My mother is obsessing with food and what she will eating for lunch and dinner while in the nursing home. She has been in a nursing home with a broken foot. She complains about the food that is served and worries that she will starve to death. She is supposed to return home tomorrow and I wonder if this behavior is temporary or is this the beginning of some OCD. She also has low sodium levels and is on fluid restriction. Could this be related?
Low sodium can make them delerious & dillusional / obsessive.
Assuming they treated her with IV sodium to bring it up (135 is ideal) (has to be done slowly) she should be getting better. Low sodium is dangerous and can kill. Investigate it on the web.
Get some gatorade (low calorie G2 if she is diabetic) and get her to drink some daily. Less water. It's quite complex...the thyroid, kidney and medications for BP may be involved.
Try to push the salty foods if you can. A little bloating may result but it's better than death. This is nothing to be messed with.
Try to get the levels checked every 3 months until it's well maintained.
God bless.
~FyreFly
Could you try......"Hey mom I brought us a treat!" next time you see her & you could both have an applesauce or yogurt together for fruit?
Sometimes it's the way you present it.
My mom will often go along with something if I present it as if it's special for her and share the thing with her.
My hubby used to get our 85 lb. doberman to eat grapes & bananas when he romanced it enough. Funny how we remember and parallel these things later in life.
He gets hostile if we try to coax other food so we just give in.