French mums - what do you feed your babies?

[puffling]

I watched the programme about Parisian eating habits last night. I found it very interesting and it led me to wonder what French babies typically eat. DD is nearly one and I'd be interested to know what you feed one yr olds and what they love to eat.
Thanks
Pufflingx

Baby rice is used over here (the UK that is!) to thicken milk. You'll find it in every supermarket.
AuldAlliance, farine is flour, so wheat based.

"this is not the approved procedure in THIS country"

Isn't the issue that in the UK, thickened milk is given on a spoon, baby's first and very liquid cereal, whereas in France it is very common to put it into the bottle.

Have found that the french tend to be very regulated on feeding their kids. Veg & fruit first then cereals mixed with milk in a bottle. bf is very low (don't have figures for this). bf to 2yrs - also very low. Was once congratulated for bf in public in France - my LO was nearly 1yr and the lady said it was a rare sight.

The BF counsellor who helped me a four years ago said that France had just achieved the 50% of mothers breastfeeding for up to 1 month.
Everyone was impressed that I did it until teeth came in (8/9 months).

Thanks PizPizPiz, I didn't know whether "farine" was just a generic term for some powdered foods, not necessarily wheat-based (but deemed to sound better than "poudre" or something similar), or a more accurate description.
Are the infamous "farines animales" wheat-based? Nasty analogy, I know, but think that was what made me wonder whether "farine" wasn't sometimes used for food powders without any wheat content.
I bf for 14 months and it seemed fairly common here in this part of France. When I asked the paediatrician about starting DS on some rice at about 7/8 months, she looked horrified, said "that's not what is recommended HERE" and gave me a list of possible vegetables.

I found the whole weaning process very hard actually, because it differs according to each culture. What's right here is wrong in another country. I found myself quite confused between what I thought was right and what I was told. And you want to get those first crucial months right, don't you ?
I breastfed for 8 months. French mums, if they choose this route, and not as many as UK mums do so, tend to stop after 3 months, when they have to go back to work. Even if they want to go on, it's just not doable.

i always thought farine was flour ?

Farine does usually mean flour, but I had a look (displacement activity: can you tell I have loads of work to do and no desire to do any of it...?) and in this case it seems to cover a multitude of powdered substances.

Littré defines farine as: "Poudre blanche que l'on obtient par la trituration des graines des céréales."

One website (doctissimo) includes under the heading "farines infantiles":

"Les farines de céréales (blé, riz, orge, avoine, seigle, maïs...) [...]; les farines provenant de racines ou de tubercules, [...]les fécules de rhizomes (pomme de terre, sagou, arrow-root, tapioca ou farine de manioc...) [...]; Les farines d'aleurones (graines oléagineuses : soja, tournesol...) [...]; Les farines de légumineuses (lentilles, pois, haricots...) [...]"

All grist to the translator's mill, but TMI for anyone else, I suspect

I agree with you, PizPizPiz, the whole BF/weaning thing is tricky when you get such different messages about if/when/how/how long you should or must do certain things. The UK and France clearly don't use the same research when setting out their guidelines for mothers.