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

Narrated by: Cris Dukehart

Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

French Kids Eat Everything is a wonderfully wry account of how Karen Le Billon was able to alter her children’s deep-rooted, decidedly unhealthy North American eating habits while they were all living in France.

At once a memoir, a cookbook, a how-to handbook, and a delightful exploration of how the French manage to feed children without endless battles and struggles with pickiness, French Kids Eat Everything features recipes, practical tips, and 10 easy-to-follow rules for raising happy and healthy young eaters - a sort of French Women Don’t Get Fat meets Food Rules. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2012 Karen Le Billon (P)2019 HarperAudio

I wish I had read this sooner

This book answers so many questions about the way I was raised and in turn how I have raised my child. My wife and I are picky eaters so of course our child would be too. We have a bad good culture in our country that pushes snacking and other bad habits. Before you know it you are teaching your children these same bad habits. This book does a good job of identifying those bad habits and reasonable solutions.

A lovely book!

This book was a fantastic balance of entertainment and education! The writer conveys both wit and valuable information in his delightful read

A must read for parents

I absolutely adored this book. The food principles outlined here are familiar if you’ve read “Bringing Up Bebé”, but this gives an in-depth analysis and outline for those who want a plan specifically tailored to their children’s food education.
As I read this book, I was struck by how the story and information, presented for parents to use for their children, had a profound impact on my own view of food. I was on a journey of discovery with the author, uncovering my lack of food education and its many consequences in my life (emotional eating, anyone?) I know feel inspired to change my own relationship with food and in turn pass it down to my children, rather than simply make rules for the kids and give up on my own progress.
I want to speak specifically to Le Billon’s helpful clarification of the difference between authorization and authoritative parenting. This was revelatory for me in ways far beyond food habits. The concept of firm, but gentle, is now my parenting mantra and has finally helped me escape the very grape she illustrates: being aggressively authoritarian, feeling guilty, indulging, then cycling back to being too harsh. This perspective, more than any other, has changed my parenting for the better. Thank you, Karen!

I didn't find it useful

I really enjoyed the book, it was very interesting to learn about the French eating habits and lifestyle. However, in my situation it wasn't very useful or practical in helping my kids eat healthy. There are some good points she mentions: like the French focus on making the food taste really good and presentation is very important, and that snacking between meals is forbidden in French culture.
However, it is not practical to have all family members sit at the same time to eat their meals because some people have jobs that require them to stay at work till after midnight while the other family members need to be asleep by 8. Likewise, those people who work late can't wake up at 6 am to eat breakfast with the ones who sleep early.
Also, many French recipes are so time consuming to make from scratch. For example, it takes 8 to 16 hours to prepare a beef stock from scratch. People, especially working middle class parents, really don't have the time to put in all that effort to make French food. Maybe the French people are blessed with Godly talents in culinary sciences but even if I did achieve that excellence, I am 100%sure my children will not start eating lobster bisque or beef bourguinon anytime soon...
All I am saying there is an important factor that is missing in the book: practical helpful guidelines that actually WORK!

Eye opening and changed my parenting style

My picky eater motivated me on a quest to get her eating healthier foods and I tried all of the American ways, hired professionals and read so many books. I felt no real progress was being made. This book changed my perception on how our culture in America approaches food and picky eating. I began applying the concepts in our own home and what a complete game changer. This book was well written and narrated. Thankful and happy I bought it in audible so I can go back later for reference. Highly recommend especially for parents of picky eaters.

America, we need this!!

It’s such common sense when you hear (or read) it. My eyes were opened. This book got my wife’s attention immediately in the first chapter when she quotes a French saying “tell me how your child eats and I will know what kind of parent you are“. She felt attacked. And then listened intently to try to do better. Such a great read

Great Book, Bad Narrator

Good:
This book was so incredibly helpful as we’re starting to try to diversify our toddler’s diet. The French way of associating meals and food with positive things and a festive environment takes so much stress out of mealtime! It was also nice to feel like I could give myself permission to relax if my son doesn’t eat something the first or second time. I feel much calmer around food now. I tried some of her recipes on my toddler with varying success, but my husband and I love the new tastes and have started having family meals, which has honestly had the secondary benefit of strengthening our marriage bond as well, as we were often eating in front of the TV after our son went to bed.

Bad:
Good grief, this narrator is bad! Her tone is sharp and has a weird air of snobbery that makes this a tough listen. Her French is terrible, which is understandable considering she’s not a native speaker, but you’d think they could have written the phrases out phonetically for her. Someone should also let her know how to pronounce the word “anecdote.” Hearing her say “antic-dote” like 14x made me roll my eyes and question whether any of these recordings pass through the ears of an editor.

Delightful

I can’t remember where I saw someone talking about this book but I’m so glad I decided to listen to it! My daughter is 6 months old and I have felt so lost about how I was going to start food or if I should start at all yet and then considering baby led weaning.
I liked how she included failed attempts at her food approach.
Most of all I really liked how she talked about how not to teach your child to be emotionally tied to certain food me and my husband aren’t picky eaters but we are emotional eaters and in a lot of ways comfort foods was a big way my own mother showed love for me growing up

highly recommend

every parent who struggles getting their kids to eat needs to read this. also a great read if you have a general interest in food, nutrition, cooking, or even the french culture.

Required Reading!!

Extremely engaging! It is highly insightful on not only kids and picky eating, but also a close analysis of North American culture and their relationship with food through the lens of an unsuspecting nation, not to mention a compelling family story spread across two continents. 10/10 recommend to parents, parents to be, and parents never to be. This book is as important for rearing the next generation as it is for any North American.