An 8-year-old girl awaiting a heart transplant had the time of her life when a hospital affiliate came and taught her how to make her favorite food.
But that didn’t involve sprinkling cheese over a pizza or smearing icing on cupcakes—it involved dipping vegetables in herbs and brine: pickling.
Emerson Bayse, a transplant patient at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH), is undergoing fluid restriction as is common with cardiac patients, which also has the common side effect of making them crave salty foods.
She had always loved pickles, but never knew how they were made.
Chef and program manager of culinary services, Sarah Bryce, who describes herself as a child life specialist and who works with the Association of Child Life Professionals, has often used cooking as a dual-use therapy of sorts for kids like Bayse.
“I’ve worked in these rooms and I’ve seen what a difference it is for a child to eat — just trying to get them to eat something,” Bryce told TODAY. “It sounds so simple, right? But it really can be a huge difference.”
To brighten up a child’s day, she’s often making junk food because it’s someone’s favorite, but when she heard Bayse’s preference for pickles, she had a great idea.
Bryce asked Bayse if she knew how pickles were made.
“She said, ‘No! I would have never thought about it,’ and I said, ‘What if we made some together?’” Bryce recalls. “Her eyes lit up and she was like, ‘We can do that?’”
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And so they spent a whole morning pickling various vegetables in various brine mixtures, including dill, garlic, and even Ken’s Italian Dressing. They pickled cucumbers, but also onions, carrots, and watermelon.
Bayse said her mouth was watering through the whole process.
After the first taste test, the duo decided to throw a pickle party, inviting anyone in the hospital who wanted to try one to come and enjoy a briny bite. Bryce prepared lemonade with pickle juice ice cubes to serve to visitors from multiple BCH departments who stopped by, and remarked it was the best 2 hours of her life.
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Bryce had an in-patient stay as a child at BCH, and wanted to give back to other kids in ways similar to how she remembers being impacted during interactions and meaningful moments with the staff.
Bayse’s mom tells TODAY that the hospital really goes the extra mile to try and make children feel comfortable in the environment of the hospital.
“The fact that they’re so supportive of just knowing what the kids are interested in and like to do and then just going with that idea, they’ve really normalized the experience for Emerson here at Children’s Hospital,” Allison Bayse, the patient’s mom.
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