Five Reasons Your Loved One May Not Be Eating
Caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease involves managing a lot of their daily living activities. Depending on how far the disease has advanced, you might find you are managing every waking moment of their day or just stepping in occasionally to help them with specific tasks and activities during their day.
As the disease progresses, many caregivers begin to notice a change in their loved one’s eating habits. Proper nutrition and consuming enough calories are an important part of your loved one’s overall health. Eating well can help your loved one manage many of the aspects of Alzheimer’s disease better and could even slow down the progression of the disease.
If your loved one doesn’t want to eat, finding the reason behind the change is the best way to help him get back to enjoying the food offered to him each day.
Five Possible Causes of a Reduced Appetite
It’s always best to have your loved one checked by a trained doctor to see if his lack of eating is having a detrimental effect on his overall health. If no serious health conditions have been detected, you might want to consider some of these possible reasons for his lack of appetite.
- Decreased ability to taste and smell food. Sometimes dementia patients lose the ability to smell and taste things like they used to, and it can reduce their desire to eat foods that they used to love. Try increasing the flavor profiles of what you are offering to see if that sparks more interest.
- Medications can affect how a person tastes their food and even their appetite levels. If your loved one has stopped eating after starting a new medication, talk to his doctor about other options you may have.
- Pain in the mouth. Your loved one may not want to eat if his teeth have become extra sensitive, he has a painful cavity, or if his dentures aren’t fitting properly. A trip to his dentist can help you find out if any of these may be issues he’s having.
- Not getting enough exercise. Exercise boosts hunger, so if your loved one is not getting enough exercise, he may not be hungry.
- Not recognizing food or becoming overwhelmed by what’s on his plate. He might do better if you introduce one food at a time during meals.
Four Steps to Encouraging Better Eating at Mealtime
- Keep mealtimes consistent and stay away from allowing snacking between meals. If your loved one gets on a routine for his meals, he should come to the table more hungry and ready to eat.
- Offer one food at a time so that he isn’t distracted by an overly full and chaotic plateful of food.
- Don’t rush him. Allow meals to take plenty of time. If you find you have other chores you need to do while he slowly eats his meal, consider having an Alzheimer’s care provider visit during meals. The Alzheimer’s home care provider can sit with your loved one and gently encourage eating. The Alzheimer’s home care provider can also help by providing someone to offer company and companionship during a meal, which is often linked to more food being consumed.
- Limit distractions. Make mealtime all about eating, not watching TV or being on a device as well.