NEED NUTRITION TIPS FOR WEIGHT GAIN

Ask the doctor if there is a nutritionist associated with your local hospital or his practice who can offer additional suggestions.

From what I understand, being tired comes with some chemo treatments.

Some here have used what they call "miracle mouth wash" for mouth sores.  Ask the doctor about this too.  It is a prescription med.

When the patient has no appetite, it is best to try to get them to take food/drinks in small portions and very often.  My sister's onc also suggested milk shakes...you can add ice cream to the boost/ensure.  He said the most important thing was to add calories to keep up the weight.

Hope that things improve.

Marie who loves kitties

I have also lost a lot of weight that seem impossible to gai back. I been drinking a protein drink that hopefully is giving me protein. If I eat too much it's going to come out one way or another. Take care of mouth issues, get prescription from onc. Eat more smaller meals with high calories if possible.  If you find anything good let me know. Jeff

Meowycat said:

Thank you all for your ideas

Thank you all for your ideas I am hoping to implament all of them. Mom ended up in the hospital on Thursday due to neutropenic fever and they are trying to figure out what type of infection they are dealing with. She now is having a violent display of vomitting and diarrhea. So she is being isolated. So basically she is losing more weight. She's is trying so hard to get spoonfuls of things down but it's just not working. Hoping she can turn the corner. Nutitionist came yesterday and basically gave me the same tips as all of you did. She did mention Whey Protein. Anyone have any personal knowledge of this?

Lots of love and huggies to you all,

 

Nellie

 

I drink a a high-protein "shake" 3xday. That Ensure etc taste terrible to me. The 'shake' I finally found is cappucino flavoured - quite tasty. But she may be beyond that. One of my friends also brought me a "fruit yogurt shake" --small size plastic bottle (like we see in any supermarket/health foods store) -- it was more than 600 cals!

But until they get the sore mouth, nausea and vomiting under control, it is going to be very tough....

Sending love and prayers....

Tara

MaryCarol5 said:

The TPN mentioned in the

The TPN mentioned in the other post is a great idea while she is in the hospital.  I also dropped to 95 lbs and am back up to 117 by eating peanut butter, nuts, and the high calorie/protein shakes.  I feared the weight loss so much more than the cancer so forcing myself to eat when I didn't have an appetite came easy.  Knowing that my larger organs would soon feed on my smaller organs was enough motivation for me. 

Hope and pray that she feels better quickly! 

Steam any veggie, such as asparagus, brocolli, caulflower, then add to blender with a warm chickcn broth, add some half and half or crean for desired consitensy and drink.   Add banana to smoothies.  I use yogurt, banana, and berries.  

Hi Nellie, One thing you might want to try is something I found totally by accident at Walmart. It's called "Benecalorie" & you can find it w/ the Ensures, etc. It's in a little box & has 6 little cups of the stuff, which is like a thick white liquid. It has no flavor but contains 330 calories & 7 grams of protein. You can put it in Ensure, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, pretty much anything. Jason being a 'man' said it looked gross & he was NOT eating it (it doesn't look gross) so, when I fixed him soup later that day I secretly mixed a cup of the stuff in with the soup, he ate it & had no idea what he had eaten until I told him. He said he had no idea there was anything in the soup BUT soup. If you can't find it at Walmart I'm sure they can order it for you, or maybe you can look online & see if any other places sell it.....Good luck! ((((HUGS)))) for you & your mom! Kris

Replace the milk in recipes with double strength milk - 1 qt whole milk plus 1 cup powdered milk. Also, you can make a small shake with 1/2 C Half N Half and one envelope Carnation Instant Breakfast - almost 300 calories in a very small amount of liquid, and tastes good - better than Ensure, etc. You can make cream soups with the double strength milk and add a T. butter to a serving, etc. Good luck.

Sandy

I was losing 1kg every two days. nothing worked no matter how much I ate. After losing 20% of my body weight, I started resistance training 5x a week. It stopped and reversed my cachexia. I know excercise may seem counter productive, but it worked for me. It was not easy as at the time I had lot of liver swelling and serious pain, but pushed through it and things improved.

I lost quite a bit of weight while in chemo so along with Ensure Plus, I mixed a protein powder called Unjury in milk and drank that too.  My oncology nutritionist recommeded it.  I bought it on line.  There is a chicke flavored one that can me mixed into soup or used alone as a broth and the unflavored one that can be mixed with other liquids (milk, almond milk, coconut milk, etc...).  The stopped me from lsing any more weight. Good luck!!