Eating With a Fork

My daughter is lost in a land of near blindness, which is a change from what she was able to see two months ago.   She’s regained a small fraction of the small fraction of sight she had and we’re grateful for that because she doesn’t bump into things as much as she did before, but it’s still hard for her to get around.  

One of the things she started doing that was new when she lost complete sight was rebelling when eating her food.   She couldn’t see anything, including where the bowl was.   When she found the bowl she couldn’t figure out where the food was in the bowl or how much was on her spoon or fork.   To sum up, it was hard to get the food in her mouth.

Her play therapist told us to put constraints on her, to exert control on her environment because she was feeling so out of control.  Instead of this being a punishment, this would help her.   We were told to tell her if she wasn’t willing to use the fork to eat her food (eating with her hands not allowed) then we could either feed her or she could wait to eat until she was ready.  

I thought this would be tough for her, but it was the right advice because she understood it, even if she didn’t like it.   It’s made her more willing to listen to us as we give her advice on how to use a fork (a tricker thing to do than you might think since you’ve been doing it for so long).   Stabbing just doesn’t capture the food.  You need to stab and then push in an arc against the bottom of the bowl into the side to make sure you get good purchase on the food.

My daughter still doesn’t want to always eat with a fork, but since we starting requiring her to use one correctly, she’s gotten a lot better at it.

The Big Boy Update:  My son found a lightbulb my husband had sitting out on the counter to be replaced this morning.   He put it over the top of his head and said, “if you see a lightbulb, do this and say, ‘I have an idea’”.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I bought some little arm muffs from China and when they arrived in the mail I gave them to my daughter.   They’re basically loose furry wrist bands, two in black and two in white.   A lot of times things you think will be exciting to you child turn out to not be and then things you think they won’t care about they can’t put down.   I had those little furry muffs for several months and didn’t give them to her until last week.   She’s worn them around all day and even to bed, loving them and being particularly interested in only wearing the white on her wrists and the black on her ankles.   I only wish she could tell the colors herself when she’s putting them on.