Tampa Aids for Daily Living: Assisted Dining Aids

It’s hard to grasp—often literally—all the challenges we face in daily life until we start to struggle with them. Strength, balance, flexibility, vision, and fine-motor skills factor into everything from putting on shoes and socks to washing and using the restroom to cooking and feeding ourselves.

And any time we struggle with these tasks, a little bit of our independence slips away.

Ironically, some of these tiny tasks require the most ingenuity to solve. And because people can struggle with the same task in different ways, there’s often more than one solution.

The good news is that the home medical equipment industry has many ingenious and specific solutions for these everyday tasks. Aids for Daily Living, or ADL, can become as integral to your life as a towel or a pair of glasses.

And when it comes to Tampa home medical equipment needs, Helios has you covered. If you’re not sure what tools you or your loved one needs, just call or email us. Our experts can talk you through what’s available, how it works, and even insurance and Medicare concerns.

Today we want to focus on Assisted Dining Aids, Tampa Bay ADL solutions for eating and drinking that allow you, your loved ones, and other patients to maintain dignity and independence through difficult times.

Adaptive Eating Equipment Tampa

To truly understand the complexity of feeding yourself, you have to break it down to an almost microscopic level. Holding onto the utensils, cutting the food into bite-size pieces, getting it onto a fork or spoon, and keeping the food on the utensil as you guide it into your mouth—these are all monumental tasks of coordination and fine-motor skills. 

So let’s look at those tasks and the adaptive eating tools available to make them easier.

• Holding onto utensils: ADL dining tools include utensils with larger grips and ergonomic designs, as well as straps that keep the utensil handle in the hand. These are especially helpful for arthritic joints and other issues in the hands and wrists.
• Cutting food: ADL utensils may have rotated, curved, or bendable stems to provide an easier angle between hand and food or plate.
• Containing food onto utensil: Suction plates and/or gel pads and placemats can keep plates in place, making it easier to manipulate food with utensils. These also minimize inadvertent spills.
• Carrying food from plate to mouth: Utensils with weighted handles make a huge difference to minimize tremors in all dining motions. Additionally, cupped spoons help to contain soups and stews from bowl to mouth.
• Seeing/paying attention to food: Light-colored tableware causes issues for those with limited vision and/or cognitive issues. High-contrast tableware—often red—helps to set these tools apart from the table, and to set the food apart from the plates themselves.

Adaptive Drinking Equipment Tampa

Drinking, too, presents unique challenges for many people with physical and mental limitations. And dehydration is a common and potentially disastrous complication for many people with other health issues. While cups and bottles with lids can help to contain spills, the challenge remains in keeping the drink accessible. Moving the cup smoothly to the mouth can be an issue, but sucking through a straw or lid can be difficult for others. And many people struggle with swallowing.

• Holding onto cups/bottles: As with utensils, adaptive drink holders, often including an adjustable strap for the bottle attached to another strap for the hand, make it easier to keep the vessel upright and move it to the mouth.
• Moving drink to mouth: Extended and flexible straws allow for a hands-free drinking experience. Some systems come with a bottle-holder to attach to a wheelchair or other fixed apparatus, along with a long, secure straw that can be positioned as needed.
• Sipping without spilling: A small but frustrating aspect of drinking can be dribbles and spills. There are many specially designed lids and spouts that limit spills through various one-way mechanisms. Of course, which one works best for you or your loved one depends on many factors.
• Swallowing: There are even specialized solutions available for people who cannot create suction or are prone to dysphagia or aspirating while swallowing. These solutions position the nozzle in a therapeutic way and/or even distribute a small amount of liquid at a time in order to aid in the drinking process.

Eating and drinking can be one of life’s great pleasures. When those activities become limited or embarrassing, physical and mental health struggles will often follow.
Don’t let these everyday activities become major road blocks. Talk to your Tampa home medical equipment supplier today to learn more about the aids for daily living and assisted dining equipment that can make a life-changing difference.