Keeping You Safe From COVID-19
Interested in a career at Golden Heart Senior Care. APPLY HERE!

How to Encourage Your Senior Parent to Eat Healthy Foods

Personal Care at Home in Summerlin NV
Personal Care at Home in Summerlin NV

It can be so hard to encourage your elderly loved ones to make healthy life choices, especially if they grew up not focusing on health or eating right. Diet and health have gone through many trends and if your parents grew up a certain way, they may view health differently than you. A few generations ago being skinny meant you were too poor to eat. Now that mindset could not be any more wrong as obesity rises among US citizens.

It is crucial to help your senior eat healthily but how can you do that when you don’t live with your senior full time? If you notice your senior is struggling to eat on their own, going for quick foods, they may need help eating or cooking and this may require something like personal care at home.

As you become older, the concept of what constitutes a healthy diet shifts. You require fewer calories as you age since your metabolism slows down. Certain nutrients are also required by your body in larger amounts. As a result, it’s now more critical than ever to eat foods that are high in nutrients and fiber. Here are some good tips for getting your senior to eat healthily.

Understand What a Healthy Meal Looks Like

If you’re familiar with the USDA’s food pyramid, you’ll recognize this new method of determining what individuals should consume each day: You may find it under the name MyPlate. This straightforward diagram demonstrates how to properly arrange the five major food categories on your plate. For a healthy diet, these are the essentials. If you don’t know what a person should be eating, it can be hard to tell your mom or dad what to do.

Always Read the Label

A senior may not have grown up in a time when food had extra chemicals or was ever so processed. This means they may not know that they should be reading the nutrition label and sometimes this job will pass on to you. The nutrition label will help you understand how many servings should be eaten, what exactly is in something, how many calories, and how much sodium and carbs are in something. This information can be crucial when trying to make healthier choices.

Focus on Hydration

Seniors may not feel thirsty like they did when they were younger and because of this, they are at a higher risk of dehydration which is incredibly unhealthy. Drinking water is an essential nutrient, as well. Drink little quantities of water often throughout the day to avoid becoming dehydrated. Maintain a low intake of sugary and salty fluids, unless in cases when your doctor has advised you differently.

Personal Care at Home Care Help

When a senior chooses to age in place, it can be challenging for a family who works full time to help. This is another reason why personal care at home can be so useful. They will help your senior bathe, get dressed, and eat throughout the day. This can also be a way for seniors to feel like they have more independence rather than relying on their adult children.

Source
https://medlineplus.gov/nutritionforolderadults.html

If you are considering personal care at home in Summerlin, NV, for an aging loved one, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Summerlin. 702-800-4616.

4 Reasons Why Senior Pets and Seniors Are a Perfect Match

Personal Care at Home in Summerlin NV
Personal Care at Home in Summerlin NV

It’s Adopt A Senior Pet month which means it’s a great time to consider adopting a senior pet for your senior loved one. Pets and seniors are a perfect match. Pets provide love, companionship, and socialization for seniors so that they have a lower chance of developing depression. Spending time with pets has been proven to lower stress levels for seniors and reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke. Adopting a pet that needs to be walked, like a small dog, is the perfect way to get your senior loved one out of the house on a regular basis. Here are a few more reasons why senior pets are the best companions for seniors:

They’re More Settled

Puppies and kittens are adorable, when they’re sleeping. When they’re awake they become tiny furry balls of chaos flying through the house. They get into everything. And they climb things, knock things over, pull down curtains, and use their tiny baby teeth and claws on everything with paw range, including humans. Older pets have already gone through their crazy baby stage and they are more settled into adult behaviors.

They Don’t Need A Lot Of Vet Care

Older cats who have been neutered don’t really need a lot of vet care except for their yearly checkups and vaccinations. They don’t need multiple rounds of expensive vaccinations like babies, and they don’t need expensive spay/neuter surgery. A healthy older pet can be very affordable for seniors, especially if you choose a high quality food that will keep them healthy.

They’re Perfectly Happy To Nap All Day

Senior pets are the best napping companions. They are perfectly happy to curl up with your senior loved one and sleep away the day or the night. Seniors can enjoy having their furry companions around while they watch TV, read, play games, or do tasks around the house. But when it’s time to nap or to sleep at night seniors are more likely to get the deep rest they need when they have a furry cuddly bundle of love to curl up with.

They’re Easier To Care For

Caring for senior pets is much easier for seniors than caring for puppies or kittens. Crate training a puppy, or training the puppy to signal when it needs to go outside, can both be time-consuming, difficult processes. Older dogs are already trained and don’t need the extra time and care that puppies do. Older cats are pros at using the litterbox and tend to not have accidents like kittens do. And seniors who are worried about taking care of their senior pets can get help from a personal care at home provider. A personal care at home provider can make sure that the pets are walked and fed and have plenty of clean water so that your senior loved one doesn’t have to.

Source:
https://aginginplace.org/seniors-and-pets/

 

If you are considering personal care at home in Summerlin, NV for an aging loved one, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Summerlin. 702-800-4616.