That being said, the author of Bringing Up Bebe has stumbled upon something that is less of a French tradition and more of a European one: lack of kids menus. I’ve traveled fairly extensively in Europe and the vast majority of sit down restaurants don’t offer a separate kids menu. In America, the vast majority of restaurants offer, if not a fully separate children’s menu, a small section on the adult menu with kids items. The kids menu is simply not the norm in most European countries. Restaurants will often offer smaller portions of several dishes for children.
As such, in my experience, European kids, on average, eat more things than American kids do. Kids eat what is put in front of them. An infant can’t open the fridge and contemplate what to snack on. Toddlers who have never eaten chicken nuggets don’t know that chicken nuggets exist. Indian kids eat spicy curries and Japanese kids eat raw fish.
Perhaps fewer kids menus would mean more kids eating edamame and eel.