Palliative and end of life care (Care homes & care at home)
Help clients to take nutritional enhancements or supplementary drinks provided by healthcare staff.
Small more frequent meals of favourite dishes on small plates may work better.
Try sweet rather than savoury food. Appetite for sweet things can remain after people lose their taste for savouries.
Try encouraging eating for pleasure and social participation rather than to build up strength.
Encourage carers to see that allowing their loved ones not to eat when they choose not to is not being neglectful. In fact, this may be the only aspect of their lives over which dying people feel they have control.
If the client is in the last few days of life and able to eat and/or drink (including thickened fluids) they should be supported to do so, unless they choose not to. They should be monitored for signs of choking or distress and this should be reported to the nursing team or GP.
Use the approaches outlined in this app to help to address causes of loss of appetite:
Check for mouth care problems: such as dry mouth, ill-fitting dentures, ulcers, oral thrush.
You may want to use the MUST Malnutrition Screening Tool in the Assessment and Management Toolkit to check for likelihood of malnutrition.
Contact the GP, District Nurse or Coordinator if there are any changes that cause concern.