bob had been diagnosised with AD for the last two years, had a bleeding strike two years before that and has lost his appetite after that happened. He will eat pancakes and boost drinks. Used to eat P&J sandwitch but can't with new dentures. 95 percent of food does not appeal to him. Doctors just say your tastes change when you get older. He is 82. What else could I be doing for him. Even soup doesn't appeal to him. Someone mentioned a probiotic and thrush. He says he mouth doesn't hurt. And has been to the dentist twice this month to do minor adjustment with his teeth.
My husband lost his appetite after a vomiting incident a couple of months ago and has slowly been willing to eat and sit at the kitchen table. I surmised as one person said, he has oral aversion and associates eating at the table with vomiting.
While eating less, I bought the power protein powder in health food stores, mixed it with milk and ice cream and let him drink a "milk shake" 2 or 3 times a day to make sure he got enough calories. Then I started taking him to fast food restaurants drive thru (Wendy's McDonalds) and fond out he would eat their food. So I bought the Perdue chicken tenders and nuggets and frozen French fries and started serving that to him at home. Because it was similar to the fast food, he would eat it. Finally I started introducing some of the foods he used to like, bake potatoes, salads, anything to get him interested in eating again. It has been a gradual increase but now he eats most everything again.
Would he eat pureed foods? I know they don't look appealing but I've had success with pureeing stuffed shells in tomato sauce, mixed fruits or applesauce, puddings, yogurts, etc. Anything kind of slippery so he didn't have to chew.
Good luck, I know how upsetting it is when they don't eat.
Keep in mind when they loose their smell, they taste. If he has lost his sense of smell, then food will not have much of a taste. Sweets are one of the last taste. Pancakes with syrup and the drinks are probably sweet. If his dentures are hurting him or don't fit right, he could be afraid to bite on things. He could eat P&B sandwiches without teeth -maybe try that.
Lakegirl, When my wife Kathryn lost any desire to eat I started putting out small bowls of grapes, Chicken tenders, cookies etc. I would put anything she could simply pick up and put in her mouth and eat with little or no work. Any time she would walk close to a bowl I would ask her to eat one of them. This worked for a long while. I think she just couldn't work out in her mine about eating anymore. This way she would pick up something from one of the bowls and pop in her mouth and eat it.
Try to figure out what he always liked before and if you can cut it up and put it in a bowl he just might eat it.