Cooking with a physically impaired child?

April2018mom · October 2019

Hello

How do you manage to cook food? I want to teach my son cooking skills. But since he is a full time wheelchair user, standing up is not a option. Are there any aids, and pieces of equipment that would help?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated. I have no clue where to start. My son is a paraplegic due to spina bifida so this might boost his independence and confidence too. However he can't really move his legs or stand up. Does anyone know of cooking classes that teach those with physical impairments useful cooking skills or not? Many thanks in advance.
Currently I have him mixing things on the floor (not ideal) or in his wheelchair (better but again not easy).
Preferably local if possible. Suggestions wanted! Also what cookery books would you definitely recommend? He is a novice. I have been to my local library and looked at the selection on offer. I cannot seem to find any good cookery books for children however. How do you find recipes?

chiarieds · October 2019

Hi, just thought of this which might work. I use a small folding picnic table for when my 3 granddaughters visit, & remember seeing some online where the height is adjustable, so there might be an appropriate one he could get his wheelchair under. I found the most reasonably priced ones on ebay, 'tho I'm sure there would be other avenues to explore. Or a child's folding table if the right height & width.

Recipes:

- rolling out your own, or ready-made pastry to make jam/savoury tarts.

- gingerbread men or star-shaped biscuits, etc.

- make your own crackers

- home-made or bought pizza dough, roll out, add tomato base & add his favourite toppings

- scones, sweet/savoury

- rock buns

He can do anything his sister can....& may be better/messier! Search online for recipes; buy interesting cutters & there are children's rolling pins, etc. Ask Santa for these.

April2018mom · October 2019

chiarieds said:

Hi, just thought of this which might work. I use a small folding picnic table for when my 3 granddaughters visit, & remember seeing some online where the height is adjustable, so there might be an appropriate one he could get his wheelchair under. I found the most reasonably priced ones on ebay, 'tho I'm sure there would be other avenues to explore. Or a child's folding table if the right height & width.

Recipes:
- rolling out your own, or ready-made pastry to make jam/savoury tarts.
- gingerbread men or star-shaped biscuits, etc.
- make your own crackers
- home-made or bought pizza dough, roll out, add tomato base & add his favourite toppings
- scones, sweet/savoury
- rock buns

He can do anything his sister can....& may be better/messier! Search online for recipes; buy interesting cutters & there are children's rolling pins, etc. Ask Santa for these.

Thanks! I’m going shopping tomorrow morning and may visit Argos. Rock buns sound nice. In terms of sweet things, what did you make? Since Halloween is approaching, we are planning on having a Halloween cooking day this week. After that I will bake Christmas treats. The gingerbread men and biscuits sound scrumptious. As do the crackers.
Where do you find pizza dough? What sort of scones do you prefer? I plan to try making fruit scones with the children. Additionally I want to bake raspberry tarts as well. I seem to have a sweet tooth. I’ll also see if I can buy a child friendly rolling pin etc. Cooking is fun. What else do you make?
Do the DLF provide cookery aids? I’m hoping they do.

chiarieds · October 2019

I used to bake a lot....bread, cakes (lemon seed cake was my son's favourite....he still goes on about it, & promised to make one, from a recipe I gave him, for his wife; she's still waiting), buns, jam/corned beef & veg tarts; quiches; made my own pizza from scratch, crackers, etc. Now I'm on my own don't do so, & I don't have a sweet tooth! Liked cheese scones.....well scones with jam & cream were also rather nice!

Was just looking back to what I used to do with my children when young. Just thinking that rolling pastry/dough might be fun, & using cutters with interesting shapes.

Pizza dough from Morrison's....may be available elsewhere; again, perhaps search online to see if other supermarkets stock it.

I love cooking; grow rather a lot of vegetables, cook everything from scratch, batch cook, so some for the freezer. Love making soup...have a glut of tomatoes, so made tomato soup yesterday....but as this involves chopping & knives, it's just about age appropriate for me!

My son cooks most of their meals. He is much better than my daughter, whose husband cooks more than her. It's a great idea to involve your children in cooking!

Sorry, don't know if the DLF provide aids, but if you can work around getting an appropriate work surface/table for your son, he won't need them. I don't know what sort of wheelchair he has; whether the arm rests can come off, if needed, to see if the sort of table I mentioned might help (if he would then have sufficient trunk strength, so he was stable), etc. But all things are possible...I'm sure you know, it's problem solving.

Which in a roundabout way leads me to to ask how his OT & physio assessments went? I've been meaning to ask.

And before I forget....no baking involved, get your children 'bobbing for apples' on Halloween.

April2018mom · October 2019

I messaged you about the assessments earlier. I'll contact them tomorrow morning via email to find out if they can help or not. I love cooking, I remember spending hours as a child assisting my mom with cooking for Christmas. She loved to bake a fruitcake every year. Unfortunately, we do not live near any Morrison shops. I have not been to a Morrison shop since 2014, it has been a while. And yes I do know why problem solving is essential.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll consider that.

Cooking with a physically impaired child?

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