When mom was alive and suffering from Alzheimer’s, she ate 2-3 Klondike ice cream bars a day. Now, my father, who is 94 with cognitive impairment, wants only cream of mushroom soup and cherry pie. It drives me crazy, and I’m wondering if anyone else has this issue.
When she woke up every morning, she drank a large cup of strong coffee with a dollop of heavy cream and two teaspoons full of sugar.
For breakfast she ate a small ground round burger fried in butter, a boiled potato mashed with butter, and a cup of applesauce.
For the feast of the day she ate cookies, and sometimes ice cream.
She was vigorous and active, and until having a stroke after about 15 yers of eating this way, mentally as sharp as a tack.
After the stroke, she returned to her original diet, and lived independently for another 5 years before a badly broken hip resulted in residential placement for another 5 good years before she died at 95.
As I saw it, each day she was consuming protein, a veggie, fruit and some calcium. She cooked every meal she ate by herself.
I was glad that she was able to live by herself, do her own banking until she was 89, and boss me around as she had my whole life.
Her peculiar eating habits worked for her and weren’t my business, and since I knew I’d never be able to change her, they didn’t drive me crazy.
There comes a point where we have to just let them eat what they want.
There is no decision to make and you know it is "safe"
As my Husbands dementia progressed the only restaurant he was comfortable at was a buffet type. He did not have to "read" a menu, he did not have to make a decision as to what he wanted. He could look and foods that he recognized ended up on his plate.
Some of those dietary choices sound good!
🍕🍔🍟🍧🍨🍩🎂🍰🍪🍫🍬🍭🌭🌮🍿🥐🥞🥓🥓🥨🥠🥧🥤🥯️🧁️ Lol.
Nothing could entice him to eat anything else.
She was as unpretentious as can be. She definitely was ahead of her time as a woman, going to culinary school and learning french cooking, going onto have a television show and so on.
I adore her passion! Her husband was her soulmate. She overcame breasts cancer. He had heart disease and landed in a nursing home for four years.
Her husband was cremated. Very touching, seeing how she threw his ashes into the waves and hear her saying goodbye to him. She had quite a love story with him. Quite a love for cooking too.
You know, she loved that the French consider eating well their birthright. So, in that same vein, let the elderly eat as they wish!
the other is gnocchi (pasta), she eats that several times a week.
Plus, always likes a sweet to finish the meal.
I think it comes down to what’s easy for her to eat.
Of course, their diets were more varied in general, but these were THE items.
I miss my folks so much.