Early Vegetable Variety: The French Advantage

The evidence keeps coming in: We should eat more like the French.

We should feed our infants their way do too.  

The French have figured out how to introduce their infants to vegetables in a way that works.  And their method doesn't just produce better vegetable eaters, their method produces better eaters. Period.

Remember all the hoopla over the book French Women Don't Get Fat? Well, excellent eating habits extend to French kids too.  Check out Karen Le Billon's French Kids School Lunch Project for a real eye-opener.  (I guess she's right, French Kids Eat Everything.)

What is the French secret?

The French introduce their infants to lots of different vegetables during the first month of weaning. And, they rotate through those vegetables regularly.  

I'm sure there are lots of other factors at work here, but check this out.  Researchers recently compared the feeding practices of French and German mothers and found some significant differences.  (Spoiler alert: We’re more like the Germans.)

During the first month of weaning:

• The French mothers typically gave their infants 6 different vegetables. 
• The German mothers typically gave their infants 3 different vegetables. 

More specifically:

• More than 40% of the French infants were exposed to 7-12 vegetables.
• None of the German infants were given more than 6.

The French mothers also rotated through more vegetables from day-to-day.

• The French mothers made 18 or more changes in the vegetables they offered from day-to-day during the 28 day study. Some made as many as 27 changes.
• In Germany, more than 80% of the mothers made fewer than 7 vegetable changes during the course of the study. None made more than 13.

Variety.  It really is the key to teaching kids to eat right.  Read The BIG Fix.

When asked to explain why they choose their particular feeding strategy: 

• The French mothers mentioned taste development.
• The German mothers talked about food allergies.

The prevalence of food allergies in infants in France and Germany is the same: 5-8%.

We’re concerned about food allergies here too. According to the CDC, though, the prevalence of food allergies in the U.S. for children under 5 is also low: 4.7%.

Maybe we should be thinking more about taste development and less about food allergies.  Read Why Toddlers Don't Eat Vegetables.

General vegetable consumption is higher in France than in Germany.

And it's higher than in the U.S. too.  I guess the French are on to something.

And here's an added bonus: Because the French mothers introduced more vegetables, they didn't have to worry when one was rejected. (That's something I can get behind.)

• French mothers typically gave up offering an initially rejected vegetable after 1 or 2 tries.
• German mothers usually offered the rejected vegetable 3-5 times.

So get the French Advantage!  More alternatives. Less pressure.  More success.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

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Source: Maier, A., C. Chabanet, B. Schaal, P. Leathwood, and S. Issanchou. 2007. “Food-Related Sensory Experience From Birth Through Weaning: Contrasted Patterns in Two Nearby European Regions.” Appetite 49: 429-40.

The BIG Fix: What To Do When Feeding Strategies Fail

A lot of times parents try strategies that fail—even ones I have suggested. (Say it isn't so!)

If I ask my son to have one happy bite of something and he refuses to the point of tears, do I press it until he gives in/force it or just try again the next meal?  —Kendra  Read The Happy Bite.

But what if, when you ask him to work on a little more of his dinner, he still doesn't eat the peas and asks again for seconds of pasta. Does he get it? —Sally  Read How to Serve Seconds Without Hurting Your Kids’ Habits.)

— — Comments from my Facebook page.

Attacking an individual eating issue head-on usually doesn't work, at least not in the long run.  It's like applying a bandaid to cure a disease: it's a topical solution to a systemic problem.  (And you need a different solution for every problem. It's enough to drive you nuts.)

You need to change the system to change your kids' habits.

The way to solve pretty much any eating issue is to set up a strong feeding/eating structure.

I wish I had a magic bullet answer—Do this and your kids will eat peas! Try new foods! Turn into foodies!—but I don't.  And that is because:

Eating problems never start where you see them, and they're never isolated issues.  

Solving an eating problem is like fixing a water leak. The source could be anywhere. And the water shifts as you plug up its path!  (Bandaids? Water? Sorry for so many similes.)

To fix an eating issue for the long run you've got to fix the structure (or the system).  In other words, you've got to start fixing dinner problems at breakfast. Everything is related.

Think of structure as a set of rules (or patterns) that shape how you and your kids interact around eating.

I know the word rule sounds bad, and I apologize if it makes you bristle. But every family already has a set of unpoken rules that shape eating behavior.

Go a few rounds with your kids before fixing them their favorites? The rule your family is living by: everyone eats what they want (but sometimes you have to fight for it first).

I hate to be the one to say this but...

Children eat the way they've been taught to eat.

That's not to say that your children don't come to the table with their own issues.  They do. And some kids can be particularly challenging to teach. But if you can recite the routine, your kids can too.

If you want to change the way your kids eat you've got to change the way you interact with them around food.

Put this structure into place regardless of your issue.

Even if you can't see how it'll help.  It will.

1) Serve different foods from day-to-day for every meal and snack.  (Structure for What to serve.)

I cannot emphasis the importance of rotating foods on a regular basis for increasing your kids’ food acceptance, and for shaping their attitudes towards eating. If you can also mix things up so fruits and vegetables are offered more frequently, that's a bonus.

Read House Building 101 and Breakfast: The Most Important Meal of the Day.

2) Establish a regular routine for the timing of meals and snacks. Eliminate grazing and eating on demand. (Structure for When to serve.)

I'm not saying you shouldn't be responsive to your child’s hunger. By all means, adapt the timing of meals and snacks a little here and a little there. But kids have got to come to the table ready to eat (both physically and emotionally) in order to eat what you offer—when you offer it. 

3) Build compromises into the structure.  Don’t wing it.  (Structure for How to serve.)

This is the most complicated part of the plan, and so it’s the most difficult component to discuss succinctly, but it’s probably also the most important.  Structured compromises:

• Eliminate the power struggle.
• Stop your structure from being rigid.
• Prevent the structure from crumbling.

With structured compromises everyone know their role and everyone knows their limits.

Conversely, compromises that come willy-nilly encourage your kids to be combative. (With enough effort they might just win!)

Here are some structured compromises:

• Let your children choose food items from within the rotation: Would you like apple or banana?
• Pick a standard method for dealing with regular rejection.  Read How Cottage Cheese Changed My Life and Dishing Up Dessert.
• Empower (instead of enable) reluctant eaters.  Read When Less is More.
• Introduce new foods in a way that doesn't invite rebellion. Read Do Something New.

4) Make sure your lessons are hitting home.

1. Talk to your children about the structure.  Most parents keep the game plan a secret.
2. Then make sure your kids are learning the lessons you intend.  Read Conscious Parenting and Treating the Symptoms, Not the Cause.
3. Finally, respond to your kids' resistence by returning to the structure.

Many parents mistakenly believe that the opposite of pressure is leniency. It's not. The opposite of pressure is STRUCTURE. 

Don't set up a confrontation.  A strong structure will resolve your eating problems:

• Parents and kids both know what to expect when it comes to eating.
• Structure transfers discussion from the food to the behavior.  When the structure is successful, it eliminates discussion about eating entirely.

Structure acts like the walls of your house: it keeps everything standing. 

Sounds unbelievable, I know. But it's true.  When a strategy fails, go back and shore up the structure. It's the only sure-fire way to succeed.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

The Portion Size Problem: A Matter of Trust

The problem with portion size is this: Parents don’t trust their kids to get it right.

Think about it, if you thought your children would eat the right amount you wouldn't have to intervene. But you get involved because there's lot of evidence that your kids are kind of crappy about portion control.

Overeating gets all the media attention but most parents of young children are more worried about under-eating. In one study of kindergarteners, 85% of parents tried to get their kids to eat more.  

Rather than control your kids' consumption, consider teaching your kids to self-regulate..accurately. Researchers accomplished this task in 6 weeks.  You can too.  (Read on for details.)

As I see it, the trust problem stems from two sources.

First:

• Parents know kids are born being able to regulate how much to eat. Parents take this to mean their kids won’t overeat. (And this is true unless parents subvert their kid’s natural instincts which we do all the time. Read Two More Bites.)

• Parents also know that kids frequently under-eat. They haven’t yet learned to gauge how much food they need to get from one eating opportunity to another. (And many young kids don’t understand why they can’t eat whenever they want to….like later, after they’re done playing!)  In the short-term, under-eating can be a big problem for parents.

At the same time:

• Either, parents think that young children know when they’re hungry and when they’re full (but they still have to be trained to eat enough food at the right times).
• Or, parents think young kids don’t really know how hungry or full they are and they’re not capable of learning this at such an early age.

The result is a situation where parents are willing to risk teaching their kids to overeat in order to make sure their kids don't under-eat.  It's a high-stakes gamble.

Research shows children vary in their ability to self-regulate how much they eat.

So you might be right to distrust your kids. Some kids naturally eat more than they need. Other kids stop eating way too soon.

Unfortunately, many of the tactics most parents rely on to solve the situation simply make it worse. Kids respond to pressure by eating less or to restriction by eating more.

But even when parental prodding is relatively benign consider this: 

When parents control how much kids eat, children don't learn to self-regulate—they don't learn to do the job on their own.  

You've got to let go.

Teach your kids to self-regulate.

In one study, researchers taught a group of 3-4 year old children to self-regulate. They:

• Talked about the concepts of hunger, satiety and overeating.
• Educated the children on the anatomy of eating: mouth (for chewing), esophagus (for swallowing) and stomach (where the food goes when swallowed).
• Provided playtime with dolls with external stomachs that showed different levels of fullness.
• Encouraged the children to check in with their internal cues of hunger and fullness before, during, and after eating.

You can do all of this at home—even the dolls. The stomachs were made from nylon material (i.e. stockings) and were filled to varying degrees with salt. Make a few and strap them on to a couple of Barbies.

1. Children played with the dolls and were taught to identify the stomachs with different amount of fullness.
2. The children were asked to place their hand over their own stomach and tell whether they were hungry, a little full or very full.
3. The children were asked to choose the doll stomach that was most like the state of their own stomach at various times throughout the day. 

Will your kids make mistakes if you leave the eating up to them?  Sure.  But that’s how they learn.

The  key is to talk to your kids about the underlying issues (hunger and satiation) and to focus less on the food. 

Set appropriate times for meals and snacks—no eating on demand—and then let your kids practice, practice, practice. It won't just solve your short-term problems, it'll teach your kids the habits they need for a lifetime of healthy eating.

Remember, you have to let your children choose not to eat in order for them to choose to eat. (It's a freedom thing.) And you have to allow them to choose not to eat enough in order for them to learn to get it right. If this freaks you out read The Upside of Hunger.

For more on this topic read: 

• Are You Teaching Your Toddler to Overeat?
• How to Serve Seconds Without Hurting Your Kids' Habits

 ~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

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Sources:

Orrell-Valente, J. K., L. G. Hill, W. A. Brechwald, K. A. Dodge, G. S. Pettit, and J. E. Bates. 2007. “"Just Three More Bites": an Observational Analysis of Parents' Socialization of Children's Eating At Mealtime.” Appetite48(1): 37-45.

Johnson, S. L. 2000. “Improving Preschoolers' Self-Regulation of Energy Intake.” Pediatrics 106(6): 1429-35.