Not Eating.

[amnmont]

Hi I am sure that this has been posted about before but I don't use Talking Point much. Although I am not sure why as you lot are very helpful!

My grandma is 87. She has been living on her own but a couple of weeks ago she got a uti and ended up in hospital. She has never been the biggest eater but now she's home she's hardly eating anything at all. She now has 4 carers a day go in so we know what they are making her to eat and what is left over. Today she had a couple of bites of toast, half a cuppa soup and I went in and cut her a small slice of cake which i was quite adamant she was going to eat. She says she's not hungry but she's starting to look ill and lethargic. She's not drinking enough either. And her dementia is worse than when she went in.
We have tried the softly softly approach but today we tried to be a bit harder in our approach. She just gets nasty and sarcastic. She can't go on for much longer like this before getting seriously ill, which we have told her.
Any advice will be extremely appreciated!
Sarah xx

 

[Jessbow]

Try finger food that you can leave beside her, sandwiches (perhaps just 2 quarters) with a 'moist' filling or sweet filling, titbits that you know she likes, perhaps some fruit ( my mother could eat really cold melon for Britain despite having a poor appitite)

Food so that she can graze (over the course of perhaps a couple of hours) and see what disappears.
maybe food that doesn't take much chewing- quiche and such like

Would he try cold drinks? I used to freeze some water in a pop top bottle and top it up with squash- It stayed really cold for ages, was easy to pick up and drink and didnt spill

Prob not the very best quality but when mum wasn't eating very much , I used Iceland frozen ready meals. ''Do you want this, this, or this?'' showing her the boxes. it gave her some choice, and was almost instantly ready. Didn't always work, but might be worth a try

 

[nitram]

You may get some useful hints in >>>THIS GUIDE<<< (125 pages)

 

[Tin]

Has her medication been changed recently? If so, check side effects. My mum has a huge appetite at the moment, but there have been times when she will only eat snack foods like little sausage rolls, quiche, crisps, grapes, little pots of ice cream She won't take these if I offer them, just helps herself at any time of day or night and then after a week or two we get back to normal meal times.

 

[count2ten]

Hi I am sure that this has been posted about before but I don't use Talking Point much. Although I am not sure why as you lot are very helpful!

My grandma is 87. She has been living on her own but a couple of weeks ago she got a uti and ended up in hospital. She has never been the biggest eater but now she's home she's hardly eating anything at all. She now has 4 carers a day go in so we know what they are making her to eat and what is left over. Today she had a couple of bites of toast, half a cuppa soup and I went in and cut her a small slice of cake which i was quite adamant she was going to eat. She says she's not hungry but she's starting to look ill and lethargic. She's not drinking enough either. And her dementia is worse than when she went in.

We have tried the softly softly approach but today we tried to be a bit harder in our approach. She just gets nasty and sarcastic. She can't go on for much longer like this before getting seriously ill, which we have told her.
Any advice will be extremely appreciated!
Sarah xx

.

 

[amnmont]

thank you for all your replies. Unfortunately grandma had another fall yesterday and is in hospital again. She unfortunately has pneumonia now. The non eating is the least of our worries now!! The doctors are apparently quite positive as she is coughing so is trying to clear it. I am not feeling so positive.

 

[Amy in the US]

I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother and hope she receives good care in hospital. Don't forget to take care of yourself.