"I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato" by Lauren Child Essay

Introduction

Parents play a significant role in educating their children on important health aspects such as healthy eating habits. Lauren Child's "I Will Never Not Eat a Tomato" is a very creative children storybook that depicts a relationship between two siblings and the eating habits of the younger sibling, Lola. The storybook creates an example of activities delegated to older children by their parents to take care of their younger siblings which is a good approach to establishing accountability and responsibility in young children. Children story books are important because they can initiate lively conversations on important subjects such as food and sibling relationship which can help children to embrace responsibility towards taking care of their younger siblings. "I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato" is a good storybook that can help children to lead healthy lives by raising topics on the dietary requirements which can help to deal with issues such as childhood obesity.

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Lola is depicted as a fussy eater who dislikes most foods which are considered to be healthy especially for growing children. Charlie can instigate Lola into taking foods that she initially does not like by making them attractive and cool. The creativity displayed by Charlie can be applied by parents especially those that are dealing with children who are stubborn when it comes to food. The food that Lola hates the most turns out to be moonsquirters her favourite fruit just because of the initiative of Charlie through creativity. Besides, there are many other aspects in the storybook that can be explored by an adult to create greater understanding and fun for studying children. For instance, the philosophical question of whether deception is good and the difference between deception and a lie. Finally, parents can use the storybook to identify the importance of eating healthy food.

Promoting Children Health through Creativity

Children health is a sensitive issue, and food plays a significant role in their health and development. The storybook "I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato" shows that encouraging children to eat healthy requires high creativity to change the minds of the children negative view and attitude towards food. In this case, a healthy life includes activities that can be learned and adopted like in the case of Lola which can promote long-term wellness. The same approach can be applied to other aspects of health such as exercising and hygiene.

Nursing Theory Application

Jean Watson's Theory of Human Caring

Watson's theory of human caring is based on the idea that human being should not be viewed as an object but as a spiritual being. Humans are part of the environment, larger universe and nature and just like the environment is peaceful and coexistent so is the human mind, body and the soul. The Watson's human caring theory was applied by Charlie on his sister Lola to convince her from within of what she was initially against by changing her mind perspective on various forms of food. The ability of Charlie to change Lola's perception on the tomatoes indicates that humans are not just the body but also the mind and the soul which Charlie was able to change and engage with to make her little sister feel comfortable and trust him. Similarly, healthcare providers in children hospitals can use a similar approach applied by Charlie to be able to improve the eating habits of the children by ensuring that they are well spiritually and in mind.

The problem faced by Lola should be viewed as an illness, and the application of the Watson's human caring theory can be applied can be applied to restore balance through a holistic approach to showing care and concern. Charlie was able to win Lola's trust which made it possible to change her consciousness and existing beliefs towards food. The approach of care that Charlie took was designed specifically to address the healthcare needs of Lola which first required an interpersonal relationship. Lola in this context being the patient Charlie person-oriented approach and was expressed using love. According to Watson's theory of human caring, love is essential in healing especially in a holistic approach to the patient problem. Charlie's actions were filled with love as he reiterated that he is aware of how stubborn his sister can be but still he did not give up but established a unique approach of winning Lola's trust which made it possible to change her mind regarding tomatoes and other important nutritious foods that she was against. Love is a powerful element that promotes creativity and persistence for people that we genuinely care about which is an important aspect of the human caring theory. Driven by the love for Lola, Charlie persistently comes up with creative solutions that change Lola's perception, and she can easily take healthy and nutritious fruits such as apples that will be very instrumental in her future development.

The human to the human dimension of care is instrumental in the human caring theory and Charlie's view on Lola is that of understanding and care. Human to human care is responsive to the emotional needs of a patient and Lola being a patient with an eating disorder recovers due to Charlie's human to human care. The human to the human relationship in the human caring theory is established on the interpersonal and caring environment. Charlie and Lola have an interpersonal relationship that makes trust and maintenance of a caring relationship possible. This is true because Charlie did not give up and let Lola starve, but instead, Charlie expressed determinism and persistent in ensuring that Lola can be able to eat healthy foods normally. The relationship between Lola and Charlie is very healthy which makes human caring theory by Watson applicable. As such, parents should encourage positive and enduring bonds between siblings to be able to create an appropriate environment of care like in the case of Charlie and Lola.

Achieving home nursing for children as depicted by Charlie it is not a difficult activity but requires a genuine relationship and care. Children require kindness, appreciation and special attention which Charlie was able to show Lola and convince her towards making the right nutrition diseases. Watson's human caring theory argues that internal healing is possible through authentic care and presence which can help a patient to heal from within like in the case of Lola because the decision to eat tomatoes came from her understanding of his brother's concern. As such, Charlie playing the role of a nurse the success of implementing care on Lola was by ensuring that the patient is in the best position to heal herself.

Leininger's Culture Care Theory

Madeleine Leininger developed the theory of culture care in which the decisions of care are based on patient values, beliefs and practices. Understanding the cultural background of the patient can significantly improve the nursing intervention outcomes. However, Leininger argues that it is crucial to develop a self-assessment to eliminate any biases and ensure that the nursing care provider is aware of the context of care. In this case, Charlie should take the role of a nurse whereas Lola is the patient and to address the poor eating behaviour Charlie will need to be aware of Lola's reasons behind refusing to eat certain foods and in particular the tomatoes. Lola does not seem to have an allergic reaction to the food or medical condition that makes it difficult for her to take some important nutritional foods such as apples which help the human body to fight away diseases. Understanding the behavioral perspective and Lola's perspective on food makes it easy to help change Lola's self-imposed perception on certain foods.

Through cultural assessment, Charlie is aware that Lola loves astronomical elements such as planets and their mysteries. In this case, associating the things that Lola does not like with the astronomical elements such as the claim that carrots come from Jupiter and not the normal carrots that Lola despise because they are eaten by rabbits makes it easy to change her perception and help her to start eating the carrots. This aspect proves the cultural perspective developed by Leininger is workable through an understanding of the patient background. In this case, the cultural values of a patient such as Lola's view that rabbits should eat carrots. Values can have a significant impact on individual health, Lola's health could have been at risk by avoiding nutritious fruits such as carrots and apples. This could have significantly had a negative health impact on Lola because in her age she needs food to grow. Therefore, the creative and ingenious approach developed by Charlie to change Lola's perception was only successful due to his ability to understand the cause of Lola's behavior and things that Lola fancy the most. What changed in Lola's situation is her cultural view on food and linking food products and fruits to things that she adored made it possible for Lola to change her behavior which in the long term will improve her eating habits and the overall health outcomes.

Parents can use Charlie's approach and Leininger cultural approach to care to understand the cause of the behavior and how best to intervene to change the behavioral aspects of their children especially towards food product. Many children have negative behavior and perspective towards food that has been developed through the interaction of their environment and changing such behavior will require an understanding of the root cause of the behavior. Besides, changing behavior requires an individual to adopt think from the patient perspective. Charlie was able to change Lola's dislike of food because he knew that Lola could love things that are mysterious and not normal. If Charlie instead had forced her little sister to eat the food she would not have complied. Besides, creating cultural competent environment requires creating a relationship with the patient which was Charlie's advantage point because he was able to understand Lola through their existing relationship.

Katherine Kolbaca Comfort Theory

The theory of comfort is based on the ability to meet the immediate needs of a patient. The theory argues that the immediate state of a patient can be strengthened by being able to meet the needs that promote relief, transcendence and ease in a holistic approach to care. The holistic constricts that a nurse should focus on creating comfort are the environmental, sociocultural, physical and psychosocial elements. Health seeking behavior is necessary to be able to achieve comfort. This is achieved through physiological healing on the internal and pro-health activities (external) which in the case of "I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato" are applicable. In this case, the basic principle is that by increasing the patient comfort levels from a holistic approach encourages further health-seeking behaviors.

In the case of Lola, Charlie can increase her comfort and positivity towards fruits which led to her initiation to eat the tomatoes a factor that surprised Charlie because he knew that tomatoes would be Lola's last choice. Changing Lola's dislike of certain fruits such as apples and tomatoes could only be changed from physiological healing in Lola which was changing her mental perspective. More importantly, the comfort theory by Kolbaca is beneficial to both patients and the nurses because after achieving proper comfort levels the patient like in the case of Lola self-initiates health-seeking behaviors. After changing Lola's mentally and introducing a new view, she experienced physiological healing which led to new views on the environment such as the fruits, and she was able to decide...