My grandfather is 97 years old he has been tested and all his food has to be bland with thickener added.

How is your grandfather reacting to this diet? How important is food to him?

Kathy, do you mean pureed as opposed to bland? Sounds like he has dysphagia, a swallowing problem. But typically liquids are thickened with something like Thik-it, a powder that's added .

And solid foods are pureed, but they don't need to be bland. In my experience, most solid foods don't need thickener; rather, they need something to thin them to the point that they can effectively be pureed.

In fact, that's a discouraging factor to eating foods that aren't very appealing b/c they've been pureed. Bland food makes it even more unappetizing.

When you get a chance, perhaps you could finish the last sentence in your thread so we know what the problems are in providing this kind of care.