Is there something addictive in Ensure or Boost?

[Anonymous]

My mom is near 90 and drinks three Boosts a day. She is tiny and her blood sugar is fine. It’s about 750 reliable calories I can get into her. If you gave her a meal with a pasta or rice base, she’d eat a bite or two and say she’s full, so she’s basically snacking around the Boosts, at least a few fruits and vegetables, but also smaller things that pack more calories like olives and cheese.

Her doctor knows and is fine with it. Some older people lose their appetite for solid food and the liquid supplements help add calories. It is what it is.

[Anonymous]

Entice her with real good foods stop with the ensure or boost unless its doctors orders. Cheese, crackers, olives, fresh fruit s

[Anonymous]

Let her live

[Anonymous]

How do they shit?

[Anonymous]

Ensure has at least 18 grams of sugar in each, that is almost five teaspoons of sugar per container. Unless she's not eating much I highly doubt her doctors are on board. Don't feed her that garbage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ensure has at least 18 grams of sugar in each, that is almost five teaspoons of sugar per container. Unless she's not eating much I highly doubt her doctors are on board. Don't feed her that garbage.

Depends on the person, their priorities, and the doctor. My grandmother was very healthy and ate well all her life despite having a sweet tooth. She had a swift decline and died at 98. The last couple of months she ate a ton of sugar. She wasn’t eating much but what she did eat was mostly dessert in some form. She’d lasted that long in her own home, on her own terms, and she had zero interest in extending her life in AL or SNF. She was straightforward with her doctor that her priority was her comfort and her doctor respected her wishes. So if she wanted cookies and only cookies for dinner, wtf not? She said she was taking back her fair share given up during WWII rationing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Older people like to eat the same thing every day. Why would you deny her ensure? It's not crack.

If she’s able to access more than two a day, she drops at least one meal. There was a point that she only consumed these drinks. She developed bowel issues that required hospitalization and lost 48 lbs. It took months to wean her down to only two and reestablish eating a meal’s worth of solids. All of her meals are cooked for her.

She was never told by any doctor that she needs these drinks. She saw an ad and started asking for them.

Sounds like she is struggling with disordered eating. Depending on her age and other health it may be worth looking in to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ensure has at least 18 grams of sugar in each, that is almost five teaspoons of sugar per container. Unless she's not eating much I highly doubt her doctors are on board. Don't feed her that garbage.

Depends on the person, their priorities, and the doctor. My grandmother was very healthy and ate well all her life despite having a sweet tooth. She had a swift decline and died at 98. The last couple of months she ate a ton of sugar. She wasn’t eating much but what she did eat was mostly dessert in some form. She’d lasted that long in her own home, on her own terms, and she had zero interest in extending her life in AL or SNF. She was straightforward with her doctor that her priority was her comfort and her doctor respected her wishes. So if she wanted cookies and only cookies for dinner, wtf not? She said she was taking back her fair share given up during WWII rationing.

This is not about you... and It's like you didn't even bother to read the op, "she ate 3 normal sized, very well-balanced meals a day, plus healthy snacks the last two weeks"
Read the the room.

[Anonymous]

It's a milk shake to her. There's a huge difference between: elder looks forward to the same treat every night (her "milkshake") and gets annoyed when it isn't there ..VS.. she's hospitalized. And this evil treat caused it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ensure has at least 18 grams of sugar in each, that is almost five teaspoons of sugar per container. Unless she's not eating much I highly doubt her doctors are on board. Don't feed her that garbage.

Depends on the person, their priorities, and the doctor. My grandmother was very healthy and ate well all her life despite having a sweet tooth. She had a swift decline and died at 98. The last couple of months she ate a ton of sugar. She wasn’t eating much but what she did eat was mostly dessert in some form. She’d lasted that long in her own home, on her own terms, and she had zero interest in extending her life in AL or SNF. She was straightforward with her doctor that her priority was her comfort and her doctor respected her wishes. So if she wanted cookies and only cookies for dinner, wtf not? She said she was taking back her fair share given up during WWII rationing.

aw love your grandma! Mine had similar spunk. I plan to eat Fritos exclusively after 95.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ensure has at least 18 grams of sugar in each, that is almost five teaspoons of sugar per container. Unless she's not eating much I highly doubt her doctors are on board. Don't feed her that garbage.

Depends on the person, their priorities, and the doctor. My grandmother was very healthy and ate well all her life despite having a sweet tooth. She had a swift decline and died at 98. The last couple of months she ate a ton of sugar. She wasn’t eating much but what she did eat was mostly dessert in some form. She’d lasted that long in her own home, on her own terms, and she had zero interest in extending her life in AL or SNF. She was straightforward with her doctor that her priority was her comfort and her doctor respected her wishes. So if she wanted cookies and only cookies for dinner, wtf not? She said she was taking back her fair share given up during WWII rationing.

This is not about you... and It's like you didn't even bother to read the op, "she ate 3 normal sized, very well-balanced meals a day, plus healthy snacks the last two weeks"
Read the the room.

Ummm I think the point is, trying to control what a woman eats who is old/infirm enough to need all her meals prepared for her is the disordered thing here.

[Anonymous]

https://www.webmd.com/dvt/warfarin-diet-changes

Vitamin K clots your blood, and Warfarin unclogs it.

You need to precisely manage your dose of both, if you have bad clotting blood.

[Anonymous]

90-something friend of my mom’s brought an Ensure bottle with her to every dinner without fail.

Plot twist: it was filled with wine. 😄

[Anonymous]

High sugar intake and blood sugar levels can increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's or other types of dementia.

[Anonymous]

I've had them. They taste like nesquik! It literally might be healthier to just give her a little nesquik powder in a glass of milk.