My daughter’s teacher had a quick chat with me yesterday, on a MOLF (Matter Of Life and Food)*
*This is my own acronym. I’m not going to bother trademarking it.
MOLFs occur at school regularly, of course. Her special school unit has inventive and practical ways of learning, and some of these involve food, which is always an important Matter for someone who has Prader-Willi Syndrome and is consequently EFOF (Extremely Focused On Food)*
*Note to self: enough of the acronyms. They're getting ruder.
One example of a school MOLF was the tasting of a selection of small pieces of fruit in science to learn about different flavours and how to describe them. Another involved putting small amounts of different puddings in a shot glass to create some form of dessert-based strata, to learn about layers in rock formation, or something. Sounds good, doesn’t it? It was all dull drawings of Oxbow lakes in my day...
Forewarned is forearmed, and staff are always careful to check with me about what my daughter is allowed to eat. She is on a strict low-fat diet and has a set amount of food each day at set times, so I need to know about any additional grub that may mean I need to make some menu adjustments.
Usually, anything they do consume is in small enough quantities for me to just make sure she has a particularly low-calorie afternoon snack to balance things out.
This latest MOLF is a little different, though: a trip out for lunch at Café Rouge. “We’re going to send a letter home, but we thought we’d pre-warn you,” her teacher explained.
“That should be fine - she can just have that as her main meal of the day, and her packed lunch for tea, instead,” I said, making a mental note to keep reminding my daughter of this fact so that she will have the meal order switch-around clear in her head. “I’ll have a look at the menu...” I continued, but was interrupted by my excited girl.
“It’s OK, mum, I’ve already seen it, and I can have the pasta with tomato and courgette sauce, because that’s healthy and doesn’t have fries, and for afters I can have the fresh banana and chilled custard.”
I’ve just looked it up myself on the restaurant’s website. She’s right, you know. She got the exact wording of the menu options she’d chosen. And picked the lowest of the low-fat choices herself. What could have been a long, drawn-out process of negotiation, explanation, compromise and mental preparation turned out to be pretty simple.
Which left both her and me feeling like the custard: chilled. Dude.
Video is Squeeze - Cool For Cats
I really think that you can be proud of her :)
ReplyDeleteI also notice that the least she is stressed, the least food will be an issue. I am not living with you, so I may be completely wrong.
The more she is stressed (like feel "less than" because of her typically developed friend's child, bullying at school...), the more she will focus on food.
So, to lower the risk of PWS-food behavior, we lower her stress levels.
It does not make PWS disappear, but it lessens its effects on your daughter, therefore, on your family.
After all, her genetic make up is influenced by environment... (sounds so obvious, but often forgotten)
I hope it makes sense and does not offend you.
Makes perfect sense Giulia.
ReplyDeleteBoredom, changes to routine, a lack of structure in the day, something worrying her = food is more of an issue.
Busy, well-organised, happy, secure, calm atmosphere = food is less of an issue.