How to Eat an Orange without Peeling It

Oranges can be a bit of a challenge for those of us with poor fine motor skills. When I was a little girl my mother would always peel all my oranges for me. She was very good at it, and they were never bruised or damaged in the process of peeling.

When I was a teenager I started trying to peel my own oranges, but I found that I was not nearly as good at peeling an orange as my mother was. I would squeeze too hard, and some of the juice would run out. When it was finally peeled, the orange looked unappetizing and damaged. It turns out, you need excellent fine motor skills to peel an orange. While I have gotten better at peeling oranges over the years, it still requires time and concentration for me to do a good job of it.

Bow, like me, has real difficulty peeling an orange. He has excellent coordination overall, but certain fine motor skills that most humans take for granted are not available to him. If you give him an orange, he tries to put as much of the unpeeled fruit into his mouth and squeeze and this makes a mess on the floor with all the juice spurting out.

But did you know that there is a perfectly good way to eat an orange without ever peeling it? You can just cut it into quarters with a knife.

This is what I do when Bow and I want to have an orange for a snack. It doesn't make a mess, and we are able to eat all the pulp without peeling. I take two quarters for me and give two to Bow.