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When I started this blog, I had high hopes for creating a post every month about a new book I had read. As I am coming to realize, that was unrealistic for me. I know other parents can understand when I say, there isn’t enough hours in the day! After more than two months of reading it, I finally had a chance to finish reading Bringing Up Bébé
For those of you that know me and my husband, you know Paris is a special place for us, so when I saw this book, I just had to read it. Bringing Up Bébé
On Pregnancy
- Pregnancy isn’t an excuse to eat everything in site.
- Don’t obsessively research about pregnancy too much, just go with your gut feeling.
On Baby Sleep Patterns
- On average French babies “do their nights” aka, sleep through the night anywhere between 2-3 months. Why, because the parents pause and listen to their babies before going right in to get them. Sometimes a baby is just moving into another sleep cycle and by us rushing in to get him or her we might fully wake them up, thus creating a bad habit. Wish I tried this one, says the mom still getting up with her 1 year old!!! AHHH
“Newborns typically can’t connect sleep cycles on their own. But from about two or three months they usually can, if given the chance to learn how…connecting sleep cycles is like riding a bike: if a baby manages to fall back to sleep on his own even once, he’ll have an easier time doing it again the next time.”
On Parenting
- French parents teach their children to “wait” at a very young age. For example, when they are preparing lunch and their child asks for something, the French parent will tell them to wait a minute and they will be right with them as soon as they are finished with what the are doing. Although this seems like a simple concept, I often find myself to be at my toddler’s beck and call. Since reading this book, I realized I am doing her a disservice by giving her everything she asks for right away. I have noticed less meltdowns since implementing this change, but we are still working on the concept of waiting.
“Could it be that making children delay gratification – as middle-class French parents do – actually makes them calmer and more resilient? Whereas middle-class American kids, who are in general more used to getting what they want right away, go to pieces under stress?”
On Food
- Kids do not have to be picky eaters who only eat one type of food group; carbohydrates. French parents feed their children what they eat from an early age. This is one thing I was actually doing before I read this book. Both of my girls are pretty good eaters and a lot of people are amazed how many different vegetables they will eat. This is not by chance, it is because my husband and I introduce them to so many different types of foods and let them decide if they like them or not. If they don’t eat it then I will reintroduce at a later date in a different form.
- French children do not snack throughout the day. They have one snack between lunch and dinner so they won’t spoil their appetites and they actually will eat more because of it.
- Let kids prepare food with you. It makes it more fun to do as a family and kids will want to eat what they just helped to prepare. This is something I recently started to do with my toddler and she loves it. She’s only two so there are limitations to what she can handle, but I have noticed a positive change in her behavior when I am starting to cook. It is teaching her all about the foods we eat and hopefully setting her up for a great relationship with food in the future.
- Always encourage your child to taste a new food, but never force it. I have been trying this method with my daughter so she will experience different flavors and it has been working. To my surprise, sometimes she will actually keep eating something I asked her to just try.
- Serve food in courses and always make vegetables the first one. For example, while you are preparing dinner, cut up some fresh veggies, like red peppers and put it on the plate for the kids. Since they are so hungry at this point they might actually eat it before the rest of the food comes out.
- There are no kids menus in France. Kids are expected to eat what the adults eat and because of it they eat a balanced and healthy diet.
“I grow to dread the ubiquitous “kids menus” in American restaurants. It doesn’t matter what type of restaurant we’re in – seafood, Italian, Cuban. The kids’ menus all have practically identical offerings: hamburgers, fried chicken fingers (now euphemistically called chicken “tenders”), plain pizza, and perhaps spaghetti. There are almost never any vegetables, unless you count French fries or potato chips.”
I really enjoyed reading this book and hearing about the author’s backstory. If you are only interested in reading about the French parenting techniques, I suggest getting her book Bébé Day by Day: 100 Keys to French Parenting
Happy Reading!
Up Next:
Want to read a long with me? The book I am currently reading is Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting
