Elderly Dad

[carmen2012]

Hi my dad is 82 & had a fall last week breaking his jaw in both sides he has been to A&E and been advised to have a liquid diet for 6 weeks , I feel he should have had a referral to a dietican but we have to wait two weeks then he'll have a phone appt if they then feel he's losing too much weight then he will be referred . He is frail & thin already , I've bought him soups , Weetabix , trifles etc and complan which he isn't keen . I really need advice on nutrition & supplements the Dr wasn't very helpful

[ankietyjoe]

You could also feed him vegetable juice, the one I do for myself is a mixture of celery, cucumber, spinach, apple and lemon, although that would require purchasing a decent juicer. The one I use was less than £100 on Amazon though, and isn't a bad thing to have in the long term anyway. That would provide a good portion of the vitamins and minerals he needs every day. They do really need to be organic though as you're concentrating any pesticides found in non organic produce.

I would also possibly suggest a good quality protein powder (maybe?) to keep his protein levels up as long as they don't hurt his digestion. It's difficult to get protein from whole food sources that don't require chewing.

There are also numerous meal replacement shakes available, but they often have a lot of sugar in them. Not sure how much that matters in the short term however.

It's important to keep on top of healthy fat intake too. Perhaps try him on mashed up avocado, full fat yoghurt, coconut oil etc. You could also look at something like chia pudding where you soak chia seeds overnight and they become soft and gelatinous. Almost like semolina. They are a true superfood. Then you have fruit smoothies too.

Loads of options out there really, just depends on what you can get him to eat.

I hope he recovers well though x

[Fishmanpa]

When I was recovering from H&N cancer, I could barely swallow let alone eat. I ended up having to get a feeding tube for my meds and additional nutrients BUT, as I got better and all during my treatment I make shakes... weight gain protein mixes, Ensure, Smoothies etc. Then I moved onto soft foods.. mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, puddings etc. As Ajoe suggested, a juicer or a good blender is essential.

There's a lot of great info out there for people with chewing and eating difficulties.

Positive thoughts

[WiseMonkey]

There are high protein liquid drinks like Fortisip, that are lactose free and come in convenient packs with straws. Both my parents had them in the latter years of their lives.