Chemotherapy - advice on food anyone?

[tatt]

My neighbour is having chemo and is half way through some intensive treatment. It has affected her taste buds and she says she doesn't want to eat anything. She seems to be having mainly water. She says she has a little soup / fruit but I think that was to stop me asking.

Anyone any suggestions? Can someone remind me of the drinks you can get prescribed to build people up?

My DB would always like cold things when going through a chemotherapy session - icepops, ice lollies, jelly, frozen fruit...

This might be helpful

Hi Tatt, I had chemo earlier this year. It gave me a nasty taste in my mouth all the time which makes you not feel like eating anything.

I used to take a little lunch box to my sessions with me, and I usually had things like dried apricots, dried pineapple, and other slightly sharp tasting dried fruits. Also little oranges that are easy to peel (you only have one hand free), and cherry tomatoes.

I think there's quite a bit of individual variation, but it really little bits and pieces, very plain biscuits, I ate oatcakes, and rich teas.

Is the drink you mention Build-Up - the hospital put me on this when I was quite ill at one point. It comes in milk shake form, and is about 400 calories, so can be a meal substitute. I also drank apple flavoured lucozade. HTH

My mum had the nasty taste in her mouth too. I used to get ginger cordial, stem ginger and pretty much anything else ginger for her as it seemed to get rid of the taste for a while. If your neighbour's taste buds have been affected ginger might be a strong enough flavour without being unpleasant for her.

darren was anything bland, like toast and water. Cold things too. TBH I think everyone is different and certainly darren has got a lot better since the start. Just let her eat what ever she fancies, and some foods are owrse tasting than others in reverse so she'll know.
HTH

Forgot to say, I found portion size made a big difference. If a plate of food was to big, I felt so overwhelmed, I couldn't even start on it. Very, small portions and I could usually manage a bit.

Lisa, I'm fairly new to MN, but have read some of your posts, wanted to send my best wishes to you and Darren, hope he's feeling better soon.

thanks kurri, he is doing so much better than he was, just time now for chemo to work

I loved very cold fizzy vimto and lucozade.

Food tastes horrid whilst on intenive chemo. Cheese was good. Fizzy sweets. Cheesy mash and soups.

Because stuff tastes so vile its important to get the calories in.

It may be different for adults but I used to make sure anything DD ate was laden with them. I would add cream and calorie powder stuff to anything I could.

Your neighbour should be able to get special drinks on prescription. DD hated them but they are formulated to give optimum nutrition.

I'd looked at the cancer site but really wanted something more specific, thanks for the suggestions. We're not really close but she's a nice lady and lives alone. It's not just that she isn't eating at the time, she's at home after the chemo and still not eating.

I saw that someone had given her plain biscuits and ginger biscuits but stem ginger/ginger cordial/dried fruit and maybe baby bel (for the cheese, because it's a small portion?) sounds good. I'll think about the other things, maybe I can get some small pots of frozen things - pity I don't still have my baby pots.

I remember my mother having drinks prescribed when she was ill but couldn't remember what they were. Could have been build up.

Did anyone try bought smoothies? If they were very cold maybe?

I remember baking endless supplies of cheese scones for my dh when he was having chemo. He seemed to get by on those and fresubin! hth

Baby food in jars can go down quite well - not the savoury ones, they are disgusting, but the organic fruit combinations. A friend's mother who is having chemo has survived on these for a few days when feeling particularly unwell.

How about homemade ice-lollies with yoghurt and pureed fruit?

You can get mini sticks of organic cheese in most supermarkets which is nicer than babybels, I think its Yeo Valley.

despite mentioning baby pots I hadn't thought of baby food (hits self on head). Thanks for extra suggestions, will consider them all.

My friend's mum used a baby spoon as well, a plastic one, because she found that metal tasted horrible. She was just having a tiny spoonful every few minutes to make sure it stayed down.

She also found plain live yoghurt really good, especially the really creamy greek style ones. Oh and at one point she was having those probiotic yoghurt drinks - Yakult and the like.

A friend of mine is undergoing treatment for cancer and feels really sick all the time.

She said her neighbour made her some ginger muffins that were quite nice. Only problem was they were quite large and they dry out quickly but I guess some could be frozen and just got out of the freezer as and when needed.

I used to have smoothies occasionally, and make my own with say a few strawberries blended into milk.

You can by build up in the chemist, but can also probably get it on prescription. there is another version which is more like fruit juice, but I can't remember what its called - sorry. A pharmacist would know I imagine.

If she is really struggling, she could ask to speak to a dietician at the hospital, they would be able to help. Very hard for people on their own, because you don't have the energy after chemo to be bothered preparing food. Also if she's feeling anxious or depressed after her diagnosis, her appetite will be affected. but she really needs to have a good chat with her doctor when she next has her chemo, so they can help her with eating.

DH used to get the FRESUBIN on prescription, I don't know if it's still called that as it was 7 years ago. The same as build up though she can have it delivered probabaly.

I used to work as a care assistant on an oncology ward & it really varies from person to person but one thing so many ppl loved was fresh pineapple cut into chunks cold from the fridge, its really soothing if they hav mouth ulsers & can clear oral trush too! like others hav said anything wit ginger is great & adding cream to things like porridge is great for the calories too. There are loads of build up drinks, fortisip is a juice in loads of fruit flavours, also fortishakes and calogen is a 'syrup' that aprox. 10mls has the same calories as a full meal. Your friend will b able to speak to a dietician who will hav loads more info she jus needs to mention it to one of her chemo nurses or her dr. & they will send a referal. Its better for her to voice all concerns now as not begin able to eat, loosing weight & therefore not having as much strenght to 'fight' are serious, she is very lucky to have a friend like you thinking about her & trying to help. HTH

MIL cannot stomach any form of meat/buildup drinks/smoothies/fruit (have tried them all)

She's having porridge/cereal or toast for breakfast
Soups for lunch or greek yoghurt and honey with bananas

Dinner is difficult, her symptoms seem to be worse then and she physically cannot eat anything (Poohbear I shall try pineapple but generally anything even vaguely acidic makes her throw up despite the anti sickness tablet she takes before everymeal.)

Ginger cake she finds quite paltable but everything seems a struggle at the moment, oh and foxes glacier mints (!)

greek yoghurt almost set / frozen
rice pudding (rachel's organics do really nice pots) i hated it before chemo but loved it afterward
tiny bits of cake especially anything with cinnamon
mince pies almost the only thing for one december v calorific and tasty

i got completely fecked off with ginger and still associate the two now...

I found anything with ginger in, plain biscuits, pineapple and plain baked potatoes (only 1/2 though, a whole one was too much to look at)

I had treatment every 3 weeks - and found my appetite was just picking up as I approached the next treatment

I have to say whilst I lost weight on chemo - I soon put it back on when chemo stopped.

I think eat whatever and whenever. Best wishes to your friend.

when i am bad dh force feeds me cremola sweets- not that i have to be forced! also ben and jerrys/ haagen daz/ anything that is somewhat indulgent!! i am fairly lucky- but some days it is a struggle and its a case of whatever one fancies!

Another thing i eat a lot of is eggs- strangely the taste of worcester sauce is fab for me- somehow 'goes' with that yuck taste and combines to make anything palletable- so scanbled eggs on toast with a gallon of WS!

I'm glad she has you thinking about her- it must be hard on your own

If she can manage them, McDonalds milkshakes have about a zillion calories in them.

Its is likely that she will be able to eat between treatments. THIS is when she should eat and eat and eat anything she wants as it will help her get through the times when she cant.

Chemo seems to be much rougher on those without a bit of weight/body fat.

Unfortunately she didn't have much body fat to start with so she can't afford not to be eating. No McDonalds around, unfortunately. Will encourage her to talk to dietician.