Stable Slide Self Feeding Eating Aid

Blog: Stable Slide Self Feeding Aid:  Origin Story

My name is Norm “Gus” Gustafson.  I am an Occupational Therapist.  In 1998 I was working in Home Health and received a referral to work on self feeding with a woman in her twenties who was having severe tremor activity due to Multiple Sclerosis.  (not the woman in the photo to the below) 

We first tried weighted utensils that did not work.  We also tried using a wrist cock up splint.  We also tried weights for the wrist. Additionally, we tried alternating agonist/antagonist exercise to promote wrist and forearm stability.  None of these things reduced her tremors or improved her ability to perform self feeding. 

During the next session I thought that if the arm could be physically supported during the movement from plate to mouth that her tremor activity might be reduced.  I brought out a splint pan and splint material to the house and fabricated a support that could be clamped to the table and shaped to support her arm during the plate to mouth movement.  This worked well and the client was able to perform self feeding using this adaptation.  Later I thought that this support could be a product that could help people who had similar problems to the client I was working with.

This was the origin of the Stable Slide self feeding aid. It was a challenge working out how to make it adjustable for different people and I’ll never forget bringing over the misshapen orthoplast mounted on a wood base to show my friend Tom Ogden who was a VA Occupational Therapist.  It didn’t look too impressive but I knew I had worked out the needed adjustability.  It can pivot in the horizontal plane and the vertical plane and then be locked in to provide a stable supporting surface that provides support, biomechanical advantage and tactile feedback during self feeding. On this site in addition to useful information on rehabilitation dining we also have information on a new hands free eating aid that we are developing, the Eatzii. Thanks for visiting today and we invite you to contact us at anytime. Please check back soon for more useful information regarding independent dining.