A review by libbydmccarthy
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 by Karen Le Billon
4.0
If I had to summarize the best advice I got from this book succinctly, it would be:
keep trying to give your kids new foods and assume they will eventually learn to like everything, as long as you present it to them repeatedly. (like 20 times) Request that they at least taste everything on their plate, but if they don't like it, remove it from their presence and plan to try again another day. Also, kids don't need snacks and they are the root of the problem with unhealthy eating. (THANK YOU!! I hate prepping 5 meals a day!!!) It's okay to feel hunger. Kids will eat a better meal if they are allowed to feel hungry. Serve their least favorite foods first, while they are hungry.
Overall, I liked this book. It made me feel like I'm doing more than most but I could also be doing better about getting my kids to eat a variety of foods. It made me rethink forcing kids to eat food because it's good for them, but also forced me to analyze what and how I serve my kids new foods or foods I have learned they don't like.
However, a big part of me leaves this book feeling hopeless because it seem it takes an entire community to teach children to be happy about eating a variety of new foods and that just doesn't exist in the US. In France, according to Le Billon, it is the main focus of elementary education. Lunch is a gourmet experience at school, everyone is expected to eat school lunch, and a lot of their curriculum is based around food education, in the early years. In the US, we care (or at least pretend to care) more about reading and math in the early years.
keep trying to give your kids new foods and assume they will eventually learn to like everything, as long as you present it to them repeatedly. (like 20 times) Request that they at least taste everything on their plate, but if they don't like it, remove it from their presence and plan to try again another day. Also, kids don't need snacks and they are the root of the problem with unhealthy eating. (THANK YOU!! I hate prepping 5 meals a day!!!) It's okay to feel hunger. Kids will eat a better meal if they are allowed to feel hungry. Serve their least favorite foods first, while they are hungry.
Overall, I liked this book. It made me feel like I'm doing more than most but I could also be doing better about getting my kids to eat a variety of foods. It made me rethink forcing kids to eat food because it's good for them, but also forced me to analyze what and how I serve my kids new foods or foods I have learned they don't like.
However, a big part of me leaves this book feeling hopeless because it seem it takes an entire community to teach children to be happy about eating a variety of new foods and that just doesn't exist in the US. In France, according to Le Billon, it is the main focus of elementary education. Lunch is a gourmet experience at school, everyone is expected to eat school lunch, and a lot of their curriculum is based around food education, in the early years. In the US, we care (or at least pretend to care) more about reading and math in the early years.