I'm having a hard time getting my mom to eat. She turns her nose up to everything, but ice cream. Should I try baby food?

I have to tell you I am experiencing a problem right now that began as Mom's appetite going away. She just began eating less and less and I wondered how can she live on so little food, so I contacted her doctor and asked for a refill of Megace to give her back an appetite. I did think about the fact that our bodies begin to shut down and possibly this may be what is happening but i tried the Megace.

Mom was rushed to the hospital with a very rapid heart beat and pain in the upper chest, back and going up the throat. She was hospitalized for 3 days while they got her heart beat back to a normal rate.

I had told them about the eating and Megace and the fact that when she ate she had bloating and a stomach ache of sorts but none of us put 2 and 2 together. Mom was having a gallbladder attack and it mimicked a heart attack. They increased her heart meds and we are having to pull them back down as her coumadin was way too much and her Taztia for heartbeat had been doubled and now she has swollen feet, ankles and lower legs and gained 5 pounds from water weight. All because I thought she needed to eat and she was not eating because she was getting sick but not telling me what was going on. She hates to go to the doctor and HATES THE HOSPITAL WITH A PASSION, ALTHOUGH I MUST SAY IT IS A BLESSING WHEN YOU NEED IT!!!!!!!!

I have said all this because many times there are reasons behind the behavior we just don't see the full picture. I jumped on something and by increasing her eating I think I may have made the gallbladder issue worse and now I am fighting like a crazy person to correct the matter!!!

Be careful!!!!!

Raven1, I know the heartahce of well-intentioned attempts - I talked to the docs about trying pioglitazone for my mom, on the bsis of it helping congition and helping control diabetes better than just more and more insulin that made her crazy hungry especially for sugar, and the fluid overload did her heart no good. A different doc figuired this out for us and tried a different med, Januvia, that actually worked without side effects for her and the sugar packet stashing thankfully, finally went away. Some people don't think our elders are worth working out a specific diagnosis on, but I'm thankful we both found ones who cared and thought enough to figure it out and be of real help.