《中英對照讀新聞》Let children who are slow to gain weight ’play’ with their food, says NHS 英國國民保健署：讓體重增加緩慢的小孩「玩」食物

◎孫宇青

Small children who are slow to gain weight should be allowed to ’play’ with their food, put their fingers in it and get messy, according to new guidelines for the NHS.

英國國民保健署（NHS）的新指導方針指出，應允許體重增加緩慢的小孩「玩」食物，讓他們把手指放進食物中玩得髒兮兮的。

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The guidelines suggest parents allow the children to try to feed themselves, rather than being spoon-fed. Parents should encourage the child to feel the texture of the food rather than force or coerce them into eating.

該方針建議父母讓小孩試著自己吃飯，而不是餵他們吃。父母應鼓勵小孩去感受食物的質地，而不是強迫或施壓他們吃東西。

Other recommendations are that mealtimes should not be too brief or too long. They should set reasonable mealtime while avoiding punitive approaches and establish regular eating schedules.

其他建議事項包括用餐時間不宜太短或太長。父母應設定合理的用餐時間，並避免訂定處罰方法，同時建立用餐規律。

Children grow at different rates at different times. However, if a child is not gaining weight or starts growing much more slowly than before it might be ’faltering growth.’

兒童成長速率依不同時期而異。然而，若孩子體重沒有增加，或增加得比以前緩慢許多，就可能是「成長遲緩」。

This guideline also enables healthcare professionals to identify more complex cases of faltering growth for referral to specialist services, and help underweight children to reach a healthy weight.

該方針也使健康照護專家得以判斷情況更複雜的成長遲緩案例，以便將他們轉診至專門門診，幫助體重過輕的兒童達到健康體重。

新聞辭典

texture：名詞，質地。例句：These imported fabrics have smooth texture.（這些進口布料質地光滑。）

coerce：動詞，強制。例句：Julie was coerced into learning Russian by her parents.（茱莉的父母強迫她學習俄語。）

underweight：形容詞，過瘦的。例句：The refugees fleeing from war are all underweight.（這些逃離戰爭的難民全都過瘦。）