Making nutritious calorific food - sweet or liquid!

[loveyouradvice]

Hi my 82 year old Mum is now just drinking iced coffee and eating cakes/puddings, with occasional quiche - unless she is with one of us when she will sometimes eat a savoury meal, but often not.

She has lost a shocking amount of weight and just forgets to eat, thinking its normal not to eat much at her age. Her mother was tiny.

I've realised I need to start making more food to deliver.to her rather than sending Ocado as I don't think she is getting the nutrients - we can get to her twice a week.

Any thoughts on quick and easy and very nutritious sweet food that lasts for 3 days? I've put my initial ideas in the next post and would love some more?

This is what I'm thinking so far:

I'm planning to make decaf iced coffee with organic milk as we realise she may be getting dizzy from drinking 4-6 of the supermarket cartons a day now.

And then cheesecake, and chocolate mousse, to get both calories and nutrition into her - ie eggs! Fruit crumbles and tarts go down well, as does banana bread or almond cake. And she loved a stem ginger/cream/yogourt concoction I made for her this week.

I think I'm looking at dairy - eggs - nuts - some fruit - and possibly just possibly some cold veggie soups now that summer is here: she used to love them - Plus a daily vitamin tablet.

Not a great diet but not sure I can do more.

So two questions:

1. Great food you make for sweet-toothed parents, especially highly nutritious or quick to make?
2. Other ideas - and what you've done in a similar situation

Oh - and am I missing out any food group that's obvious and really matters???

Check out Keto cake recipes. They tend to have a good amount of prodtrin.

My elderly mum used to like those thick milkshakes you get in bottles, and also thick and creamy yoghurt, which she'd never liked in her life! I think they were quite soothing.

Also, sliced up bananas in hot or cold custard. Rice pudding. Sliced up strawberries sprinkled with sugar so they go a little syrupy.

Use double cream in things like soups etc

Things like nut butters on crackers or toast or oatcakes

Protein based drinks used by athletes body builders

Yup I've started tipping the double cream into things - not something I've ever done before being a bit on the round side.

Mmmm - banana custard, great idea - and she used to love rice pudding

How about finding a recipe for cakes that contain sweet potato/avocado/beetroot etc. There is many ways of making chocolate cake with these things in and you don't actually taste the vegetables- just tastes like a really rich cake! Lemon and courgette is another.

Makes things a bit more nutritious than sugar etc. And sweet potato and avocado in particular are high calorie.

Be careful on the mousse - uncooked eggs aren't great for the elderly.

Apple cake, banana cake etc - anything with fruit in it.
Trifle?
Proper old fashioned fruit cake?
A sweet potato based soup?

Good luck with it all, my parents are similar and it's very difficult.

Also, Esure drinks (my mum's are prescribed but you can buy too). They are long life milk shakes in various flavours designed for those that don't really eat.

I know this is not what you’re asking but would it be worth a check up and blood test to check there’s nothing treatable going on? Losing weight like that might be a symptom of something else.

Hi
My sympathy.
Make a rich cake batter with lots of eggs and a mix of soya and almond flours to replace the wheatflour, as they are higher calorie with more protein. Then add cream or bitter icing and strawberry jam if she likes sponge, or stir in melted chocolate and top with chocolate fudge spread (melted chocolate stirred into condensed milk) if she likes chocolate cake.

Recipe:
75g ground almonds
75g soya flour
50g self raising flour
150g sugar
150g butter
4 eggs
1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder
almond or vanilla essence

beat sugar and butter together, add beaten egg, add flours and flavourings. If batter needs loosening, add a tablespoon of single cream.
Bake slowly in oven at 150 for 40 mins to 1 hour in a greased tin lined with baking parchment

Sorry that should read 180 not 150.

Are you sure she doesn't have an underlying health problem? Loss of appetite is often a sign of something else.

Would she drink eg horlicks or complan?

My MIL is exactly the same - she lives mainly on cakes, biscuits, sweets and chocolates! She cannot stand and cook. Unfortunately when SS ask her (in hospital) how she manages, she tells them fine!

You can make chocolate mousse with avocado which is a good way of getting extra calories and nutrition.
Trifles
Would she eat cold boiled eggs? They keep well once cooked and can be added to sandwiches or just eaten as a snack

The nurishment drinks actually taste really nice, I had the vanilla one in a can when I couldn't eat (severe tonsillitis)
Google says they sell them in Asda etc

Trifle?
Stewed fruit and custard/double cream
Does she like ice cream?

Loving all these ideas! Huge thanks and especially for typing out the recipe woodcutbirds.

I often make her a fruitcake, which she loves including the marzipan. Sadly she no longer eats things like cold sausages or hard-boiled eggs.

And I'd forgotten about trifle: I think she would love that! And yes, yes, Im going to investigate all those beetroot/avocado/sweeet potato suggestions Great idea.

We had all the big check ups last year over many months and there is nowt beyond the beginnings of dementia - which partially explains the lack of interest in food

But I do think it would be a good idea to get the GP to do blood tests of the vitamins and minerals they care about so I will chase that up.

Its going to sound strange but I am quite excited by the idea of trying to find really tasty high calorie and nutritious foods that she enjoys - I've spent my whole life trying to lose weight so this is a lovely challenge!

And yes Ensure - we're trying those. Sometimes she loves them and at others they don't appeal. So they are a useful but unpredictable component!

Remember to make it visually attractive too. A less nutritious meal that gets eaten is better than a more nutritious one that is refused.

Is there meals on wheels in your area - check with the Council? My Dad would eat a hot meal that was placed in front of him.

When you're short of time a basic sponge is good - equal weights of egg,fat, flour, sugar, cream fat and sugar together and add the rest. You can add chocolate, lemon zest to vary the flavour, sandwich it with butter cream or a soft cheese based filling and pile decorations on top, or put fruit underneath before baking as an alternative to pies or crumbles. You can even cook it in the microwave (but the top looks white and unappetising so you serve it upside done with the syrup or fruit you cooked it with pouring down the side; or you decorate it well) - I could go from the idea in my head to individual sponge pudding in 5 minutes flat including cooking time.

I would add that at the beginning of the end for my mother (not dementia) she went off her food, and people spent a lot of time badgering her, and offering her protein drinks which she didn't like. With hindsight, I wish we hadn't. It spun out an inevitable process and made life even more unbearable for her.

Frustratingly there isn't a meals on wheels - I so agree - putting in front of her is a key part of the deal!

And thank you for two thoughts - the visual appeal - and that the most important thing is that she feels loved and appreciated, rather than badgered.... I so understand Mere... I can see my natural practical self getting in the way of being loving and focussing on what matters to her... She is so content at the moment it is very lovely

Anything she eats it drinks - like soup - add double cream to it. Add ice cream to milkshakes.

A huge tray of fruit crumble/sponge and some pouring cream to put on it. Chop some nuts in for protein if she likes them.

THE single most effective way to get calories into the elderly is small portions of calorie dense food. Appetite dies with age. very elderly people tend to eat on the clock rather than by their stomach.

Unfortunately she might be forgetting to eat, in which case she needs someone to remind her. Might be as simple as a phone call 3 times a day.

FiL enjoyed porridge with a lot of golden syrup, ice cream with puréed fruit and rice pudding. He also enjoyed fish shop cod with the batter removed way after he started refusing other solid savoury food. As things progressed we found frescubin(?) prescribed milkshakes very helpful.