It’s mealtime Elda

It’s mealtime Elda was the eighth of a series of 16-page personalized booklets, able to be printed at home, designed for Elda so that she could smile, feel needed and be happy. The books are designed to be repetitive, simple and fun.

In July 2022 Elda had COVID and was struggling to swallow. She was extremely tired, but hungry and when she ate her food it remained in her mouth. There were several times I didn't realize it until we found ourselves on the couch eating ice cream in the evening, she has a sweet tooth, and she had food still in her mouth. It was alarming to say the least and dangerous. At the time I did not know if it was out of the exhaustion that comes with COVID or if she had Dysphagia. This booklet came out of the need to help Elda relearn to eat and more so to concentrate at mealtimes.

It also uses photos of babies and has interacting questions throughout to engage Elda in the process of preparing to eat from the setting a table to eating. The story addresses all types of meals and of course finish s with an ice cream, since Elda loves ice cream.

Since then, we read the book close to or during meals because Elda has become very distracted at mealtimes. She wants to organize her food or mix it all together but not eat it. We don’t care so much if she eats with her hands, just if she eats, chews and swallows.

This video is in Italian however, Elda did not want to eat so we opened the book to a page where the baby was taking a mouthful and read it over and over until Elda took a bite with the baby.