My Mother has diabetes and lost her sense of taste, she can't eat anything. What can she to do to to eat?
My Mother is currently receiving dialysis treatment 3 times a week. She is also diabetic and she has lost her sense of taste. Therefore, she can eat and she is very weak. What can she do for the the food to taste good?
What is her level of depression? Does she take an antidepressant? Depressed elders will often refuse to eat. Can she be close to the kitchen when the food is cooking? If she has the sense of smell, that may help. Get cooking magazines and let her look at the pictures.
Has she taken or is she taking Amiodarone for cardiac issues? Our neurologist told us it can cause loss of sense of taste and smell. Something like that is possible in addition to the dialysis and other issues.
My Mother couldn't taste anything long before she passed but she knew she had to get down some food to survive,so she treated food like medicine and got it down but there were few things she wanted...Just custard,mashed potatoes and gravy(brown),rootbeer floats,gingerale and cherry jello and meatloaf I made were what she'd eat.She said it was the texture.I hope you find some foods that work for your dear Mom soon.Take care,Lu
My husband lost his sense of smell (a common symptom in Lewy Body Dementia) and it is amazing how much that impacts the sense of taste. So I've been where you are -- trying to make food more pleasant. My husband went through a lot of hot sauce, which he put on almost all savory foods. Using a variety of textures helped make the food a little more interesting. Smooth creamy mashed potatoes, crunchy lightly sauteed carrots, little tender peas.
Are there any foods she can still taste? Sometimes sweet is the last taste to leave. If so, try sprinkling a little sugar over her green beans or cauliflower. Not enough to spike her blood sugar, of course, but just enough to add a flavor she can enjoy. If there is a food or two that she can taste, figure out how to prepare it a thousand ways!
It took my husband about a year to get used to how food tastes when you can't smell it. After that he still liked strong flavors, like dill pickles and spicy sausage.
It seems like the highest priority now is to get some calories into Mom, to avoid weight loss and the accompanying weakness. Her various conditions may have limitations or recommendations as to what she should eat, but eating ANYTHING is probably a good goal right now. Discuss this with her doctors. Are there some things she really needs to avoid? Anything that would be particularly helpful to eat?
Several years ago I had a condition that made me not want to eat. I gagged at the thought of food. But I'm intelligent enough to know that was not acceptable, so I forced myself to eat some things that were least disgusting to me at that point. Can your mother's intelligence be appealed to for this? She probably doesn't like dialysis but she does it anyway, because it is "good for her." Could you convince her to treat eating the same way? "I understand that you aren't enjoying this and I'm very sorry about that. But you need to get enough calories in to keep your strength up. Would you rather eat this banana or have me blend it into a milk shake?"
MTeresa, this is a hard role you are playing. Please don't be down on yourself if you cannot achieve perfect solutions to every problem. Do your best. That is all any of us can do.
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Are there any foods she can still taste? Sometimes sweet is the last taste to leave. If so, try sprinkling a little sugar over her green beans or cauliflower. Not enough to spike her blood sugar, of course, but just enough to add a flavor she can enjoy. If there is a food or two that she can taste, figure out how to prepare it a thousand ways!
It took my husband about a year to get used to how food tastes when you can't smell it. After that he still liked strong flavors, like dill pickles and spicy sausage.
It seems like the highest priority now is to get some calories into Mom, to avoid weight loss and the accompanying weakness. Her various conditions may have limitations or recommendations as to what she should eat, but eating ANYTHING is probably a good goal right now. Discuss this with her doctors. Are there some things she really needs to avoid? Anything that would be particularly helpful to eat?
Several years ago I had a condition that made me not want to eat. I gagged at the thought of food. But I'm intelligent enough to know that was not acceptable, so I forced myself to eat some things that were least disgusting to me at that point. Can your mother's intelligence be appealed to for this? She probably doesn't like dialysis but she does it anyway, because it is "good for her." Could you convince her to treat eating the same way? "I understand that you aren't enjoying this and I'm very sorry about that. But you need to get enough calories in to keep your strength up. Would you rather eat this banana or have me blend it into a milk shake?"
MTeresa, this is a hard role you are playing. Please don't be down on yourself if you cannot achieve perfect solutions to every problem. Do your best. That is all any of us can do.