As you watch your elderly relative age, you are most likely always looking for any signs and symptoms concerning their health. While it’s easy to look for obvious things like infections, influenza and aches and pains, picking up the warning signs for malnutrition can be more of a challenge. Seniors are high risk when it comes to malnutrition and it can affect their health significantly.How Do Seniors Become Malnourished?
Malnutrition is the condition of the body when it doesn’t take in enough nutrients from food. Without key nutrients like fat, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, the body cannot function properly. Good nutrition is so important for elderly adults, especially those that are living with chronic health conditions, recovering from surgery or battling a disease.
Elderly adults can become malnourished due to a number of different factors. Among the most common are changes in appetite due to medication or illness, insufficient funds to buy enough food and physical disabilities that limit shopping and meal prep abilities. Other possible contributors to senior malnutrition are chewing and swallowing issues due to poor dental health, changing taste buds, depression, alcoholism and simple lack of interest.
Warning Signs of Malnutrition in Elderly Adults
You can observe your elderly relative’s shopping, cooking and eating habits to determine if they are in the danger zone for malnutrition. Take note of their eating habits whenever you are around and evaluate their refrigerator and cupboards. If you don’t see much fresh food like milk, fruits and vegetables, it’s a red flag for an inadequately balanced diet. Other signs include weight loss, bruising, wounds that are slow to heal, dry eyes and mouth and trouble with finances.
How to Help Elderly Adults Avoid Malnutrition
If you are aware of your aging relative’s shopping and eating habits, it will be easier to formulate a plan to ensure that they aren’t at risk for malnutrition. Many family members find the best solution is to hire a home care assistant that focuses on shopping and meal preparation for their relative. If going to the store is a problem, the home care aide can either drive them weekly or pick up the food items themselves. If planning and preparing meals is beyond the aging adult’s ability, the home care assistant can prepare nutritious meals that suit their tastes.
A home care assistant can also help your aging relative make good food choices when it comes to snacking, alcohol and drinking enough water. Aides can also entice seniors to take vitamin supplements as recommended by the doctor as well as protein shakes or smoothies for extra nutrients. Exercise and social activities are other ways to stimulate the appetite, and an energetic and friendly home care aide can provide companionship and encouragement to get more active.
If you want to make sure your elderly loved one is eating right and getting enough nutrients, pay attention to their meal habits and determine where they are falling short. Then, work with a professional home care assistant to significantly reduce the risk of malnutrition in your aging relative.
Source:
https://www.mna-elderly.com/causes_of_malnutrition.html
IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED ONE ARE CONSIDERING HIRING IN-HOME CARE SERVICES IN GOLD COAST, IL, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT BRIGHTSTAR CARE CHICAGO. CALL TODAY: 312.382.8888.