The Sandwich Generation . . . Helping Your Aging Parents
by Carol Abaya, M.A.
for release July 7, 2000
Are you juggling doing errands for your aging parents, your children, yourself and working at the same time? Are you tired, stressed out and upset that your once vibrant parent is now frail and needy?
Do you feel alone? Rest assured you are not alone! The Sandwich Generation is dedicated to the 50 million Americans who may have elder/parent care concerns and/or responsibilities.
Sense of Smell Declines and You May End Up With Food Poisoning
Question My parents (in their 80's) have been in and out of the hospital six times in the past year. They've had unexplainable severe stomach pains, and either diarrhea or throwing up. The emergency room doctors haven't been able to find anything "wrong." We're all very worried and don't know what to do.
Answer All too often elders have food poisoning and, like your parents, get very ill. And even if the ER ran a food poisoning test, the simple problem might still not be identified - that of spoiled food eaten at home.
As we age, our senses may not "work" like when we were 40 or 50. Vision, smell, and taste may decrease. Thus elders can't see mold on food, and can't smell that it's gone bad. And they may not taste that it's bad.
As we age, we can get very sick from things that previously might have made us just feel queasy. Food poisoning is a prime example.
With summer here, making sure refrigerated food has not spoiled is very important. People have a tendency to eat more deli meats, potato and macaroni salads, cole slaw. Mayonnaise can spoil quickly if left out of the refrigerator for a couple of hours. So more caution is warranted.
Other ways to prevent food poisoning,
> have someone other than your parents regularly check the food in the refrigerator and throw out whatever has been there for more than several days.
> package either cooked or uncooked food in one (or two, if a couple) serving packages. This avoids small amounts of leftovers piling up in the refrigerator.
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Question My mother, only 68, has developed high blood pressure. The doctor says "no salt." My mother complains that food is tasteless and isn't eating properly.
Answer Eating should be enjoyable and certainly can be if other spices are used. I personally only use salt on eggs. For everything else I use garlic and onion powder (not salt), oregano, basil, parsley, ginger. Also curry and crushed hot chili peppers add taste to food. All these spices can be used in practically everything - meat, fowl, fish, vegetables. Fresh garlic and ginger are also supposed to help prevent certain chronic illnesses.
If a person is in a nursing home, put spice bottles on the table so the usually bland food can be made tastier.
So spice up - and enjoy.
NOTE TO EDITORS: You may wish to include this notice for your readers:
Sandwich Generation tapes A series of audio tapes, Conversations
With Carol, are now available. Subjects include Being a Sandwich
Generationer; Choices and Legal Protection Maintaining Independence;
Words of Wisdom; To Drive or to Stop; Guilt; Medicare and HMOs; and
Pets Rewards of Better Health and Happiness. Send her a note to Box
132, Wickatunk, NJ 07765, and weÆll send you more information.
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Do you have a question? Send it in. Although letters cannot be answered individually, appropriate letters will be answered in this column whenever possible. Letters may be edited. Send letters to Ms. Carol Abaya, c/o Name\Address of YOUR newspaper (or mail direct to her at PO Box 132,Wickatunk, NJ 07765-0132) or e-mail her at SandwchGen@aol.com.
Carol Abaya is an international-award-winning journalist and creator of the unique magazine The Sandwich Generation: You & Your Aging Parents.
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©2000 by Globe Syndicate, all rights reserved.