Styrofoam Food Holder

This relates to those people who must eat (and watch TV, usually) lying on their backs. I found that balancing a tapered back pillow on my stomach with a bath towel on it and bowls or plates of food on that was not the best idea for a person like me with hyperesthesia—it aggravated my condition and wasn't that stable. But a few pieces of Styrofoam fixed that.

I started with a 24-inch by 12-inch by 2-inch piece which spans my body with about 5 inches to spare. I then cut 2 legs 12 inches by 2 inches by 7.5 inches and glued them under the top with a liberal amount of Tacky Glue and let this dry for a day. The legs ended up needing trimming so they sat at a slant with respect to the mattress. I trimmed them using an electric kitchen knife so that each measured 7.5 inches at one bottom corner and 6 inches at the other.

This slant business happened because the mattress I use to eat on is propped up at a slant, and the legs were therefore slanted to balance out the mattress slant—thereby making the top of the food holder parallel to the floor and keeping much soup off my chest.

My mattress has underlying it 1-foot by 2-foot by 2-inch pieces of soft foam stairstepped upward from the foot of the mattress to the head. Also under the mattress is a tapered foam wedge.

Styrofoam sheds. I didn't want little Styrofoam particles all over the living room for the next century, so I put a few glue spots here and there and wrapped the whole thing with kitchen plastic wrap. There were a few bare spots and I just smeared some Tacky on them and let the whole thing dry for a day. You can't seal Styrofoam with paint or other sealers very well, but Tacky works fine.

I use this food holder with the tray holder (see Tray Holder and Standing Assistance Accessory), but it works fine without it too. My wife puts a tray of food on a tray holder next to the mattress and I do the rest, until it's time to remove the tray.

Once the food tray is next to me, I reach behind my head—without looking—for the food holder which is resting on a chair (along with a bath towel for my chest in case I slobber) and I put the food holder over my tummy. Then I take items from the tray and put them on the food holder and eat.

I mostly use a soup spoon, as a fork assures slobbers since rice and peas and spaghetti and the like are not known for their cooperation. Items that need to be cut up I cut in the kitchen. But a fork is still needed for items like string beans and salad.

After eating, I easily put the food holder behind my head on the chair where it lives.