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What foods can I offer?

LauraC94
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Hi everyone, 

My mum has been recently diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer with a malignant pleural effusion and also cancer of the kidneys.

We have come to terms with the diagnosis and are trying our best to go about life as normal. 

Mum is saying that everything she eats tastes sweet? This is new to me but apparently a symptom of cancer. Who'd of thought it?

Our cancer nurse has told her to eat the things that she enjoys eating which currently consist of trifle, cheesecake, jelly and custard, ice cream and rice pudding. I've no issues with mum eating these things but would love to bring more variety to her diet and was wondering if anybody had experienced this and how they dealt with it? Or do I just sit and let her get on with it and wish I'd gotten shares in ambrosia 6 months ago?

Thanks in advance, 

Laura 

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    Hi Laura,

    I experienced this with my mum & my mum-in-law. The taste buds change with disease and/or old age and the last taste sensation to disappear is for sweet foods - that's why the elderly or sick like to eat sweet things as they can still taste them. Because their eating habits change the body doesn't get the same nourishment and so they have to eat calorie laden foods in order not to lose too much weight. Dairy products are good for this - anything with cream, full fat milk, butter etc is good - also anything sweet & sugary like honey, jam etc (mum loved crumpets smothered in butter & honey). My mum's last enjoyable foods were egg custard, jelly & ice cream and anything sweet to graze on. It was a bit of a balancing act as she was a Type 2 diabetic but the steroids they gave her caused her more problems than the sweet food!

    So the answer to your question is -Yes, give her anything she wants to eat, no matter how sweet. I used to give my mum in law Complan with honey too - she had demnetia so she wasn't aware that I was giving her vitamins & minerals! Good luck xx

  • Offline in reply to AngieT

    That sounds great and thank you for the advice. Mum is also type 2 diabetic but it's the least of our worries at the moment like you say.

    I'll start to buy cream and full fat yogurts etc as she is losing a lot of weight. So it seems the more calorie dense the better! Thank you for taking the time to respond to me. xx

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