Mum's diet

[jknight]

Hi,
My mum's diet is awful.
She has weetabix for breakfast. She makes & eats a sandwich mid morning. Meals on wheels deliver at lunchtime but she is full from the sandwich so throws the vegetables away. The carer or I make a sandwich for tea, with a yoghurt.
Mum is gaining weight are an alarming rate. The dementia sweet tooth has kicked in, with a vengeance!
Mum lives alone, with carers and me, supporting her.
Any ideas how I can get a more balanced diet?
Should I get a carer to cook? Or are just sandwiches ok?
Help!

 

[Lydiajane]

We have similar problems with my Gran. She took against the Meals on Wheels immediately, so had to cancel it.
We buy her ready meals, but she has now forgotten how to use the microwave (complained about the Liver and bacon being like rubber, then revealed she'd had it in the microwave for 25 minutes!!!). We have now got her carer coming in at lunchtimes to make her main meal for her, BUT she doesn't like having her main meal at lunchtime so often refuses to eat it or tells her she isn't hungry.
The result is she ends up living off Mr Kipling's Apple Pies and Kit Kats! I realise it is incredibly unhealthy, but she is very difficult and resistant to help, so not sure what we can do about it.
Might not be the best attitude to have, but the way I see it is, she's 87 and has so many ailments, her medical notes look like War and Peace, if she enjoys eating sweet stuff, let her. How much harm can it really do?
Not much of a solution to your problem I know, but sometimes you havever to admit defeat!

 

[Linbrusco]

I have two parents at opposite ends.
Mum 76 with Alz now in a care home ate everything put in front of her especially sweet, and her fluid intake in the CH was much improved. She gained 4 kgs just in the first 7 mnths of being in care. Then she developed a UTI. Now she is not eating or drinking well despite Care Homes best efforts, and has lost 5 kgs in 3 mnths. As Mum is still considered overweight they are monitoring her. She will eat chocolate and salt & vinegar chips.
She has now come down with another UTI. Mum also has Leukemia so prone to infections.

My Dad 80 with MCI, still at home, is not overweight, but his diet is just appalling, plus hes been borderline Type 2 diabetic for years. It consists of toast with honey or golden syrup for breakfast, breadroll with leftover meat for lunch, fried steak/pork or chicken nuggets, oven chips, onions or corn cob for dinner all supplemented with biscuits and wine gums, 6-8 cups of coffee/tea a day.
Its fair to say when Mum was at home his diet was just a bit more varied with custard or lettuce and tomatos in summer. The last time I saw him eat fruit was 2 years ago.
Inviting Dad for dinner makes no difference. Meat & potatos thats it.
If I buy him anything different at shopping it gets wasted. He refuses to use the microwave, so Meals on Wheels would be a waste.

I figure at their ages and health, nutrition goes out the window and as long as their eating, it doesnt matter what. Diabetes though would be the deal breaker.
I kid Dad on hes going to develop scurvy or rickets!

 

[father ted]

My Mum is the same and she lives with me!

Weetabix for breakfast and often only drinks half the cup of tea with it.
White bread toast mid morning
Pasty for lunch
Small dinner at tea time (one spud, piece of fish is a typical dinner).
I always put veg on plate but won't eat salad-"rabbit food", peas- "stick to my dental plate" ditto sweet corn, doesn't like broccoli, kale,spinach or green beans. Will eat tiny amount of cabbage at push.
Almost every drink gets left and will only be drunk if you stand over her but this often causes friction.

Mum will eat the ready peeled and cut up fruit you get in the fridge section of supermarkets if I give it to her rather than ask if she wants it.

Chocolate and sherbet dips and pepper mints are all consumed in vast quantities with no encouragement.

 

[Trisha4]

My husband is becoming less willing to eat much savoury food and much prefers cakes and scones. I get a little down him but I have adopted the attitude that he has lost most of life's pleasures he enjoyed because of Alzheimer's so if he prefers to eat unhealthy food why does it matter? I think drinking is more important and I have to give much encouragement to ensure he drinks the drinks I give him.


Sent from my iPad using Talking Point

 

[Pear trees]

My mum could eat her weight in Mr Kipling cakes, with loads of pears and satsumas. She would only eat curries and pasta meals (which she hated before) as she said plainer meals were bland and tasteless.
But she would eat everything put in front of her at her lunch club, and having company when eating seems to help.

 

[Amy in the US]

Hi jknight, sorry to hear of the trouble you're having with your mother's diet.

My mother, before she went into the care home, was living alone and also had a terrible diet. She didn't feel hungry and couldn't remember that she hadn't eaten, lost a lot of weight, and was living on ice cream and sweets, mainly. (She couldn't prepare a meal at this point, not even to heat something up.) If asked if she was hungry, she would always say no. It was very worrying; she lost so much weight and her diet was so bad, that she was malnourished.

The only way to get nutritious food into her at that stage, was to take her out for a meal. Although she would protest she wasn't hungry, she was willing to go along to keep me or her friend "company." She would then proceed to eat every bite of a large meal, whatever was placed in front of her, but only as long as someone was sitting across the table from her, also eating. She needed both the company, and the visual cue of someone eating. If I stopped eating my meal, or finished before her plate was empty, she would also stop.

When she moved into the care home I requested that she have company for meals and be sat directly across from someone, which they were happy to do, and she soon started eating three meals a day again and regained all the lost weight and more.

So if possible, you might try both meal preparation, and company while she eats, and see if that makes a difference.

There might be something helpful here: https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/info/20029/daily_living/10/eating_and_drinking

Hope you find something that works.

 

[jknight]

Thank you, everybody! I think I'll just go with the flow and be glad that she is eating!