When you are considering the type of care that your elderly loved one might need to help them through their later years, it is important to evaluate all of the different areas of their life. This enables you to isolate their individual needs, detect challenges that they might be having, and ensure that they are getting the support that they need to maintain a healthy, comfortable, safe, and fulfilling lifestyle throughout their later years. For many elderly adults, one area of their life that begins to suffer from aging is their ability to access and prepare the healthy, balanced meals that they need to protect their body’s health and well-being. This can be challenging for a wide array of reasons, but making sure that you put the proper steps into place to assuage this is an important part of maintaining their quality of life as they age in place.

Look for these signs that your aging parent might need help with meal preparation:

Relying on convenience

Frequently requesting fast-food meals or delivery meals might mean that your parent is craving salty food, but it could also indicate that they are struggling with preparing healthier meal options and need to rely on convenience to ensure that they get the food that they need daily. Also, check their home for an abundance of delivery menus or for take-out containers in their refrigerator and trash can.

Empty kitchen

Preparing healthy meals means having the ingredients to do it. If your parent’s pantry and refrigerator are sparse, it is likely an indication that they are not preparing meals for themselves very often. This could mean that they are struggling with the meal preparation itself, or they might just not have the ability to get the ingredients that they need when they need them.

Health changes

Changing their diet to no longer include the fresh, balanced, nutritious food that they need can lead to a variety of health challenges for your senior. They might lose a considerable amount of weight because they are not eating enough, or gain weight because they are switching to unhealthy food options. They might also lack energy, have a skin problem, experience an increase in dental pain or other symptoms, or struggle with increased issues with their health challenges.

If you have noticed that your aging parent has needs that you are not able to handle confidently, or you simply feel that they would benefit from additional support and assistance, now may be the ideal time for you to consider starting care for them. Having a home care provider in the home with your parent is an exceptional way to fill any care gaps that might exist in the efforts that you provide, as well as to simply enhance your senior’s life with more support, more companionship, more activity, and greater independence.

This can include providing valuable services that will help them to maintain a healthier diet, including safe and reliable transportation to the grocery store, assistance with shopping, and meal and snack preparation so that they will have access to the satisfying, nutritious food that they need to maintain their health and well-being as much as possible. For them, this means the quality of life that they desire and deserve throughout their later years.

For you as their family caregiver, it means having peace of mind knowing that whether you are able to be with them at all times or not, and regardless of your own personal limitations and challenges, your senior is getting everything that they need to stay happy, healthy, safe, and comfortable as they age in place. If you or an aging loved one are considering caregivers in Dallas, TX, please contact the caring staff at Assisting Hands of Preston Hollow today at (214) 760-6944.