Too many seniors find it difficult to eat at all, much less to eat healthy meals. The big problem with this is how quickly avoiding meals can lead to significant issues for your senior, ranging from malnutrition to a higher risk of falling and experiencing debilitating illnesses. For many aging adults, the answer is personal care at home to help with this vital task.
Remembering to Eat
It might sound impossible that someone could forget to eat, but there are multitudes of reasons that can cause that problem. Whether your senior is facing cognitive changes or she’s experiencing other difficulties that cause her to forget to eat, that can lead to malnutrition very quickly. Personal care at home helps your aging family member to stick with a schedule that keeps her day moving along from one essential need to the next, keeping her fed and safe.
Appetite Is Non-existent
With no appetite, your senior may find it even easier to forget to eat. Again, there are so many potential causes for this. Medication side effects are probably the biggest reason, followed by health issues that may reduce your senior’s appetite, like chronic pain. Home care can help your senior to work around her appetite issues and get the nutrients that she needs.
Trouble Chewing and Swallowing
Difficulty with chewing and swallowing can be another huge obstacle for your senior when it comes to eating. If the problem is related to dental or oral health issues, like ill-fitting dentures or a tooth that needs attention, home care can help your senior to get to her dentist to resolve the issue. Other potential problems related to chewing and swallowing could require help from an occupational therapist.
Motor Skill Issues Affect Eating
Motor skills are a crucial part of all sorts of daily activities, including eating. Being able to grip silverware or even to pick up finger foods relies on your elderly family member’s ability to be able to manipulate those items. If she’s experiencing tremors or has other difficulties with the motor skills involved in eating, personal care at home can be a huge help. While it might be embarrassing at first for your senior to think about someone feeding her, caregivers are there to help, not to punish or make fun of your senior.
Social Withdrawal Can Be Another Issue
Some people cannot eat alone. That’s not true for everyone, of course, but if your elderly family member has always been a social eater, that may still be the case now. Social isolation and withdrawal can make food and eating something that your elderly family member starts to avoid. That one decision can quickly get out of hand and lead to big health issues. Having someone there with her can make all the difference in how she feels about eating.
Every senior faces different challenges with eating and other tasks. If having help from senior care would make something that’s difficult much easier for your senior, then it’s important to consider adding that assistance to her life.
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If you are considering personal care at home in Portage, MI, for an aging loved one, please call the caring staff at Fresh Perspective Home Care at (269) 329-4717. We are here to help!
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