Is Your Senior with Dementia Getting Enough to Eat?
One of the issues that people with dementia run into is that they may stop eating as often as they did in the past. Your elderly family member’s overall tastes may change, too, leaving you confused about how to make sure she gets the right mix of nutrition and enjoys eating as much as she can.
Set the Scene for Her
Elder Care Broomall, PA: Dementia and Eating
Every meal is more than just the food, and that’s the same for a senior with dementia. If there’s too much going on, in terms of distractions and noise, that’s going to interfere with your elderly family member’s ability to slow down and enjoy her meal. Ensure that the environment is conducive to letting her enjoy her food.
Keep Meals Simple
Skip the complicated foods and meals, while you’re at it. Simplifying what your elderly family member eats is going to make life easier for both of you. Make sure that the foods are easy for her to eat and swallow, but also interesting enough to keep her attention. Finger foods are often a hit, for instance. Elder care providers can help you to land on the right options.
Don’t Rush Meals
Leave plenty of time for your elderly family member to eat. If you’re often finding that you’re fitting in meals and snacks between other activities and appointments, your elderly family member might be too distracted to eat much. When you’re ensuring that she doesn’t have to rush, she’s going to be much more likely to eat more at each sitting.
Let Your Senior Stay in Control
No one likes to feel as if they’re being told what to do all the time, and that goes double for your senior with dementia. Regardless of how advanced her condition is, let her have some control over the process. Offer her choices for her meals, for instance. Even when elder care providers are helping her with meals, include menu choices so that she has options.
Ensure She’s Got Company for Meals
It’s also helpful for your senior to have company while she’s eating. Lots of people prefer eating with other people, and that can be even more important for someone with dementia. Senior care providers make excellent companions throughout the day, including during meals.
Track What She Enjoys and What She Doesn’t
It’s really important also to keep track of what your senior likes and what she doesn’t. What’s helpful during meals and what isn’t? When you track this regularly, you’re more likely to be able to keep up with changing tastes. Both aging and dementia cause your elderly family member to experience big changes in how she experiences life, food, and everything else. So, it’s helpful to stay on top of that as much as possible.
If you’ve felt as if you just can’t get your senior to eat now that she’s dealing with dementia, you might just need a little bit of extra help. Elder care providers can help you to figure out what you might be missing that she needs in order to stay healthy and well-nourished.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Elder Care in Broomall, PA please contact the caring staff at True Direct Home Health Care today.
Doc, as he is called by everyone - staff, patients and clients - first experienced home health care and hospice care while as a colleg student at King's College as he cared for his mother every day while she first battled COPD and then lung cancer. It was during this time that he came to understand that caring for a patient was more than just clinical expertise.
"Admittedly, my strongest attribute is my communication skills and the simple fact that I love to help people. Even the smallest thing you can do for someone really can mean so much to them long term. In fact, it could change them forever. That's what providing quality personal home health care should be all about."
In his spare time, he cooks for homeless shelters and children's music and arts events. He also is highly involved in his local youth sports soccer academy as a coach and Board member.
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