appetite
They are not eating properly. What can I do?
5 min read
Taste and smell fade, food can stop being recognised as food, and using cutlery is a sequence that can be lost while the ability to eat by hand remains. Serve one food at a time on a plain plate that contrasts strongly with it, offer small amounts often, and eat alongside them.
What to try
- 1Use a plain, strongly contrasting plate — a full or patterned plate visually hides the food.
- 2Serve one item at a time, in small portions, more often than three formal meals.
- 3Eat with them. People eat far more in company, and copying is a preserved skill.
- 4Switch to finger food if cutlery has become the barrier — sandwich fingers, cut fruit, cheese, chicken pieces.
- 5Add calories rather than volume: full-fat milk, cream in soup, butter on vegetables.
What to avoid
- Patterned plates and tablecloths.
- Rushing or standing over them — meals may take three times longer than they used to.
- Fighting a new sweet tooth. It is a common, harmless dementia change; work with it.
Finger food is not a defeat
Someone eating well with their hands is doing better than someone being spoon-fed neatly. Switching often restores independent eating overnight.
How this guide was made
Written by
Written independently for Riparo. It is not copied or adapted from any organisation’s material.
Evidence checked
Some key points have been checked against published national dementia guidance; others have not been.
Reviewed by
Not clinically reviewed. No clinician has checked this guide.