French Kids Eat Everything

At eight months, baby Clément’s eating schedule looked like this:
8:00 A.M. ~ wake up, 240 ml milk
(2- to 3-hour nap)
12:30 P.M. ~ Vegetable soup, fruit puree, or yogurt
(2- to 3-hour nap)
4:30 P.M. ~ 240 ml milk
(1-hour nap)
7:00 P.M. ~ 250 ml milk with dissolved baby cereal

Children eat what they are served. Adults, not children, decide what is served.
No substitute or replacement dishes, and no extra “fillers” like bread and butter.
Kids eat what adults eat.
No special dishes for the kids.
Don’t eat the same dish more than once a week.
Stop relying on pasta and bread.
Eat processed foods only once a week.
Shop only at the local market. No ketchup, except on hot dogs and hamburgers.
No complaining about food.
If you complain about something, you have to eat a second serving.
I pasted The Plan on the fridge, next to the list of French Food Rules. Written down, it seemed more impressive. It also seemed more and more unlikely that this was actually going to work. How could I force my kids to start behaving like this? I’d have to have a strategy, I decided. This too got written up in markers and posted on the fridge:
The Strategy
1. Explain the rules in advance.
2. All rules must be obeyed.
3. Once introduced, stick to the new rules. Absolutely no backing down.

THE PLAN
Our New Food Routines
What We Have to Change
Eat four meals per day: breakfast, lunch, after-school goûter, dinner.
No more random, extra snacks, especially bedtime snacks.
Eat only at the table.

Rule #1:
Parents: You are in charge of your children’s food education.
Rule #2:
Food is not a pacifier, a distraction, a toy, a bribe, a reward, or a substitute for discipline.
Rule #3:
Parents schedule meals and menus. Kids eat what adults eat: no substitutes and no short-order cooking.
Rule #4:
Food is social. Eat family meals together at the table, with no distractions.

Treat the food rules as habits or routines rather than strict regulations; it’s fine to relax them once in a while

French Food Rule #10:
Eating is joyful, not stressful

French Food Rule #10:
Eating is joyful, not stressful.

French Food Rule #9:
Eat mostly real, homemade food, and save treats for special occasions. (Hint: Anything processed is not “real” food

French Food Rule #8:
Take your time, for both cooking and eating.
Slow food is happy food

At meals, eat until you’re satisfied rather than full