jan. said:
Can anyone tell me how i can get my father to eat his meat at mealtimes?
Nope, not me. (Honest answer).
Now folks here may be horrified at what I'm about to say - but it won't be the first time. I have given up on meat and given up on mealtimes. Why the two ever needed to go together at all I don't know. All I am concerned with is getting mum to eat - ANYTHING - ANYTIME. (I know, I know, someone's gonna lecture me about routine being important.....)
Right, controversy over (I hope).
Mum loved fish - mackerel especially, (great Omega 3s - but I think that just recently went out of fashion? - shame - cheap, cheerful, allegedly healthy until its recent demise and quick to prepare!), prawns, baked cod..... now it's 'don't bring me fish I don't like it'.... 'Don't cook me anything, I'm not hungry', 'Don't bring me any more food I don't need to eat for a week' etc.....
She accused me in front of the doc the other day of 'force feeding'!
Now, turn up with an apple turnover and the only force is her grabbing it out of my hand! I feel like the proverbial 'Let them eat cake' - but some days I wonder why I even bother trying to prepare anything of great 'nutritional value' - what nutritional value is there when the stuff gets chucked in the bin? If mum wants to live on apple turnovers for a week is that not less harm to her having nothing at all? (Not that I have let her get away with that so far but it's tempting!)
I find mum 'grazes' - like young children often do - and providing/leaving little snacks for the day seem to produce the desired effect (i.e. food into her stomach not directly the bin or elsewhere!) better than trying to 'stick' to rigid mealtimes.
Some are healthy - some are not - but to me it has to be healthier than nothing at all....
On the 'childhood' note, mum seems to enjoy the foods (or similar) she remembers from her really young days..... I found Staffordshire 'oatcakes' in Tescos which I could even leave her with to spread with jam and roll herself.... an achievement in itself because she could announce 'she had made her tea'! (Well, I guess by the debris in the kitchen at least some of the jam got to where it should have!)
It's tough. I'm trying to stay fairly light about it - mum's weight loss is a great concern, as for many here. I hope I am doing right (for mum and for my own sanity) to try to relax the 'rules' I know I was brought up with - 'don't eat between meals', 'eat your meat' (that was on the basis of cost I believe!) etc etc....
Who writes the rules now? I am making mine up as I go along. If it works for mum and me, then it's the 'new rule'!!
Good luck, TF