bill

My mother, a 93 YO nursing home patient, eats and drinks almost nothing even
with coaching. This has been going on for several years, but has steadily
gotten worse. One of her nurses and my sister thinks she may be trying to kill
herself. But I suspect that might not be true, particularly since this has
been going on for so long. When I asked her, she said she just could not eat.
Recently the problem has gotten worse, and she continues to lose weight and
now is down to about 90 lbs.

Does anyone have any theories on why this may be happening?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Bill

richard cavell

Lots of reasons. Depression, dementia, cancer, liver disease, etc.

dr. andrew b. chung, md/phd

Could be anorexia from depression.

--
Dr. Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD
Board-Certified Cardiologist
http://www.heartmdphd.com/

j

Emma,
Isn't there something better than Elavil? It's awful for dry mouth and can be hard
on the heart (even low dose).
Aside from all the other (good) ideas, boredom with the environment, with the food.
Can't chew properly (dental), foods not prepared to her like (dad used to complain
that the food wasn't cooked enough and too hard to chew and they wouldn't allow him
to blenderize it first) or at the times that she's hungry. (scheduling).
She also maybe needs a physical, thyroid check? and a check for B12.
My grandmother (age 89) nearly died because everyone (in the nursing home) thought
she was just snoozing, her heart rate (BP?) was so low, she was almost dead. A
pacemaker gave her back her life and 6 more years . :-)
J

bill

Thanks for all your responses. She went originally in a nursing home in '98
due to dementia - it became dangerous. Since then the dementia has become
worse. She still recognizes people and remembers some things from the past -
but barely. She sleeps most of the time. She has severe physical limitations.
The do not allow her to go anywhere by herself since she has fallen several
times. She has an incontinence problem and I think some thyroid problems.
Other than that, I do not believe there are any organ problems. Her blood
pressure used to be high but has come down in the past few months. It is
really difficult to get her to eat. I got her to drink a few sips of a milk
shake one sip at a time.

Thanks again.

Bill

Lots of reasons. Taste buds die off as you age, so food probably no
longer tastes good to her. Imagine eating mashed potatoes if you can't
even taste the flavor. Pretty yucky, right? Dementia nibbles at the
brain, so even if she's hungry, she may not be able to associate
eating with hunger abatement. Memory loss becomes a constant, so she
might start for the kitchen to get a drink of water and forget on the
way there why she's walking. Geriatric depression causes them to not
even want to move from a chair and especially not to attend to their
corporeal needs. The loss of muscle mass causes weight loss and is not
always related to the diet. The systems are shutting down.

If she has some favorite foods that she'll eat reliably, keep them in
stock and bypass the others. At her age, it's okay if the only green
veg she eats is her favorite, to the exclusion of all others.