Eating Issues

karenwehrman

My sister has difficulty expressing what she wants to eat - difficult for her to make any decision when offered selection of foods. We've done pretty well following the suggestions, small offerings, bite size, selection of favorite foods. Recently she seems to have no appetite, even fresh baked chocolate cookies are turned down. Any suggestions? We eat with her, no distractions, try to make it fun, add humor...she has difficulty expressing herself when asked anything - responses often don't follow the question. Going to try high protein drinks for her to get nutrition.

Thank you for any and all suggestions.

harshedbuzz

@karenwehrman

Hi and welcome. I am sorry for your reason to be here but pleased you found this place.

It can be hard to know what the best approach for your sister is-- it's not only impacted by the stage of dementia in which she is currently but also by her personality to some degree.

When my dad was in the middle stages, we found he was overwhelmed by choice and selecting foods for him worked best. Asking for input can feel like engaging a PWD to us, but more of a burden for them. We also found his tastes seemed to change from grilled meats/fish and salads to sweets and soft heavily sauced foods. He liked things like meatloaf and gravy, mac'n'cheese, stew, ice cream, pudding, cobblers and such. He would sometimes eat finger foods like sandwiches and chicken fingers. We couldn't get dad to drink things like Ensure, but he would eat the "ice cream" version of it.

My aunt was different. She leaned heavily into finger foods exclusively-- little sandwiches with fillings like tuna or egg salad, PB&J, fruit slices, cookies and cakes. As she progressed into the later stages, she went on several jags where she couldn't be coerced to eat or drink much for a week or two before going back to eating. It was emotionally taxing for her caregivers.

Sometimes PWD have difficulty recognizing food as such. Spatial and visual processing can play into this. The leader of my IRL support group suggested plain high contrast plates to help the PWD "see" what's on their plate. Sometimes PWD need handfeeding because the can't coordinate the movements to get food to their mouths effectively.

HTH-

HB

MN Chickadee

Keep trying different things, but know that this is a common occurrence with dementia in later stages. Many PWD end up living on pureed food and being fed by a caregiver for many months during the end stages. Ensure type drinks and protein shakes are often a staple. Eventually they develop swallowing problems that can't be fixed. You might ask the doctor for a consult with a speech pathologist helps, they can do a swallow study to see how that is working or not and advise you on what foods to use or avoid. I would focus on anything she will take at this point, it doesn''t need to be healthy. Ice cream or pudding or any calories is better than none and you will likely have to spoon it into her mouth. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

pookabera

Echoing what's already been said here -- my dad's tastes and appetite have changed dramatically. He very much has a sweet tooth. He hates (hates!) the Ensure brand shakes, but we've had a lot of success with Fairlife. We've replaced regular milk (which he drinks with meals) with the Fairlife chocolate and white milks (I've found them at Target and Kroger, though they may be elsewhere too!) they have a lot of protein in them. My mom also ordered the Fairlife protein shakes off of Amazon and we make him little milkshakes with half the protein shake and half ice cream.

My dad also went through a No Eating Phase for about a week where I think we managed to get him to eat about four French fries and half a shake, which is when we asked for a hospice consult. I think it's more common than we knew at the time.

Although I also suspect that his seroquel is increasing his appetite, I think I read somewhere that that's a possible side effect. Pre-seroquel he had little to no appetite and would once a day (if that). He's not eating anything really substantial, no actual "meals" at this point - more snack-y type things.

Figuring out what type of food (finger food versus silverware versus soups versus snacks and on and on) will work best for your loved one is a bit of an investigative process.

Please keep us updated 💗