[Closed] Nutrition drink for the elderly. Recommendations please?

Have you considered the option of  knocking up some batches of home-made soup? You could ensure a mixed diet and even portion-up and bob in her freezer (EDIT: So she can ping or bob in a pan for the 'easily made' element)

You'll find some useful advice on this recent thread:

http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/a-question-about-diet-and-old-people/

TJ is your man for this.

This is what i offer to many patients:

DrP

The trouble is.... if she’s NOT feeling hungry for ‘real’ food, then it’s unlikely that a sickly chocolate flavoured creamy drink is going to be that palatable..

I’m forever suggesting frail elderly patients (some who are end of life) AVOID them, and try to fortify ‘real’ food.

Essentially, supplements should really be in ADDITION to ‘normal food’, not in place of...

DrP

Calories or balanced diet? You can get these kind of thing - my dad had them when on chemo. But equally, protein shakes worked before he got these on prescription. We also found it was possible to hide calories in things through gratuitous use of butter, oil etc in soups.

http://www.nutridrinks.co.uk/fortisip-compact-protein-strawberry?utm_source=foogle&utm_medium=foogle&utm_campaign=foogle&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI29_MzLWF2QIVzLvtCh2vKANIEAQYBSABEgIDy_D_BwE.

Also we switched to full fat milk, Greek yogurts etc. walk round the shop dismissing anything low calorie.

My elderly mother has complan, her diet when i am not around is poor, all m n s packaged food which i cannot stand.  It is so bland and all tastes the same to me whether it is cottage pie, sausage casserole etc.  Anyway, its easy to prepare and there is no waste.  When i cook properly she eats the same quantity as me and her general nature perks up.

No idea what the complan is but she gets it by the box foc from the doctors, or pharmacist.

She also eats those big tubs of onken yoghurt which i suspect is full of sugar.

I would be looking at why she has a poor appetite, this could be the thin end of the wedge of an eating disorder. Is she getting enough exercise? Is it from a lack of general motivation?

Trying to bulk her up with high calorie drinks will be a waste of effort without getting to the underlying cause of the loss of appetite.

I've heard of care homes making a soup but adding double cream for extra calories. This will obviously only work for some soups but could make a nice vegetable really rich.

Thanks for all the help guys. Also for that link esme !

Going to get doctors appointment and begin hiding calories in food in the meantime.

Thanks so much for the help, hugely appreciated.

Some body building shakes are much more tasty than others, the better quality ones seem to be less palatable to me,  might be worth trying a few, if the aim of the game is simply to get more calories in.

Stealthing some extra cheese into meals where possible would also help.

From my understanding complan is basically like a body building shake mix, but not very tasty.

I had a similar issue with my dad, and he seemed to get on with those duns river nutrition drinks that come in cans, not great if your training, but very rich and packed full of protein and sugar.

The body building shakes, didn't think of them!

What Dr P says

Your GP can prescribe them and there are a whole bunch of different ones, fortijuice is fruit juiced based, fortisip is a milkshake, There are also fortified puddings and soups and so on.  Your practise nurse should be able to advise but diminished appetite in the elderly is not uncommon.  Is she losing weight?  Is she an unhealthy low weight?  I can't remember the names of the others.

Complan is a very old fashioned one.  We don't use it.

good on you for wanting to do something but real food is always best - you can use maltodextrin to add hidden calories to things - there is a medical source but its just maltodextrin

Oh - and go for full fat full sugar everything.  forget the healthy eating guidelines.  Full fat milk, cream, butter, jam with loads of sugar, cakes etc.  Just get those calories into her.

The other thing is she should be IIRC ( assuming oldish) be getting regular reviews from the GP / practise nurse including monitoring weight

We use a tool called MUST to decide if people are at risk of undernutrition

http://www.bapen.org.uk/screening-and-must/must-calculator

You could try Huel. It is supposed to be nutritionally complete. Though probably quite expensive, and not sure if it tastes nice...

Little more info.

She is 89, vascular dementia. Well, that's not who she is, she's my mum.

Very negative about doctors, it's just a "thing". On top of that our surveys is in meltdown taking on the patients of a closing surgery whilst being down to 50% of its normal doctors.

To be honest, we are a little "deserted" as it were. Oh, not blaming the NHS by the way !Quite the opposite! I'm a huge supporter deeply saddened  by it's neglect.

Anyway, I'll get an appointment and go from there.

Huge thanks again.

There's all sorts you can try (most covered already) and i've had the misfortune of trying most of them.  Worth asking the doctor if they can get you/mother an appointment with a dietitian as they'll have loads of tips.

I found fortijuice and ensure plus impossible to drink in enough quantity.  You can however get prescription for a carbohydrate powder that can be mixed into almost anything and bottles of liquid fat that can be mixed into stuff like mashed potatoes.

My personal favourite tip is 'super' milk.  Take full fat milk and stir in instant milk powder, tastes much the same and boosts calories of anything with milk in.

Depending on how bad things are, and any underlying medical conditions, some sort of tube feed may be far from the worst thing in the world, and a few weeks of good nutrition can really pick you up when you are run down.  GP/Dietitian are of course best qualified to advise on this.

Huel's ok actually, I have it for lunch a few times a week to stop me buying pre-packaged sandwiches etc. It seems expensive when you actually buy it but when you work it out per meal it isn't bad.

Easy enough to make, takes on flavours well and is a bit like drinkable porridge, which is a bit odd as I hate porridge. You can make it as thick or liquid as you like really, eat it with a spoon or just knock it back.

we too use the MUST tool as per TJ. And proper advice from a dietitian might be the best way forward here.

But sip feeds like many mentioned above are not usually prescribed except for people with swallowing difficulties, absorption issues or short term perioperative nutrition. They are expensive, taste horrible and don’t help get appetite back.

My mother has vascular dementia too.  It’s not nice. Often sufferers need prompting to eat or help and weight loss is part of the disease journey too. This can be painful as one of the ways we show love to people is by feeding them, and families can find weight loss difficult in what is a life ending condition.

My mum liked these. Quite expensive to buy, but we got them from the hospital.

https://ensure.com/nutrition-products/ensure-original/vanilla-shake

"Depending on how bad things are, and any underlying medical conditions, some sort of tube feed may be far from the worst thing in the world, and a few weeks of good nutrition can really pick you up when you are run down.  GP/Dietitian are of course best qualified to advise on this."

No no no and thrice no

A tube feed in an elderly person with dementia is above and beyond cruel.  Yes you will keep them well nourished and hydrate but in the end you end up with a husk of a person well hydrated and nourished and prolong their agony of dementia.

Its something I see professionally now and then and its always horrendous

I would second TJ's advice, with the full fat, full suger options for everything. Try and see if there are some snack foods she does like, be it crisps, mars bars and whatever and make sure these are on hand. A lot of the long stay dementia wards I banked on before they closed them still operated on a sherry or liquor coffee and hour before tea to stimulate the appetite, and this worked to good effect.

Gaining "healthy" weight is similar if you're trying to bulk up or just struggling to eat.

I'd have a look at a weight gainer supplement like this:

MyProtein Hard Gainer

Protein, oats, maize starch, milk protein, and lots of vitamins.  Probably knock it up with full fat milk and I'm sure it would be very palatable and quite cost effective.