Need nutrition help please, does anyone have an idea or suggestion?

Thanks so much to all. Many good suggestions, I like the idea of adding butter and cream to soups, puddings, and the cheddar cheese soup. She actually drinks well, gatorade, water, etc and feeds herself, just getting weaker all the time and not really wanting to eat, we just encourage her to do so.

I appreciate everyones help, thanks so !

You have received great advice. A doctor's evaluation is needed.

My children's great grandmother lived on Campbell's Cheddar Cheese Soup for decades. Perhaps not the best nutrition, but she liked it and did not have any health concerns due to her limited diet. She had choked on a piece of meat many years before and never ate meat again.

If you believe that she is shutting down, this would probably be good time for a hospice evaluation.

It's been recommended to us to use Ensure Plus. My father liked it and drank a few cans a day. Other than that, and despite asking nearly every one of his physicians, I haven't discovered anything that helps put weight back on an elderly person.

Does your Mom wear dentures by any chance? My Mom's appetite wasn't good either and we found out her dentures needed to be changed. But don't forget that seniors also lose a lot of their sense of taste as well and things just don't taste as good. Maybe try giving her things that smell really appetizing and that could possibly trigger her appetite. But if you really feel that her body is shutting down I would get advice from a doctor before you try anything new.

If her body is shutting down she won't have a appetite and you would in essence have to force feed her, even then she won't swallow and she would either choke or the food would just fall right back out of her mouth. If she wants to eat but can't that is a different problem altogether, offering things she likes in small portions as often as she is willing to eat them will cause no harm and may give her pleasure,

helpingmom - you believe your mother's body is shutting down? If that's the case, giving her food may not be a good idea. Anyway you can get a dr to examine her?

If you are getting puddings, cream soups ice cream and ensure into her you are doing well, a tiny inactive woman probably doesn't need more than 1000 calories a day.
Adding in high fat items can boost her calories a little: butter and real cream in her soups and puddings, cheese melted into the soups, nut butters baked into custards and puddings.

I'm a little confused about your comments about the speech and language pathologist workup, generally it is thin liquids that cause choking because they lose the muscles associated with swallowing so fluids slide down into the lungs instead of the stomach, thickened fluids are easier to handle and less apt to cause choking.

I'm no expert, but, have you discussed the reason for her inability to chew and/or swallow with her doctor? Is she on Hospice? From what I have read, this is a part of the progression of dementia. I've been doing online research on this and other related topics to see what professionals recommend and what they have found about supportive care for dementia patients at this stage. My LO is almost there.