Put down the spoon and forget the purées -- baby-led weaning is the easy, natural way for your baby to start solid foods. Around 6 months, most babies are developmentally ready to self-feed. The philosophy behind baby-led weaning is to offer your baby healthy finger foods and let her determine how much or how little she wants to eat. The baby-led method has been proven to:

• Encourage healthy eating habits
• Discourage pickiness
• Help children learn to listen to their bodies
• Build confident eaters.

Author Teresa Pitman, a leading parenting authority and mother of four, has put together all you need to know about the baby-led method in an informative, visually appealing package. Baby-Led Weaning features at-a-glance nutrition and food tips as well as specific chapters on special diets and allergies. Parents around the world are turning to the baby-led method, and Baby-Led Weaning is a uniquely authoritative and lively volume on this growing phenomenon.

TERESA PITMAN is a childbirth educator, doula, and the executive director of La Leche League Canada. She has written extensively about pregnancy and childbirth for such publications as Great Expectations and Today's Parent.

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DR. JACK NEWMAN is a Toronto pediatrician who has practised medicine since 1970. In 1984 he established the first hospital-based breastfeeding clinic in Canada, at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, and today runs a breastfeeding clinic in Toronto. Jack has been a consultant with UNICEF’s Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative and is a popular speaker at conferences across North America and beyond. He is the father of three children, all breast-fed.

TERESA PITMAN, former executive director of La Leche League Canada, has been helping mothers with breastfeeding for more than twenty-five years. Her articles on parenting and other topics have appeared in Today’s Parent, Pregnancy, Baby and Toddler, Mothering, Chatelaine, More and other magazines. Teresa is the author or co-author of twelve other books on parenting topics, most recently the eighth edition of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. She is the mother of four breastfed children. Follow her on Twitter @whattpwrites.

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An excellent resource for both new and seasoned parents. It's filled with everything parents could want to know to get their child started with solid foods. The book covers everything from signs of readiness and first foods, to safe feeding practices, to special diets and allergies. It has great information on setting the stage for lifelong, healthy eating habits and even includes some great recipes. It covers what parents can expect and what to do if problems, like constipation, arise. Teresa Pitman does a good job of sharing fact-based information in an easy to understand, engaging way

La Leche League USA

Pitman, a grandmother and longtime La Leche League leader, convincingly argues that babies and toddlers like being able to choose and pick up foods themselves. In the process, they learn to listen to their bodies and figure out what and how much to eat. Later in life, as a result, they're less likely to become obese. Pitman mixes anecdotes about her own grandkids with advice about how to know when it's OK to start solid foods after the first six months. She also includes a few baby-friendly recipes, such as hummus, oatmeal pancakes, and yogurt-and-applesauce ice pops, and offers first-food no-no's, such as spicy foods, processed meats, and honey, which may contain botulism spores that can make babies very ill. An index makes it easy to turn to subjects, including "allergies." Adorable photos of healthy, smiling babies with nicely cut-up fruits and vegetables on their high-chair trays help Pitman illustrate the case for baby-led weaning.

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