French Kids Eat Everything: How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules for Raising Happy,by Karen Le Billon
Synopses & Reviews
Stop thinking about nutrition and start thinking about your childs eating habits instead.
You already know how to give your kids healthy food. But the hard part is getting them to eat it. After years of research and working with parents, Dina Rose, discovered a powerful truth: When parents focus solely on nutrition, their kids—surprisingly—eat poorly. But when families shift their emphasis to behaviors the skills and habits kids are taught—they learn to eat right.
Every child can learn to eat well—but only if you show them how to do it. Dr. Rose describes the three habits—proportion, variety, and moderation—all kids need to learn, and gives you clever, practical ways to teach these food skills. All children can learn:
How to confidently explore strange, new foods
How to know when theyre hungry and when theyre full
What to do when they say theyre starving”—and about to attend a birthday party
How to branch out from easy-to-like prepackaged kid fare to more mature tastes and textures: savory, tangy, runny, crunchy.
How to engage in open and honest talk about food without yelling I dont like it!”
With It's Not About the Broccoli, you can teach your children how to eat, and give them the skills they need for a lifetime of health and vitality.
"Part cultural study, memoir, and children's food guide, Le Billon's book is a breezy but practical volume for hurried parents looking to keep their kids well-fed. A mother of two young girls (Sophie and Claire), the author recalls the year her family lived in PlÃ©neuf Val-AndrÃ©, France, her husband Philippe's hometown on the Brittany coast. She compares North American eating habits (e.g., fast-food consumption, constant snacking) to French norms they learned along the way — 'French parents gently compel their children to eat healthy food. They expect their kids to eat everything they are served, uncomplainingly.' In due time, Le Billon (Eau Canada) drafts a set of rules for her daughters, strategies she believes readers can easily follow as well — parents should 'schedule meals and menus;' 'Kids should eat what adults eat: no substitutes and no short-order cooking;' and perhaps most importantly: parents 'are in charge of food education!' Her tone is straightforward, generous, and gentle. That Le Billon concludes with a small collection of kid-friendly recipes — including a Five-Minute Fish en Papillote and Clafoutis (sweet cherry soufflÃ©) — makes this kid-friendly foodie manifesto all the more accessible. (Apr. 3)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Moving her young family to her husband's hometown in northern France, Karen Le Billon is prepared for some cultural adjustment but is surprised by the food education she and her family (at first unwillingly) receive. In contrast to her daughters, French children feed themselves neatly and happily—eating everything from beets to broccoli, salad to spinach, mussels to muesli. The family's food habits soon come under scrutiny, as Karen is lectured for slipping her fussing toddler a snack—"a recipe for obesity!"—and forbidden from packing her older daughter a lunch in lieu of the elaborate school meal.
The family soon begins to see the wisdom in the "food rules" that help the French foster healthy eating habits and good manners—from the rigid "no snacking" rule to commonsense food routines that we used to share but have somehow forgotten. Soon, the family cures picky eating and learns to love trying new foods. But the real challenge comes when they move back to North America—where their commitment to "eating French" is put to the test. The result is a family food revolution with surprising but happy results—which suggest we need to dramatically rethink the way we feed children, at home and at school.
French Kids Eat Everything is a wonderfully wry account of how Karen Le Billon was able to alter her childrens deep-rooted, decidedly unhealthy North American eating habits while they were all living in France.