中文:
儿童营养师Harriet Worobey的亲身经验让她知道儿童吃东西是多么的挑剔。但当她去年看到一个基本以巧克力为主食的学龄前儿童时还是吓了一跳。

“巧克力牛奶、巧克力松饼、巧克力蛋糕——这真是难以置信，”沃洛贝是新泽西布伦瑞克(Brunswick)罗格斯大学(Rutgers University)营养学幼儿园主任，“而孩子的妈妈简单认为，他就想要这个，所以我就给他了。”

尽管大多数父母还不至于让孩子吃这种巧克力餐，他们自己每天也都很头疼，不知道该让自己孩子吃什么。虽然全民都在讨论儿童肥胖对健康的影响，也有很多父母头疼孩子爱吃的炸鸡和面条会不会造成营养不良。

父母对孩子饮食过于注意也是孩子成长中的正常现象。幼儿天生敏感——对新东西总是不信任。即使最有主意的父母也会对宁愿什么都不吃也不原意试新食物的孩子吓到。因此，父母常常放弃，决定让孩子吃碗可可泡芙或一块多士蛋糕(Pop-Tart)，虽然不是最好的，但起码比什么都不吃强。

“我想父母都认为让孩子吃点东西是他们的责任，” Worobey说。“但提供各种健康食品并让孩子吃得多元化，这才是他们真正的责任。”

几个简单的进餐战略能够帮助哪怕是最挑食的儿童学会享用更多样化的食物。以下是父母喂养孩子时常见的六种错误。

把孩子赶到厨房外面。父母做饭时通常不让孩子呆在厨房，这也是可以理解的，毕竟厨房有有炉子、开水、刀具这些东西。但研究表明，让孩子参与到做饭的过程中是让他们尝试新食物尤为重要的第一步。

哥伦比亚大学师范学院的研究人员研究了和儿童一起做饭将如何影响他们的饮食习惯。一个实验中，接近600名从幼儿园到六年级上了营养课的儿童愿意吃更多的蔬菜和全麦食品。一些上了课的儿童还加入了烹饪班。研究人员发现这些儿童比没有接受课程的儿童更愿意在饭堂吃他们曾烹饪过的食物，甚至还要加菜。

当儿童也参与到烹饪过程中时，“他们至少变得愿意试试这些食物，”师范学院营养教育教授Isobel Contento说，她也是这份研究报告的作者之一，“儿童一般不喜欢吃胡萝卜，但我们发现孩子如果能自己切胡萝卜再把他们做成沙拉，他们就很喜欢吃。”

强迫他们尝一口。过分要求孩子什么东西都尝一口好像挺合理，但这反而会弄巧成拙。

研究发现，父母强迫孩子吃东西的时候，孩子通常是拒绝的，就算吃这些东西能换来奖励。宾夕法尼亚大学的一个研究中，研究人员让孩子吃蔬菜喝牛奶，照做了就可以吃糖看电视。后来研究发现，他们对能换取奖励的食物表示反感。

“家长常说，‘吃了蔬菜就能看电视，’但我们知道其实这不管用，”宾大儿童肥胖研究中心主任Leann L. Birch说，她也是份项研究报告的作者之一。“短时间内这种办法可能会有用，但长期来说，孩子们会更不喜欢吃这些东西。”

把食物放在桌子上，鼓励他们去吃也许是更好的办法。但如果孩子不吃也别抱怨，吃了也别表扬。问他们是不是还要，要的话自己再去拿，但态度要中立。

让“好东西”离孩子远点。家长怕孩子吃东西没有节制，因此会把东西藏起来或者放在很高的架子上。但研究报告表明，如果父母限制孩子吃某些东西，他们会更想要。

宾达的另一个研究中做了一项试验，看看孩子会不会更想要被禁止吃的食物。孩子们坐在桌子旁，试验一开始，他们可以随便吃盘子里的苹果饼干棒或者水蜜桃饼干棒——这两样东西年轻人评价为“还行(just O.K.)”。而另一组，一部分饼干棒放在盘子里，一部分放在桌子中间显眼的饼干罐里。10分钟后告诉孩子他们可以吃中间罐子里的饼干。

研究人员发现结果限制饼干的很影响很大：盒子里的饼干消耗的数量是盘子里的3倍多。另一项研究表明孩子在家里被禁止吃的那样东西一旦有机会吃，他们可能会吃更多。父母学到了什么？不要再家里放你觉得应该限制的食物，而要买健康的食物回家，并允许孩子自由打开储藏柜。

当着孩子面节食。孩子的饮食偏好会倾向于和父母一致，他们更愿意吃那些父母也吃的东西。罗格斯大学对父母和子女饮食偏好的研究发现，学龄前儿童会喜欢或讨厌他们父母也喜欢和讨厌的食物，还发现如果妈妈不喜欢吃蔬菜，女儿通常也会挑食。

既然父母影响如此巨大，正在减肥的家长应该了解，他们的饮食习惯会影响孩子对食物和健康饮食的理解。在对5岁女孩的研究中，一个孩子注意到巧克力奶昔能减肥——他妈妈以前就喝这种瘦身饮料。另一个孩子说，减肥就是“做饭但是不吃。”

《健康心理学》杂志2005年的一个报告发现，备受体重和饮食困扰的母亲更倾向于限制女儿的饮食或鼓励他们减肥。减肥者的女儿也更倾向于节食。问题是，节食并不是对多数人都有用，而且经常会引起暴食和体重增加。让幼儿接触不规律的节食是有风险的，他们可能会面临着饮食紊乱和一辈子的慢性减肥痛苦中。“大多数妈妈认为孩子不会注意这些，但其实他们会，” Birch博士说，“他们正在对女儿潜移默化，即使这些减肥方式并不适用于孩子。”

给孩子吃单调的蔬菜。关心卡路里摄入的父母常给孩子吃白水煮青菜，怪不得孩子不爱吃。营养学家提醒父母要花心思让蔬菜更有吃头。加一点黄油、加牧场调料(ranch dressing)，芝士酱或红糖，都能让蔬菜大大增加对孩子的吸引力。给蔬菜加一点脂肪能还能锁住脂溶性营养素。加的一些额外的卡路里对提升营养和激发孩子对蔬菜的兴趣来说，是很值得的。

太快放弃。Worobey女士说，他经常听一些父母说，“我的小孩从不吃那个。”可能当时是这样没错，但饮食偏好是经常改变的。因此父母应该坚持准备多样的健康食物放在桌子上，即使小孩一口都不吃。对幼儿来说，让他适应并接受一种事物往往需要在几个月内花10多次的努力。

兄弟姐妹和朋友也能改变一个孩子的饮食习惯。宾大的Birch博士发现，她第一个孩子总是愿意试新食物，但第二个孩子却不是。“部分原因是第二个孩子知道自己在家里的地位，”他说。10、11岁的时候，他不想老是被姐姐超过，所以更愿意吃新的食物了。

图福特斯大学的营养学家Susan B. Roberts是“健康饮食伴孩子一生(Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health)”的作者之一，她提出了“15次规则”——把一种食物摆上桌子15次看看孩子会不会接受。一旦接受，父母应该使用“食物桥梁”，发掘类似颜色或口味的食物来丰富孩子的饮食。比如，如果孩子喜欢南瓜派，让他也试试捣碎的甜番茄和捣碎的胡萝卜；如果孩子喜欢玉米，就把梨和胡萝卜也一起混起来。就算孩子把梨和胡萝卜挑出来了，让他知道这样的新吃法也值得。

“作为父母，你决定要给孩子吃什么，”Worobey说。“但你要轻松点，要知道孩子每天都在变化。”

英文:
HARRIET WOROBEY, a childhood nutrition instructor, knows firsthand that children can be picky eaters, but even she was surprised by a preschooler last year who ate a mostly chocolate diet.

“Chocolate milk, chocolate chip muffins, chocolate chip pancakes — it was unbelievable,” said Ms. Worobey, director of the Rutgers University Nutritional Sciences Preschool in New Brunswick, N.J. “His mother just thought, ‘That’s what he wants, so that’s what I’m going to do.’ ”

While most parents haven’t resorted to the chocolate diet, they can relate to the daily challenge of finding foods that children will eat. Although obesity dominates the national discussion on childhood health, many parents are also worried that their child’s preferred diet of nuggets and noodles could lead to a nutritional deficit.

Fussiness about food is a normal part of a child’s development. Young children are naturally neophobic — they have a distrust of the new. Even the most determined parents can be cowed by a child’s resolve to eat nothing rather than try something new. As a result, parents often give in, deciding that a bowl of Cocoa Puffs or a Pop-Tart, while not ideal, must be better than no food at all.

“I think parents feel like it’s their job to just make their children eat something,” Ms. Worobey said. “But it’s really their job to serve a variety of healthy foods and get their children exposed to foods.”

A series of simple meal-time strategies can help even the pickiest eater learn to like a more varied diet. Here’s a look at six common mistakes parents make when feeding their children.

Sending children out of the kitchen With hot stoves, boiling water and sharp knives at hand, it is understandable that parents don’t want children in the kitchen when they’re making dinner. But studies suggest that involving children in meal preparation is an important first step in getting them to try new foods.

Researchers at Teachers College at Columbia University studied how cooking with a child affects the child’s eating habits. In one study, nearly 600 children from kindergarten to sixth grade took part in a nutrition curriculum intended to get them to eat more vegetables and whole grains. Some children, in addition to having lessons about healthful eating, took part in cooking workshops. The researchers found that children who had cooked their own foods were more likely to eat those foods in the cafeteria, and even ask for seconds, than children who had not had the cooking class.

When children are involved in meal preparation, “they come to at least try the food,” said Isobel Contento, professor of nutrition education at Teachers College and a co-author of the study. “Kids don’t usually like radishes, but we found that if kids cut up radishes and put them in the salad, they love the radishes.”

Pressuring them to take a bite Demanding that a child eat at least one bite of everything seems reasonable, but it’s likely to backfire.

Studies show that children react negatively when parents pressure them to eat foods, even if the pressure offers a reward. In one study at Pennsylvania State University, researchers asked children to eat vegetables and drink milk, offering them stickers and television time if they did. Later in the study, the children expressed dislike for the foods they had been rewarded for eating.

“Parents say things like ‘eat your vegetables and you can watch TV,’ but we know that kind of thing doesn’t work either,” said Leann L. Birch, director of Penn State’s childhood obesity research center and a co-author of the study. “In the short run, you might be able to coerce a child to eat, but in the long run, they will be less likely to eat those foods.”

The better approach is to put the food on the table and encourage a child to try it. But don’t complain if she refuses, and don’t offer praise if she tastes it. Just ask her if she wants some more or take seconds yourself, but try to stay neutral.

Keeping ‘good stuff’ out of reach Parents worry that children will binge on treats, so they often put them out of sight or on a high shelf. But a large body of research shows that if a parent restricts a food, children just want it more.

In another Penn State study, researchers experimented to determine whether forbidden foods were more desirable. Children were seated at tables and given unlimited access to plates of apple or peach cookie bars — two foods the youngsters had rated as “just O.K.” in earlier taste tests. With another group, some bars were served on plates, while some were placed in a clear cookie jar in the middle of the table. The children were told that after 10 minutes, they could snack on cookies from the jar.

The researchers found that restricting the cookies had a profound effect: consumption more than tripled compared with when the cookies were served on plates.

Other studies show that children whose food is highly restricted at home are far more likely to binge when they have access to forbidden foods.

The lesson for parents? Don’t bring foods that you feel the need to restrict into the house. Instead, buy healthful snacks and give children free access to the food cabinets.

Dieting in front of your children Kids are tuned into their parents’ eating preferences and are far more likely to try foods if they see their mother or father eating them. A Rutgers study of parent and child food preferences found that preschoolers tended to like or reject the same fruits and vegetables their parents liked or didn’t like. And other research has shown girls are more likely to be picky eaters if their mothers don’t like vegetables.

Given this powerful effect, parents who are trying to lose weight should be aware of how their dieting habits can influence a child’s perceptions about food and healthful eating. In one study of 5-year-old girls, one child noted that dieting involved drinking chocolate milkshakes — her mother was using Slim-Fast drinks. Another child said dieting meant “you fix food but you don’t eat it.”

A 2005 report in the journal Health Psychology found that mothers who were preoccupied with their weight and eating were more likely to restrict foods for their daughters or encourage them to lose weight. Daughters of dieters were also more likely to try diets as well. The problem is, restrictive diets don’t work for most people and often lead to binge eating and weight gain. By exposing young children to erratic dieting habits, parents may be putting them at risk for eating disorders or a lifetime of chronic dieting. “Most mothers don’t think their kids are soaking up this information, but they are,” Dr. Birch said. “They’re teaching it to their daughters even though it doesn’t work for them.”

Serving boring vegetables Calorie-counting parents often serve plain steamed vegetables, so it’s no wonder children are reluctant to eat them. Nutritionists say parents shouldn’t be afraid to dress up the vegetables. Adding a little butter, ranch dressing, cheese sauce or brown sugar to a vegetable dish can significantly improve its kid appeal. And adding a little fat to vegetables helps unlock their fat-soluble nutrients. The few extra calories you’re adding are a worthwhile tradeoff for the nutritional boost and the chance to introduce a child to a vegetable.

Giving up too soon Ms. Worobey said she has often heard parents say, “My kid would never eat that.” While it may be true right now, she noted that eating preferences often change. So parents should keep preparing a variety of healthful foods and putting them on the table, even if a child refuses to take a bite. In young children, it may take 10 or more attempts over several months to introduce a food.

Sibling dynamics and friendships can also change a child’s eating habits. Dr. Birch of Penn State noted that her first child was always willing to try new foods, but that her second child was not. “Part of it was just him defining his place in the family,” she said. By the age of 10 or 11, he didn’t want to be outdone by his sister and was far more willing to try new foods.

Susan B. Roberts, a Tufts University nutritionist and co-author of the book “Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health,” suggested a “rule of 15” — putting a food on the table at least 15 times to see if a child will accept it. Once a food is accepted, parents should use “food bridges,” finding similarly colored or flavored foods to expand the variety of foods a child will eat. If a child likes pumpkin pie, for instance, try mashed sweet potatoes and then mashed carrots. If a child loves corn, try mixing in a few peas or carrots. Even if a child picks them out, the exposure to the new food is what counts.

“As parents, you’re going to make decisions as to what you want to serve,” Ms. Worobey said. “But then you just have to relax and realize children are different from day to day.”