There are a lot of different challenges that can keep your senior from eating when she should. Understanding those challenges gets you closer to putting answers together that can turn that situation around for your elderly family member.
Oral Health Issues
Problems with your senior’s teeth or mouth can make eating impossible for her. If she’s not kept up with dental appointments or if she’s suddenly had worsening oral health, she may be avoiding food. Figuring out what’s causing pain or discomfort is the first step, and then you and her dentist can start solving the problem for her.
Health Concerns
Other health issues can also be a factor when it comes to your senior having trouble eating. Health issues that affect her cognition, like dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, can cause your elderly family member to forget to eat. The big problem is that as your senior avoids eating more, her overall health will continue to decline, which makes everything worse in the long run.
Physical Challenges that Make Cooking Difficult
Conditions like a stroke or severe arthritis can cause moving to be painful or even impossible, which might mean that she can’t cook, get groceries, or even eat. There may be other ways that your senior’s physical challenges make preparing and eating food difficult for her. When home care providers take on the task of preparing meals, your elderly family member is able to rest.
Lack of Transportation
When transportation is a problem, your elderly family member might give up on all sorts of activities, including eating healthy meals. If she’s not able to get to the store easily, your elderly family member might be relying on pre-packaged foods or delivery for meals and that’s not always the healthiest option. Elder care providers can help with grocery shopping, which ensures that your senior has healthy food choices on hand.
Emotional Challenges
Sometimes the problem is that your elderly family member is dealing with emotional issues, isolation, or other mental health concerns that make eating unappealing. Lots of seniors find eating alone to be almost impossible, so they start skipping meals. Having someone there with your senior can help a lot when managing isolation, and home care providers can offer fantastic companionship during meals.
Loss of Appetite
Finally, many aging adults find that they simply lose their appetites as they grow older. This can happen for a combination of all of the reasons above or for no reason at all that makes sense to you or to your senior. If that’s something that your senior starts to experience, you might hear from her often that she’s just not hungry. Her body still does need nutrients, however, and getting to the bottom of her loss of appetite is crucial.
Talk with your senior’s doctor about what else you can do to help her to get back to eating healthy meals on a regular basis. Ruling out medical causes is an important first step in keeping your senior as healthy as you can.
IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE IS CONSIDERING HIRING HOME CARE IN SAN JOSE, CA, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT HOME HELPERS TODAY (408) 317-4969.