Phillipson-Webb - Sprout right family food: good nutrition and over 130 simple recipes for baby, toddler, and the whole family

ongratulations on entering this next stage in your life and becoming a parent (or grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, or caregiver in a little ones life). As with every new stage and phase of life, questions are bound to come up. Every parent I have ever met wants to do the best possible job nurturing her or his children, but wanting to do whats best can also bring great pressure. I found that becoming a parent brought me to a place of uncertainty and challenge like no other. My body instinctively knew what to do in growing, nourishing, and birthing my child, but when we got home from the hospital and it was my turn to take over, I suddenly became aware of all the choices I hadand all the things I didnt know. It was scary and exciting at the same time!

Because of my nutrition training and because I grew up in a household where home cooking was modelled for me, making meals for my family just like my mum did for hers felt completely natural to me. Not only did my mum cook from scratch, but she canned, pickled, and bought half a cow many times, using every morsel of it (yes, tongue sandwiches in grade 5 was a real thing). I understood that food prep was normal, and that stuck with me. I believe that this is something we need to model for our kids so they dont fall into the trap of not knowing how to cook and relying on processed and store-bought options.

Knowing that food is the most influential aspect of health is what made me choose to head back to school and become a nutritionist in the mid-1990s. I was living in England at the time and was fortunate to learn from forward thinkers at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition (ION) in London and to embark on their three-year program. I graduated in 1999 and began my new journey of focusing on food. I moved back to Toronto in 2001 and discovered that organic food, nutrition, and health werent as much of a focus there as they were in England. After my first daughter was born in 2003, I started my company Sprout Right, speaking with parents all over the city in workshops on how to feed their babies, themselves, and their growing families. I taught my Mommy Chef cooking classes for eight years and began working in television and radio.

Being approached to write the first edition of Sprout Right in 2009 was a dream come true. I had always wanted to share what I had studied and taught in workshops and cooking classes with even more people across the country, and I certainly didnt know how that would ever happenuntil it did! After Sprout Right was published, I received so many emails, comments, and messages from parents who told me that my book had become their biblecertainly not what I had been expecting, but incredibly humbling and thrilling to hear! I love teaching good eating practices and helping people introduce nutritional changes into their family life, whether through intimate to large speaking engagements, regular TV and radio segments, or interviews for print and online articles. Inspiring new parents to feed their babies well, and to see a change in their own eating and well-being as a result, is powerful. It makes me feel like Im doing what I am meant to.

In large part, its thanks to the feedback from readers of the first edition of Sprout Right that youll find a lot of new information in this edition. Theres also continual evolution in the scientific and medical research, which affects recommendations and trends in the diet and health arena. Theres always more to learn when it comes to nutrition. Because you could be reading this book years after it was published, I encourage you to take charge of and responsibility for your familys health and decide if the recommendations here are right for you. If you dont agree with some of my suggestions, thats okay. Not everything is going to make sense for you and your family. But if I get you thinking, push you outside your comfort zone, and get you into the kitchen, then I have done my job. In some of the recipes you might encounter a food that you dont like, and dont think your baby will either. Try itboth of you! You never know when something unfamiliar will become your new favourite.