Finger Foods, More Meals Better for Aged

Changing the timing and how meals are served has made a difference in patients who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or depression in a Chicago hospital.

A full tray of food wasn’t meeting their needs. Too often patients did not eat and did not want to ask for help, said Kristin Gustashaw, a clinical dietitian at Rush University Medical Center’s Johnson R. Bowman Health Center. Patients weren’t eating enough to sustain themselves, adding to their health problems.

The patients range in age from 49 to 101 and suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and/or clinical depression. These illnesses make it difficult to eat, because the patients become overwhelmed when they see too much food in front of them.

The new meal service emphasizes finger foods that patients can handle easily, such as tater tots, chicken nuggets and fish sticks. Burgers and sandwiches are quartered, fruit is sliced, and soups are served in a cup.

The regimen has been changed from three full meals to five lighter meals a day, beginning with an early continental breakfast, followed by a later breakfast, lunch, dinner and a heavy night-time snack. Spreading out meals allows patients to eat when they’re hungry rather than according to a prescribed schedule that may not suit them, according to Gustashaw.