If you’re noticing that your elderly family member is losing weight without trying or she’s having more trouble with fatigue or health issues, she may be suffering from appetite loss. Understanding what is happening and finding solutions may be easier than you think. In-home care can play a vital role in helping your senior
There Are Multiple Potential Causes for Senior Appetite Loss
Appetite loss is a common issue for aging adults, and there are a wealth of reasons for that situation to occur. As your senior ages, she may find that her taste buds change, affecting her enjoyment of food. She may also be dealing with side effects from medications, difficulty with oral health, or even limited mobility causing her to feel hungry less often. If your senior is facing appetite loss, it’s vital to address the situation because malnutrition is a real danger for her.
Talk with Your Senior’s Medical Providers
When you first realize that your elderly family member is dealing with a loss of appetite, it’s important to talk with her doctors about what is happening. This can start the ball rolling on discovering what the cause of the problem is, which allows you to work toward a solution if there is one. Even if there isn’t an immediate solution, you can get a sense of whether your elderly family member is experiencing malnutrition or other ill effects from her appetite loss.
Address Nutritional Content Over Portion Sizes
Because what you want to avoid is a situation where your elderly family member becomes malnourished, the focus needs to become the nutritional density of what she’s eating. Focusing on portion sizes or more frequent meals isn’t necessarily going to give her the results you’re looking to produce. If it’s difficult for your elderly family member to cook healthier meals regularly, in-home care providers can make that a lot easier on your senior while ensuring that she’s eating healthy options.
Make Foods as Easy to Eat as Possible
Another way to make eating easier for your senior is to make the foods she’s eating easier for her to eat. That might mean including a lot of finger foods instead of foods that require utensils. Or it could mean serving lots of nutrient-dense foods that are soft and don’t require chewing, like smoothies, soups, and stews. Look at what is making eating more difficult and find ways around those obstacles.
Schedule Meals and Snacks
One solution is to set a schedule for your elderly family member’s meals and snacks. This may not sound helpful at first, but what it can do is to start retraining your senior’s body to expect food around those times. Even if all she wants is a few bites, that’s something. In-home care providers can help your elderly family member to set and stick to an eating schedule.
Make Meals a More Social Occasion
Some seniors are social eaters, whether they realize this fact or not. That might mean that having companionship for meals and snacks is what makes the difference in your senior’s appetite. Again, home care providers can be an excellent solution for this challenge.
Getting to the root of the problem is what’s going to help you and your senior work around her appetite loss. Those difficulties might change over time, so check in periodically to see what is still working and what isn’t.
If you or an aging loved one is considering in-home care in Littleton, CO, call the caring staff at SYNERGY Home Care of Denver today. 303-756-9322
