Lots of seniors aren’t eating foods that are healthy enough for them. Your elderly family member might choose to eat foods that she knows aren’t nutritionally beneficial or she might not be eating much at all. Regardless, there are some steps you can take to help her to eat a little bit healthier and to get the nutrition that her body needs.
Stockpile Some Healthy Choices
Healthy meal choices often seem more complicated, but they don’t have to be. Work with your elderly family member to determine what she wants to be eating and develop healthy versions. Make multiple servings and then break them down into individual serving sizes and freeze them. When it’s convenient and right there, your elderly family member is more likely to eat healthy meals.
Solve the Grocery Store Problem
Getting to the grocery store and then getting through the grocery store can be a problem even for able-bodied people. If your aging family member has mobility issues or is easily fatigued, the grocery store can feel impossible. Take turns with other family members to do her grocery shopping for her or try grocery delivery. Another option is to have senior care provider handle the grocery shopping for her.
Remembering to Eat Is Tough
Some seniors don’t experience hunger prompts the same way now that they did in the past. It’s entirely possible also that some of the medications that she takes inhibit her appetite. Setting alarms can help with this, as can having a fairly set schedule for your senior’s day. That can help her to be in the routine of eating regularly.
Hitting the Right Serving Size Is Also Tough
Serving sizes can be a big problem. Whether your elderly family member is eating too much or too little, it can help to have individual serving sizes put away for her. Convenience meals do this really well, but they’re often full of excess salt or sugar that your elderly family member just doesn’t need. When you’re in control of what’s in the food, you can also help to control portion sizes, too.
When she’s eating healthier meals, your senior may find that she feels better overall. It’s not always easy to implement these changes all on your own, either. That’s where senior care providers can be helpful to both you and your aging adult. They can offer tips and tricks that you might not have thought about, too, which make the situation much easier to handle.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring Home Care Services in Avondale, AZ, please contact the caring staff at Home Care Resources at (602) 443-4700
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