Senior Health: How Do You Accommodate Your Parents' Dietary Needs Without Making Multiple Meals?

Senior Health: Have you ever wondered what personal care at home can do when it comes to mealtimes?

You work 40 hours a week. After work, you stop by your parents' house to prepare dinner and the following days' meals for them. You're exhausted. Senior Care might be a consideration at this time.

It's become harder to manage as your mom's doctor recommends a high-fiber, low-sugar diet for her after finding she's pre-diabetic. Your dad has to have a gluten-free diet. Cooking meals that they want to eat that match their dietary needs is harder than it used to be.

You're preparing meals for your mom. When you have her set, you're coming up with meals that suit your dad's tastes. It's frustrating as weekly menus take careful consideration to make sure everyone's needs are covered. With these tips, you may find it easier to manage.

Learn How to Meal Prep

Once a week, get the week's worth of ingredients prepped. You can do this at their home or your own if you have room. Look at all of the recipes for the week and prep vegetables and meats in advance. If you have several dinners needing diced onion, dice enough onion for those meals.

You can slice meats and add the marinade before moving them to the freezer. That helps the marinade work its way into the meat fibers. It also eliminates a couple of steps later in the week.

Cook rice and grains and move them to freezer bags. Freeze the grains until the day they're needed. You can reheat them in the microwave.

If a casserole is being served later in the week, get them ready to go into the oven. The casseroles can go into the freezer until they're needed.

Finally, double or triple the size of the meals that you're putting in the freezer. In the upcoming weeks, you already have that dish ready to cook. You can make several small vegetable lasagnas in one sitting and have four or five meals set up for the future.

Hire Caregivers to Help With Meal Planning and Preparation

Personal care at home is exactly what you need to ease your stress. Instead of struggling to do things by yourself, have caregivers take over some of the meal preparation tasks. Have caregivers work with your parents to get ideas for the weekly menu. Caregivers can take an inventory of ingredients and go shopping for the items they don't have.

Call and ask a specialist about senior care at home. With caregivers helping your parents with their meals and snacks, the stress of coming up with meal plans, shopping for groceries, and preparing meals eases. Personal care at home allows you to take time to focus on yourself and your parents without stressing about coming up with meals that suit both your mom's and dad's needs.

If you or an aging loved-one is considering Senior Care in Middletown, DE, please contact the caring staff at Macklyn Home Care today. (302) 691-3217