This section is from the book "How To Help The Shut-In Child: 313 Hints For Homebound Children", by Margery D. McMullin. Also available from Amazon: How To Help The Shut-In Child: 313 Hints For Homebound Children.
42. Is it hard to interest your child at mealtimes? Let him pretend he's in a restaurant or cafeteria. Present him with a menu or a couple of choices on a tray. Give him, ahead of time, some play money (or real money, if that's easier to supply) with which to pay you and to get change, leave tip, etc.
43. Try to vary the way in which a child's food is served.
A change in china "scenery" will often perk up the appetite of a child who has become bored with eating. Every so often, use paper or plastic plates and cups; every so often, the very best china and silver ware. Try serving milk in soda bottles, demitasse cups, tin, or silver cups. Brighten up the tray with souvenir spoons.
44. Above all, be sure the dishes on the food tray are easy to handle. If your child is of an age to cut his own meat, be sure the knife is sharp enough.
45. No doubt you've often been told that half a portion is better than a whole one when your child is fussy about food. Try this once in a while: a very small plate to match the portion one time, an extra large plate another time.
46. Do you have a garden? Then at suppertime, it will be easy enough to have a fresh flower on your child's tray. In the fall, use autumn leaves, and in winter, a tiny twig of a pine tree. If you live in the city, or have no garden, the local florist will surely give you a posy now and then. If not, cut out a pretty flower picture from a magazine and paste it in the comer of the paper napkin.
47. Here's an excellent way to cope with the "liquid spillage" problems so often encountered by a child in bed. Make a small hole in the center of the lid of a mason jar, and into this opening insert a straw. Junior will be able to drink without any spilling hazards. You might even induce him to consume more liquids.
48. Two drinking straws, one inserted into the other, make an extra long straw. Pretty too, if the straws are of different colors.
49. A helpful way of serving food on a tray with fewer mishaps is to paste or thumb tack a "glass jacket" to a wooden tray. This holds the glass in position. A large paper plate can also be tacked to the tray surface to go under the regular plate, to keep it from sliding. The cutlery can be made to stay put by means of a strip of oilcloth (about an inch wide and four inches long) tacked to the tray, with space between the tacks for inserting the handles.
50. Ten to one your child will relish the foods he claims he dislikes (but which are so good for him) if you use your wits. For example, let's take spinach. Give it some shape, instead of putting a blob of it on the plate. Mould before serving (a plain cup will do if you've no store-bought molds). It may still not look like much, but it will take on a new appearance if you top it with a slice of hardboiled egg. Still not tempting enough? With tiny bits of pimento or green pepper, make two eyes, a nose and a mouth, on the slice of egg. Not enticing enough YET? Then-around half the spinach arrange mashed potatoes-or cut half a circle of bread. Now you'll have a green man with a yellow face, red or green eyes, and white hair-plus, we hope, a chance to serve spinach soon again.
51. When you're preparing your child's food and have an extra minute, take time to cut the bread and butter into odd shapes. It's almost certain to taste better.
52. To entice youngsters to take fruit juices-freeze them! (If the doctor gives permission, of course). Pour fruit juice into a refrigerator tray, adding three tablespoons of powdered sugar, stir gently, replace divider, and set the refrigerator at the coldest point. As soon as frozen shell has formed around the outside of the fruit juice cubes, insert kitchen matches (from which the tips have been carefully cut) into the center of each cube. Replace the tray in the freezing compartment until the cubes are completely frozen. These frozen lollipops retain their flavor and Vitamin C content when stored-that is, if they last that long, for children love them!
 
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