Happy Friday! What a better way to quick off French Fridays than with a food related post? Two things I’m passionate about, French culture and food education!
Today’s post comes from Karen Le Billon’s book, French Kids Eat Everything: How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules for Raising Happy, Healthy Eaters
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I met Ms. Le Billon a few years ago at a Sopexa food education conference. I had been a fan and had purchased her book, which discusses how moving to France with her two young daughters created a food revolution in her home.
Having lived in France and having witnessed their approach to food, the type of food kids eat and the food kids are served in cafeterias, I knew Ms. Le Billon was on to something. Very appropriate for today’s #FoodFri as well, I leave you with the French Food Rules.
For more information about Ms. Le Billon, food in French schools and how to cure picky eaters the French way, check out Ms. Le Billon’s site. You can download a free copy of the French Food Rules on her site!
I recommend her book, French Kids Eat Everything, check out my review on Mamiverse.
Let’s chat! Are you familiar with the French food rules? Will you try these at home? Which is your favorite? Leave a comment below, or via Twitter! @dianalimongi
But the French way isn’t a perfect way either 😀 it’s not bad, I must say, but we do have problems of obesity in France, kids not eating their vegetables, snacking all the time etc. It’s probably not as bad as in other countries.
I live in Germany, my son just turned 1 and I get horrified when I see kids at the playground being handed food when they haven’t even asked (or baby-spoken) for it or always given something in the buggy etc. We try to eat at the table all our meals (we have breakfast and dinner with him, he eats lunch before me and I don’t snack at 4 pm but he does) and sure, it happens that sometimes we are at the playground and he gets hungry but we sit together and he gets some food, or I stop the buggy and I sit on a bench, while he eats. I think the regularity of the meals (3 meals a day and 1-2 snacks) and eating at the table are major factors of having good eating habits.
I do appreciate the German laid-back side of eating: let your kids try what they want, eat how much they want, etc. I found it less stressful than the baby eating plan parents get in France.
Maybe our “framework” habits and our somewhat relaxed views on the quantity and diversity has made our son able to eat with his own fork or spoon (with some big stains on the table, his bib and under the table! Haha!). We’ll never know but we are quite happy at the moment on how we deal with this.