Mum Losing Weight

[Misslovely]

I am very worried about my Mum. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s last year and is very slim. Recently the carer has been weighing her every month and she is losing weight.

I have been round to her house with a healthy takeaway. I tried to encourage her to have some but she’d forgotten I said I was bringing it round and had some toast earlier. She said she’d have some later.

It may get to the point where I would need to get an evening carer in once a week to help her with meals. She currently has a Carer in the mornings for an hour a day.

I’ve tried everything - including ordering healthy meals from a catering company which she can put in the microwave.

She is also now saying she doesn’t like the nutrition drinks she has. I can’t find any meals on wheels companies that would deliver in the evenings when she has her main meal.

Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[jennifer1967]

could you swap when she has her meals so she has dinner lunch time. it might help then she can have toast if she wants in the evening. your mum may not want healthy meals but i think she could do with any calories you can persuade her to eat if your mum is losing weight. maybe her tastes have changed

 

[Misslovely]

Hi. Thanks for your reply. My mother hasn’t really eaten lunch for years and has her main meal in the evenings. She has porridge for breakfast and likes to have cake if she goes out for breakfast.

I got her to have a dumpling from the takeaway. It was healthy but Chinese food which she likes. She liked it but only had one and said she’d have the rest later.

I think you are right - I think her tastes have changed. She always used to cook good healthy meals.

 

[Misslovely]

Sorry, that should read goes out for coffee.

 

[silkiest]

Hi @Misslovely, I would forget about healthy meals. Your mum needs extra calories so fatty and sweet foods will help.
Many people on here have mentioned that their PWD has developed a sweet tooth as they have deteriorated. I have seen this in both MIL and mum. Cakes , biscuits and sweets used to be for the grandchildren. Now the children are grown up the sweet things are definitely for the elderly. Mum thinks a lot of savory foods now either taste "funny" or tasteless, she has even started having sugar in her drinks.

 

[try again]

My mum lives on her own. For about 6 months she wasn't eating much. I did food shopping and very little was being used yet she insisted she was eating .

We needed carers in anyway to help with tablets as everything we tried failed
Now when things work as they should she has porridge made for her, sandwiches at lunch time, a heated frozen meal mid afternoon and sometimes a treat in the evening. All down in her care plan. She always has biscuits by her side and normally I make sure there is cake in the fridge. With all this I think she's putting on weight. Good but not so good as her poor mobility is getting worse.