Planning and preparing nutritious well-balanced meals is one of the many senior home care services we provide.
Details on meal planning & preparation services for elderly clients:
We assist with menu planning – Our in-home caregiver can assist your senior parent in the preparation of a well-balanced grocery list to ensure proper diet. In addition, we can also help your family member clip coupons, find the best deals, monitor current food supplies in the home, and dispose of old or spoiled food.
We’ll even do all the shopping – We encourage participation if your senior parent is able to go to the grocery store with us. Fresh air and activity are always encouraged whenever possible.
Motivate meal preparation – Sometimes your family member just needs someone to initiate or oversee the process and other times, the entire meal needs to be prepared. We are there to be as involved as needed.
Our home caregivers prepare nutritious meals based on the personal preferences of your senior parent, provide companionship during mealtime, and clean up at the completion of the meal.
We follow physician and/or dietician requirements for providing balanced and appealing meals for elders with high blood pressure and heart problems, diabetes, liver and kidney problems as well as other conditions.
Our caregivers are instructed to use fresh ingredients that tap the basic food groups.
And, train for strategies to overcome the negative impact of medications on the taste of food.
We balance the correct amounts of liquid and solid food with each meal.
In-home caregivers encourage fluids at appropriate times throughout the day to help keep senior clients properly hydrated.
Studies show that over half of all seniors living at home are undernourished or malnourished. This is caused by an unbalanced diet, the body’s unwillingness to absorb food, or depression. As our trained caregivers assist with meal planning & preparation, they will also monitor the food and fluid intake of your senior parent to help promote healthy nutrition.
Malnutrition doesn’t pop up after missing a single meal, but dehydration can rear its head quickly. Besides healthy meal planning, we also encourage proper hydration. Dehydration can lead to UTIs and other conditions. For younger individuals, a simple antibiotic will do the trick, but many seniors are also on other medications or have difficulty administering their own medications properly. A simple UTI, brought on by dehydration, can lead to hospital admission.
Before you make any dietary changes, we encourage you to consult with your healthcare provider. A doctor may suggest supplements if needed and can help us devise a nutritional plan catered to a senior’s unique needs. With malnutrition rising in the senior population, it is becoming more and more important for seniors to make themselves aware of the importance of nutrition in their daily lifestyle, but they don’t have to do it alone. We can help.