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Seven Tips for Helping Your Loved One Eat and Drink As He’s Nearing the End

Discover compassionate tips and support for navigating mealtime challenges and emotional moments with your loved one during end-of-life care.
End-of-life care can help seniors and their families through these last days with gentleness and support.
End-of-life care can help seniors and their families through these last days with gentleness and support.

Meals have always been about more than just food. They’re moments to connect, share stories, and laugh together. But as your loved one enters the final stages of life, meals can lose much of their meaning—not just in terms of calories, but in the emotional nourishment they once provided. In the context of end-of-life care, helping your loved one eat and drink can be challenging, but it’s also an opportunity to provide comfort and care in meaningful ways.

 

Don’t Give Up Completely on Meals Together

Sharing meals with your elderly loved one may become more challenging as they approach the end of life, especially if they are battling a progressive, incurable illness. While these changes can make traditional mealtime routines difficult, shifting your perspective on what defines a “successful” meal can help you reconnect and create meaningful moments together.

In end-of-life care, even small, shared experiences like a simple meal can be a comforting way to bond and show your support.

 

Seven Tips for a Better Mealtime

  1. Plan meals around when your loved one feels best. It might be after a nap, or some pain medications have set in. Mornings are often the best time for many patients, so look at making breakfast as the biggest meal of the day or the one that you spend the most time enjoying.
  2. Rather than have three meals a day, work with what works best for your loved one. Maybe it’s 4 to 5 small meals, or maybe it’s one traditional meal, and the rest of the day is snacks and drinks.
  3. Help your loved one feel more successful in his eating by providing smaller servings. Too large of servings may be overwhelming.
  4. Serve foods that are easy for him to swallow without too much effort. Soups, cereals, yogurt, and pureed foods can all make eating easier if he has pain or trouble swallowing.
  5. Use drink covers and straws to help him help himself. Being able to do something himself will help him feel better about his capabilities.
  6. Cut up food into very small pieces to reduce his need to chew and reduce the risk of choking.
  7. Finally, never force him to eat anything. If he’s not hungry, tell him that’s okay and then try again later.

 

End of Life Care Providers Can Help

It can be emotionally and physically draining to provide care for your loved one as he is approaching the end of his life. Even chores that once brought you joy may create stress for you that can get compounded by the fact that you feel like you couldn’t or shouldn’t express stress about caring for your loved one.

A provider trained in end-of-life care understands what you are going through and will be there to offer help in ways that benefit both you and your loved one without any judgment. You might find you can do one activity, like feed your loved one one day, and then the next day, you just can’t do it with the grace and love that you desire.

End-of-life care can help you through those rough days so that you find relief as needed and then are ready to continue caring for your loved one with compassion and care. No one can do it all the time, so let someone else help when possible.

 

 

 

If you or an aging loved one are considering End-of-Life Care in Ansonia, CT, please contact the caring staff at Talem Home Care & Placement Services of New Haven, CT, today. Call (203) 538-6273

At Talem Home Care & Placement Services of Fort Hartford, CT, we provide passionate, understanding, and flexible caregivers in New Haven, Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, Cheshire, Derby, Milford, Naugatuck, Orange, Prospect, Seymour, Shelton, Stratford, Trumbull, West Haven, Woodbridge, and Woodmont and surrounding areas in Connecticut.

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