What The French Get Right About Feeding Kids
The French tend to take anything food related pretty seriously and feeding babies is no exception. In France, food education and taste development are considered to be important parts of a parent’s job.
No one culture has all the answers, but in my humble opinion the French have some very good ideas about feeding kids.
Below are my favorite aspects of the typical French approach:
Palate Training Starts Early:
As noted in my first foods around the world post, from day one of eating, French parents focus on developing palates. “Taste development” is even discussed by French pediatricians with new parents.
Unlike many countries where the first foods tend to be the ones least likely to be spat out (oatmeal, yogurt, applesauce, sweet potato), the French start with various green vegetables and fine cheeses—foods that have unique flavors. They introduce new foods quickly when baby starts eating with the goal of “taste diversification” even in the first month of eating.
Part of the reason this is so important is because of the “flavor window”. Young babies are more willing to accept a wide range of foods and flavors. Exposing young babies to many foods can help them eat a larger variety of foods as they grow older and naturally become more picky.
Synced Feeding Schedule:
The French stick to a meal and snack schedule which is more or less universally followed. French kids, starting at about 9 months old, eat 3 meals plus one snack called “gouter” which occurs in the afternoon.
The beauty of so little snacking is that kids tend to be quite hungry when they sit down for meals. I also found that stopping on demand snacking brought more calm and less frustration around food in my home. (More on that here.)
Everyone Eats the Same Food:
The French scoff at the idea that kids need special foods or separate menu options such as buttered pasta and grilled cheese. Kids simply eat what grown ups eat in (usually) smaller amounts.
There is not the large marketing push we have in the US to convince parents and kids alike that kids need specific foods such as star shaped purple cereal puffs and yogurt in tubes with cartoons on the package. The French tend to eat (and feed) more whole foods and favor high quality ingredients.
Even at school when parents are not around, the children are served gourmet school lunches with four courses including a vegetable starter and a cheese course.
Good Food, Good Mood:
Family meals are formal though also relaxed. Meals are a time to enjoy good food and good conversation.
Though French parents might be more rigid than their American counterparts when it comes to what and when their kids eat, they are more relaxed and hands off during the meal. They may talk about the taste and texture of foods but they don’t spend the meal agonizing over what is and isn’t going into a child’s mouth.
Have you experienced feeding practices from different cultures? What did you like or not like from what you observed?
For more on this topic I highly recommend the books Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman and French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon (or her blog).