how to encourage a child to eat a wider variety of fruit and vegetables.

There is easy-to-access information about weaning, diets, poor growth, allergies and much much more.

We all know Gina Ford, the childcare expert, and she has co-written this book with Paul Sacher, a specialist dietitian at Great Ormond Street Hospital. A happy alliance.

Vermilion

paperback  £9.99   ISBN 0091891566

available  from       

Review published 18 April 2004 © Jill Curtis 2004