By Karin Melberg Schwier & Erin Schwier Stewart; 280 pages. Subtitle: People With and Without Disabilities Together at Mealtime
While describing how mealtimes for people with disabilities can be more meaningful than just shoveling in food on schedule, this upbeat book details the important emotional element of eating together. It's about being part of a family, part of a relationship, part of a community -- things that are as important to humans, and as sustaining, as the physical act of eating.
- Deals with a not-often-written-about subject
- Offers specific tips as well as general information
- Will help you think about what you want for your child's future
- Photos and personal stories bring the subject matter home
- Includes drawings to use when making your own recipes
- Since it deals with adults with disabilities, may not be immediately useful to you
- If you prefer straightforward information, personal stories may get in the way
- Inclusion isn't always as easy as the authors make it seem
- Details concerning institutions and group homes may not be appropriate to your situation
- Somewhat longer than it needs to be
- Chapter 1: Food for Thought
Chapter 2: Feeding or Dining?
Chapter 3: Mealtime in Purgatory - Chapter 4: Mealtime as a Chance to Refocus
Chapter 5: Connecting with Catherine
- Chapter 6: The Hunger for Choice and Control
Chapter 7: The Experience of Disability and Dining
- Chapter 8: Mallory and the Circle Girls: Good Friends, Good Gossip
- Chapter 9: Comfort Food, Comfort Context
- Chapter 10: Celebrating the Sacred in Shared Meals: Grace and Blessing
- Chapter 11: The Social Implications of Mealtime
Chapter 12: Giving and Receiving Hospitality - Chapter 13: BYOB
Chapter 14: Check the Pantry
Chapter 15: Memorable Meals - Epilogue: Just Desserts
Bibliography
Appendix A: Recipes
Appendix B: Tidbits by Category
When I first heard about this book, my impression was, "Nice, but not for me." On first look, it appeared to be mostly about making mealtime more humane for adults in hospitals and nursing homes, and that's not something that seemed to have a lot of application to my life raising kids with non-medical special needs. But I went ahead and read it anyway, and I'm already using some of what I learned. Turns out it's not so much about the mechanics of feeding, though there is some of that. It's more about including people with disabilities in the preparation, serving, and enjoyment of food, and that's advice we can all use, whether we're dealing with kids who are physically incapacitated or intellectually challenged or just way too sloppy to let into the kitchen.
The book is both practical, with tips running throughout and easy-to-follow recipes at the end, and personal, with stories and photos of special-needs families and friends running throughout the text. In addition to helping you think about what sort of relationships and care you want for your child as an adult, it can help you include him more, and more meaningfully, right now. Helping your child learn how to plan a meal, shop for it, prepare it, serve it, and eat it in an appropriate way may be time-consuming, imprecise and messy, but it more than pays off in making her a functioning member of your family and community. This is a book that can help you see how, and why, to do that.
