Make mealtime magic for the whole family! The link between the food that children eat and their physical and general well-being is widely recognized today. Armed with this easy-to-use cookbook, you can be confident of preparing enticing food that will give your child the best nutritional start in life. Tempting Recipes. From first purees for weaning babies and delicious snacks to tempt toddlers with tiny appetites to imaginative and nutritious meals that the whole family can enjoy, First Meals includes more than 150 fully illustrated recipes, all of which have been tested on a panel of babies, toddlers, and young children. Nutritional breakdowns of recipes are included so you can be sure your child is enjoying a balanced diet. Annabel Karmel is an acknowledged expert on all aspects of feeding the under-fives. She offers clear and sensible advice on healthy eating for every stage of a young child's development and explains how each key stage affects a child's nutritional needs. Also included are effective strategies for dealing with specific problems, such as feeding a reluctant eater or a child with food allergies. Packed with delicious recipes, practical advice, and labor-saving tips for food preparation, no household with young children should be without this cookbook.

Annabel Karmel's First Meals may be the perfect new-mom gift. Its real charm is for the decoratively challenged (or the desperate); fun food-presentation ideas, like chicken-sausage snails. (Time magazine)

Recipes little kids can sink their teeth into. (Parenting)

When it comes to eating, I've learned that children are like the rest of us, just shorter. Some happily gobble down sushi and broccoli, while others refuse to eat anything but chicken breast and bananas. And while most kids I know will eat noodles, peanut butter, and strawberry yogurt, I don't count on it. That's what makes Annabel Karmel's First Meals so useful. It offers plans and recipes in such an easy and varied way that you're sure to find something your child will like. For instance, if your preschooler won't eat the lightly curried Singapore noodles, maybe he'll go for the totally safe chicken and rice. She refuses oatmeal? How about yogurt pancakes? The book starts with feeding at four months and ends at age five. First-time parents should particularly like the section on introducing solids to newborns, which gives directions for making baby food and freezing it in ice-cube trays. Then, in a year or two, they can look up Karmel's strategies for dealing with the picky-eating syndrome that every toddler goes through. In addition to age-appropriate recipes, throughout the book is sensible information on hygiene, nutrition, snacking, and what to feed a sick child (turns out that it doesn' t matter as long as he drinks). Most of the time Karmel avoids the done-up dishes that cause cuteness overload in so many cookbooks for children. Though she does resort to the occasional cat's face on a pizza and heart-shaped chicken nuggets, I can easily forgive her because the rest of her food is honest and flavorful ó good enough, in fact, for grown-ups. (Irene Sax, Epicurious)

...the perfect new-mom gift... it's real charm for the decoratively challenged. (Time Magazine)

For help from an expert, try First Meals, a beautifully illustrated, easy-to-follow guide to cooking for kids up to the age of 5. (Newsweek)

If your little darling is a food snob who has you jumping through hoops at every meal, Annabel Karmel's First Meals may be just the inspiration you needÖan all-round nutrition guide, with lots of pull-out charts, photos and lively graphics. (New York Daily News)

The easy-to-follow illustrated guide to a well-stocked pantry, equipment, and food hygiene make this a baby food bible. (Mr. Food's Easy Cooking)

Annabel Karmel is a leading expert on cooking for children and has written several best-selling books on the subject. she is the mother of three children, and as a buy working mother herself, she has experienced firsthand the difficulties in feeding your children. A trained Cordon Bleu cook, Annabel Karmel has combined her research into child nutrition with her knowledge of cooking, testing recipes on a panel of babies and toddlers who did not care how healthy the food was and were only impressed if it tasted good. Annabel Karmel appears regularly on television and radio and contributes to a variety of newspapers and magazines.