Meal times in Care homes

[Jaxhog]

Does anyone have experience of the times meals are served in care homes?

My mum has recently moved to a care home due to mobility, hearing and sight problems .She's 95 and doesn't have dementia. While the meals she gets are very nice, the mealtimes seem very close together. Breakfast is around 9:30am, lunch at 12:15 and dinner at 5:30pm. She is used to breakfast at 8am and dinner at 7:30pm, and is struggling with eating a lot in a few hours, then fasting for a long time, as she sees it.

The nursing home I have experience of serves breakfast between 8.30 and 9.30 so possibly your mum could be eating her first meal earlier?

Mid-morning there’s tea and something.
The main meal is 12.30-1.30pm.
Mid afternoon there’s tea and cake.
Tea is 4.30-5pm
There’s supper at 7.30-8pm.

I know it’s a nursing home, so may be different but it seems like hot and cold running food all day! They take both funded and self-funded and treat everyone the same.

I suspect it will be different in all care settings.

Can she not have some suitable snacks/drinks available in her own room for when she gets hungry?

It'll vary between homes. One I had a relative in did breakfast as residents were ready between about 8.30 and 9.30am. Have you asked the home about it as it may be connected with what time they get people up?

May indicate a staff shortage as means having staff able to create a hot meal need to be on site for fewer hours?

The shop should be able to flex a bit though - even if they do a hot meal at 5.30pm surely some kind of evening snack is feasible?

I remember struggling with it when I was in hospital and mealtimes seemed to be geared up for elderly people - 8am breakfast, midday dinner, 5pm tea. I was absolutely starving overnight!

My parent had a small fridge in their room. I kept it stocked with fruit and chocolate for after supper snacks.