Assistive Eating & Drinking Devices

For those whose motor skills have declined, whether from old age or diseases like Huntington's, cerebral palsy or Parkinson's, the task of eating and drinking alone can be frightening. Fortunately, there are a bevy of assistive devices available to the general public that can make eating and drinking possible.

Eating Surface and Meal Preparation

• Rubberized shelf liners help dishes stick to their intended surfaces and ensure that your dining utensils don't slide off the eating surface. You can also put place mats on top of the shelf liner surface. Adapted cooking-prep tools include spring-loaded tongs, automatic jar openers, one-handed jar openers, food and mixing bowl stabilizers, plastic knives and automatic chopping and grating sets. If you have trouble moving bowls and plates of food from the kitchen to an eating surface, trays on wheeled carts can often do the trick.

Eating Utensils

• In general, assistive eating utensils have longer and wider handles and special contours or padding to make them far easier to use than normal utensils. They can be found in any form of cutlery and are most often bent or angled. Rocker knives can cut objects without the lifting of a hand and have the same efficiency as most straight knives. Sporks are common cutlery and are superior to simple forks and spoons. They simplify the eating process by allowing users to both pick and scoop food. Scoop dishes and food guards are bowls that minimize spills. They provide an opening for the utensil to go in and out while a barrier is added to the edge of the remaining surface to keep contents from spilling over.

Drinking

• Adaptive cups or glasses are designed for easy gripping. Models include the T-handle or two-way handle, which provides an open-handle grip as opposed to the closed, semicircle handle found on most cups. For those unable to tilt their head back, nose-out cups or tumblers allow the user to drink on an even plane. Extra long straws, or cups with built-in straws, as well as flow-adjusted, or no-spill, lids are also adaptive drinking technology.

Other Adaptive Eating and Drinking Devices

• For those who have minimal hand strength, devices like the universal cuff hold utensils on the wrist, allowing the user to scoop even if he can't grip. Cleanup tools like the scrub brush with soap, or sponges with long and large handles reduce the stress and complications of cleaning. More expensive devices include height-adjustable eating surfaces, motorized feeders and arm slings.