Tag: eating

10 ways to get them to eat more

“My father-in-law has dementia. He doesn’t eat well and frequently doesn’t finish drinks. He turns over the cutlery over and over and has to be reminded to eat, as well as forgetting he is holding a cup. I’ve seen your comments about sippy cups and I think we’ll get him a mug with a straw at least, that really helped. But I just wondered if you can help with the eating? He’s currently being cared for at home by my mother-in-law.” Before I get into some tips about how to get a person to eat and drink more, I want to offer this caveat: when someone with dementia progresses to a certain point, their body no longer tells them to eat. I don’t know how advanced he is, but at some point, as he is actually beginning to pass away, it won’t matter what tips you use, he will just stop eating. And this is natural. In the meantime, here are some tips to encourage eating: Make sure what you’re offering him is sweet and tastes good. Many people with dementia eventually lose their ability to taste foods that aren’t sweet. Also, did he like that food or drink before he got dementia? Don’t start bringing new items, like extra protein, into the diet to “make him better,” instead, focus on what he enjoys. Sounds like he’s forgetting how to use utensils. Instead of fighting it, adapt. Switch to a mug for drinking soup (instead of a spoon and bowl) and switch to finger foods. Offer food he can pick up with his hands—a burger and fries is finger food! Offer small meals throughout the day instead of big meals 2 or 3 times a day. Snacking is easier because he can get enough water and food without sitting down for a whole meal. Don’t ask him if he’s hungry. Instead, just present the food and beverage. “Here, this is for you.” Offer more water throughout the day. One thing caregivers always forget to offer is water. And it’s not, “Are you thirsty?” but instead handing the person with dementia a glass of water without asking. If he’s having trouble swallowing, adjust the diet. You may need a mechanical soft (”ground”) diet or a puree option. You may also need to add thickened liquids. Eat with him. People with dementia have an easier time following cues when they can mimic others. Change the color of the cup and plate. Make sure that the cup and plate are a different color than the actual meal—red is a great option. Blue actually discourages food intake. Turn on some music (without lyrics). We’re often used to eating meals in restaurants or maybe with some music on in the background at home. Something without lyrics won’t encourage distracting singing, but it may encourage food intake. There are a lot of cool plate and mug modifications you can make. I recommend doing a Web search for different types of plate guards and cups.

February 3, 2019

A medical mystery because of a missed dementia diagnosis

Dementia gets missed. A lot. It gets missed by family members, friends, and even physicians and people who are “supposed to know” about it.  I’ve met a lot of family members of people with dementia who will say to me, “I know mom has dementia, but her primary care doctor says she’s fine! What do I do? I feel like I’m crazy.” I always assure the family: no, you aren’t crazy, the doctor wasn’t looking for dementia and missed it. I met a family just the other day who had visited a ton of different doctors, all looking for a cure for difficulty eating. After speaking to the client, it became really clear that her thoughts and judgement were confusing and disorganized. Because she was eloquent and well-spoken, the illogical statements that she was actually making were going, for the most part, unnoticed. She stated that she “didn’t want to eat” even though she knew she would die if she didn’t start ingesting some calories.  At the doctor, she was great! Clever, funny, talkative, and educated, so it wasn’t a surprise to me that doctors were looking at her heart, her lungs, her pancreas, her kidneys, and more, almost all of them ignoring her (obvious to me) dementia.  I spent some time looking through her well-organized medical history and found a ton of notes from various hospitals and rehab facilities. Only one of them mentioned that she had “maybe” some “frontotemporal damage” in her brain. There it was. A CT scan had revealed some dementia, but everyone thought that her inability to eat had something to do with her stomach. Really, it probably wasn’t her stomach at all: it was her brain, telling her not to eat.

July 16, 2018

10 tips to get them to eat and drink more

“My father-in-law has dementia. He doesn’t eat well and frequently doesn’t finish drinks. He turns over the cutlery over and over and has to be reminded to eat, as well as forgetting he is holding a cup. I’ve seen your comments about sippy cups and I think we’ll get him a mug with a straw at least, that really helped. But I just wondered if you can help with the eating? He’s currently being cared for at home by my mother-in-law.” Before I get into some tips about how to get a person to eat and drink more, I want to offer this caveat: when someone with dementia progresses to a certain point, their body no longer tells them to eat. I don’t know how advanced he is, but at some point, as he is actually beginning to pass away, it won’t matter what tips you use, he will just stop eating. And this is natural.  In the meantime, here are some tips to encourage eating: Make sure what you’re offering him is sweet and tastes good. Many people with dementia eventually lose their ability to taste foods that aren’t sweet. Also, did he like that food or drink before he got dementia? Don’t start bringing new items, like extra protein, into the diet to “make him better,” instead, focus on what he enjoys. Sounds like he’s forgetting how to use utensils. Instead of fighting it, adapt. Switch to a mug for drinking soup (instead of a spoon and bowl) and switch to finger foods. Offer food he can pick up with his hands—a burger and fries is finger food! Offer small meals throughout the day instead of big meals 2 or 3 times a day. Snacking is easier because he can get enough water and food without sitting down for a whole meal. Don’t ask him if he’s hungry. Instead, just present the food and beverage. “Here, this is for you.” Offer more water throughout the day. One thing caregivers always forget to offer is water. And it’s not, “Are you thirsty?” but instead handing the person with dementia a glass of water without asking. If he’s having trouble swallowing, adjust the diet. You may need a mechanical soft (”ground”) diet or a puree option. You may also need to add thickened liquids. Eat with him. People with dementia have an easier time following cues when they can mimic others. Change the color of the cup and plate. Make sure that the cup and plate are a different color than the actual meal—red is a great option. Blue actually discourages food intake. Turn on some music (without lyrics). We’re often used to eating meals in restaurants or maybe with some music on in the background at home. Something without lyrics won’t encourage distracting singing, but it may encourage food intake. There are a lot of cool plate and mug modifications you can make. I recommend doing a Web search for different types of plate guards and cups.

April 19, 2018

Pureed food doesn’t have to be gross

When people think of a “puree” diet, they typically scrunch up their noses in disgust. “Ugh, mom has to eat that liquefied food?” family members may sometimes ask. Sure, puree can definitely look gross, but it doesn’t have to! We recently ordered (with the awesome help of our Dietary Director) pureed meats that come in shapes. Below you can see a picture of pureed chicken breast, pureed meatloaf, and pureed pork chop. When you put a fork in, the consistency is soft and easy to eat, but the meal looks way more appetizing! It actually tastes pretty good, too–and yes, I tried them. I was able to help my community order more bowls and plates recently, too. We ordered bright red dishes and bowls to encourage our residents to eat more. Red is a vibrant color that creates a clear distinction between the food and the plate. Residents with dementia are better able to see the food in front of them, which encourages them to eat. Notice that the food on the white plate doesn’t stand out very much. Now, picture the same meal on the red plate. Think it would look a little more interesting?

May 29, 2016

Saving Food: A Generation Gap

I had gone to another dementia care community to visit one of my ex-residents. She remembered me immediately, her eyes filling with tears as I walked up to her dining table. “Oh! You’re here!” she exclaimed, avoiding the use of my name—which she did not know or remember. I pulled up a chair and sat with Helen, trying to talk with her while not completely distracting her from eating. Across the table from us sat a woman who pushed the food around on her plate. People around her talked and ate, but this woman just sat quietly. Her head was bent over her plate, but she just moved the fork around aimlessly. A staff member came to collect her still-full plate, but the resident did not seem to notice. “She hasn’t eaten anything,” I said to the resident assistant, frustrated that someone would take her plate.  This was not my community, so I could not do much of anything. “She never does,” the staff member shrugged. “She thinks that she’s saving it for leftovers.” I looked over at the silent resident.  “What is your name?” I asked her. She looked up, surprised that anyone was speaking to her. “Ingrid!” she replied happily. “You have an accent!” I said. “Where are you from?” “Oh! I come from Poland. I came here many years ago!” she exclaimed, her light blue eyes lighting up. Ingrid raised her head and put her shoulders back, sitting up in her seat. “I speak four languages! English, Russian, Polish, and German!” she added. Ingrid looked thrilled that someone had spoken to her. It made sense, now, too, why she was “saving” food—she had grown up in Poland during World War II. It’s amazing what can happen—and what you can learn—when you make someone feel important, even if only for a couple minutes. What the staff could have done (if anyone was paying attention) was that they could have given her a box to put half of her food in. They could’ve told her to eat half of it, and then put the other half in a box. Of course, they always could give the rest of the meal to her later, as a snack. Ingrid would have felt as though she was saving food, but she would also be eating. – One of my posts from last year

May 23, 2016

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