An ISU student has taken a step toward helping children overcome cancer with the help of food by writing a book.

Kelly Wagner, senior in dietetics, completed the book last year as her capstone honors project for the College of Human Sciences Honors Program.

“I was brainstorming with my adviser on possible project ideas,” Wagner said. “We discovered that there really wasn’t a cookbook designed solely for children with cancer. Those books are usually only aimed at adults.”

It took her the entire year to complete, but she said she enjoyed it and learned a lot too.

All stages of cancer treatment affect the body differently, with chemotherapy being the most drastic.

“Chemotherapy is the most significant because chemo drugs kill cells that divide rapidly, such as taste buds, causing patients to have to regrow new ones,” said Kris Ghosh, a gynecologic oncologist and co-author of “Living With Cancer Cookbook: Pink Together Edition,” which is another book aimed at adults undergoing cancer.

“It can take a month for a patient to regrow these cells,” Ghosh said. “Tastes often change radically in that time.”

In Wagner’s book, “Children’s Cookbook During and After Cancer Treatment,” she aimed her recipes at a younger generation of patients, who she thought were not getting the same help adults were getting.

“Children need special treatment,” Wagner said. “A lot of them are picky eaters and the treatments only make that worse, so they may not get the nutrition they need to grow and develop properly.”

Wagner explained that children are rapidly changing during growth.

“This is a period of rapid growth and development for many children,” Wagner said. “And if they do not get the correct amount of nutrients during this time, it could affect them for the rest of their life.”

According to the American Cancer Society, a good diet not only helps a child develop properly, but it also helps them better tolerate treatment and its side effects. Children are better able to stay on schedule for treatment, heal and recover faster, have less of a risk of infection during treatment, have a higher level of strength and energy, are able to better keep up their weight and have an overall better quality of life.

Typically children are less irritable, they sleep better and they work better with their health care team.

Her book is written in easy-to-read categories, broken down by whatever ailment the child is suffering. For example, a child suffering from a sore mouth can find many soft, easy-to-digest recipes that help alleviate that. Other ailments Wagner’s book try to help are diarrhea, constipation, change in taste, lack of appetite and fatigue.

Wagner said she has spent a lot of time working with children already through classes in her major, and this book is going to help her get to her ultimate goal of working in pediatric nutrition at a children’s hospital after she graduates.