Fashionista's Book Review: French Children Don't Throw Food

I had the opportunity of reading this book before I gave birth. It was recommended by my pal Farhah, and since I was kinda gung-ho about the whole mothering thing (truth be told, I've never thought of myself as a motherly type of person, and even now that I have a baby, I still don't think I have evolved to a motherly kind of person) I decided to give the book a try. 

I would have to admit, this is among one of the most fun parenting books that I've ever read. It's funny and witty and it's written in a way that makes it easy to relate to (and I don't even have kids yet at that time so it was good to be able to understand the mechanics of parenting before they actually make their appearance).

What I love about the book is that it shares the personal experience of the writer in bringing up her own daughter (and later twins). She shares what she has been through; the sleepless nights, the crying, not knowing what to do etcetera etcetera.

So far I have actually implemented a few things in the book that I find to be really useful. Before I continue, do take note that each baby is unique in his or her own way, therefore what works for me might not work for you.

The first thing that we tried was the 'pause and observe' technique. The writer noted that most French parents would observe the habits and behavior of their infants/ babies/ kids in order to know the cues that the babies are sending to them. It took us (me and hubs) awhile to get to know our baby better but this technique is really helpful in helping us determine whether our baby is crying because she is hungry (or still hungry even after a feeding session), wants her diaper to be changed, is sleepy, has tummy pain/ gassy, wants to be burped or simply wants to be hugged. Although there are times where we can't understand why she's crying but those times are far and few in between.

The second technique that we tried is to 'let the baby cry'. There are times when we do feel that it's quite exasperating where we have tried everything we can to calm the baby down but she's still crying so we do let her cry for awhile. This technique has been really helpful in getting the baby to establish her nightly sleeping pattern (since she was one month old she's been sleeping her nights well with only one or maybe no feeding in between). However this is one practice that we very seldom do simply because we believe that most of the time the baby cries for a reason but sometimes this technique is necessary in establishing new habits/ patterns with the baby.

There are many other techniques and methods as mentioned by the writer but I am definitely not going to share them here because I want you to go out and get the book. It's definitely a life saver for a first time mom (like me) and it really helped me to see how I can manage my journey towards becoming a good mother (I don't aim to be a perfect mom, just a good one, good in my own unique way). I would have to say that it helped me to become calmer in handling a wailing baby.


xoxo Mrs Fashionista