Question Recipes for people without teeth after surgery, please.

[Mandy Onderwater]

Hello all, I hope you have been doing well

My grandfather-in-law is having surgery next week and wil have a significant portion of his mouth removed due to cancer, along with some teeth. In doing so he also will be unable to wear his top plate (false teeth) for an extended period of time - perhaps ever if the mouth hole left is too small to re-fit.
We know very little about what this might mean long-term, as results vary greatly per person. We do know that for a long time, he likely will be unable to fit more than even a teaspoonm, or maybe only a large straw. I am working under the assumption of being able to fit a teaspoon though.

I am hoping you guys have recommendations for soft foods aimed at elderly people.

He doesn't like a lot of spices/seasonings (strong flavours, basically), spicy food, garlic or rice. He's also lactose-intolerant and sensitive to eggs.

 

[KIGardening]

Sorry to read about your grandfather in law.

My first thought would be to look for nutritious foods that you can blend. Go through his normal diet and try to identify the items you can blend as that would give him a mental boost to know he still is getting food he is used too, only temporary in a different format. It is important he gets as much nutrients into his system. So try some recipes out before he goes into surgery so you can have a baseline.

For the first period after surgery you could do only liquid blends to help out with the pain. After it has health a bit try some more chunkier softer parts in the food so the digestive system gets back to the normal way of processing food.

Also take in consideration that medication after surgery can influence his taste of things. It will be trial and error with the adaptation for his personal taste.

 

[daveb]

Suggestion mandy the hospitals usually will have a dietitians on staff that can probably give you some suggestion of foods that will not interfere with the houth wounds and stitches, and as KI said right after major surgery it will be what is refered to as a water diet same as i was on. I collapsed the saturday after thanksiving 2023 . gallbladder issue that cause pancrease and kidneys to shut down and kicked my butt. they worked with doctor and nursing staff and put me on a water diet until i was able to get in for surgery.

Water diet is going to be a variation - water, ice chips, juice, broth, gelatin, electrolyte drinks, popsicles, soft fruits they didnt need chewing tea ( decaf ) and juice smoothies , creamy smooth peanut butter is very high in protien. yogurts to help with the gut bacteria. water diet of foods that will bascially disolve to almost nothing for solid waste is going to raise hell with large intestines. make sure food choices are high in vit A C and zinc and good protien lever to help healing.

My suggestion drop a line or stop into the hospitol a few days before hand and ask to talk with staff dietition for patients with special needs. and also often in later years if have been lactose and egg intolerant watch out for any signs of gluten intolerence, One small plus yogurt even tho it is milk with all natural process and low fat fat milk live yogurt breaks down the lactose chain issues , my sister is lactose and gluten intolerant and can eat the yogurt i make with no issues at all

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I'd ask the hospital more questions, but we're actually being outsourced. So we are going to a hospital 4,5 hours away from home.
On top of that, granddad has a colostomy and is surprisingly picky with food. He's also got Alzheimers, so it's not always easy, especially since he can't always tell me why he doesn't like something.
I've been asking questions at previous appointments, but the information I received thusfar has been less than useful. And I'm somewhat at a loss. And since he's got a colostomy, I'm worried about how that could be affected too, if I give him too much "mush".

Chances are, I'm just worrying too much, and I'll figure it out as I go along. But it never hurts to get a variety of opinions and ideas.

 

[Berkeloid]

What I did when I had a toothache that ended up requiring root canal was to just cook my normal meals, and then stick them in a food processor until they turned to mush. The meals tasted the same but I didn't have to chew. The food didn't pass through me any faster than normal, I guess because by the time the stomach acid has broken it down, it's the same consistency whether it went in chewed or as a puree.

The trick for me was to puree the meals to the point where there were no small pieces of food left, otherwise I still had the urge to chew even though there wasn't really anything to chew. It seems it has to become very smooth (like say custard) before I am comfortable eating it without chewing. Sometimes it was a bit thick (too thick for a straw) so in your case you may need to water the meal down a bit to make it runnier, more like soup. Watering it down does affect the flavour though. I tended to over-cook the vegetables to make them mushy to begin with, as it made a finer puree at the end.

If you struggle at the start you could try adding a sweetener like sugar. It's not great for nutrition but it will improve the flavour and may convince a difficult person to eat it, and over time once it becomes routine, you can cut back and eventually remove the sugar again.

Good luck with it, it's often quite a challenge working with someone who has Alzheimer's.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I love those suggestions @Berkeloid . I think instead of water, I could use stock, so it adds nutrients whilst also thinning it without the watered down taste.

It hasn't been easy, but I try my best. Thankfully I control most of his intake, because when he chooses his own meals he picks things he cannot handle (like lactose; unless it's straight milk, he doesn't know it contains it). Learnt that the hard way when he gave himself a massive flare-up when he ate nearly a whole bar of chocolate and it came out both ends rather violently.

This definitely feels like there are some more options though. I was worried I was going to have to feed him mashed potatoes/carrots for weeks.
Now I'll just have to figure out a way to make protein an option... I don't know how well meat blends up.

 

[Berkeloid]

Good idea with the stock, I think that would definitely help with the flavour.

Meat blends up well enough as long as it's tender to begin with and doesn't have lumps of gristle. It helps a lot to puree the solid ingredients first - for example if you try to blend a soup with chunks of meat then it never blends down very well, but if you put just the meat in first with a tiny bit of soup, puree that, then add bulk of the the soup afterwards, and blend again to mix it together, then it comes out very smooth. Basically the more liquid, the harder it is to turn it into a puree. But also if it's completely dry it won't blend very well either, so sometimes you need to add just a little bit of liquid to get it to work. Until you get used to it, just start off dry and add a little bit more liquid bit by bit until you see it turning into a paste and very quickly you'll get the hang of it. You want to start off with a fairly thick paste as that's where you get the finest puree, and then thin it out afterwards. If you add too much liquid too soon it will end up coarse rather than smooth and you'll feel like you still need to chew it.

As for protein, things like fish are no problem to puree (although the skin can be tricky, it's better to find skinless fish). Lentils are also a good substitute as they are high in protein (for a plant), very filling, and cook down to mush on their own (I use them as a thickener in things like spaghetti bolognese so I don't need to use as much meat) although people who struggle with garlic or beans also often have issues with lentils as well so they may not be so good in your case.

You can buy tinned salmon relatively cheaply in the tinned fish aisle in the supermarket (look for the full-size tins rather than the small ones), and due to the canning process it's already pretty mushy. It doesn't look too appetising coming out of the tin but it still tastes good (if you like salmon) and blends up very easily. Since it's already cooked (and can be eaten straight from the tin) it does save a lot of time cooking. If you add it to the food processor with hot ingredients then you don't even need to preheat it as it will warm up just fine during the pureeing process. I often add it to spaghetti bolognese sauce instead of mince to make a seafood marinara instead.

Tinned fish is also a good source of calcium for people who are lactose intolerant, as the canning process makes the fish bones soft and crumbly so they can be eaten without any issue.

If you want a break from cooking, a lot of tinned foods are already pretty mushy and will puree very easily. Things like baked beans, tinned vegetables, etc. The stuff in glass jars less so as it's not as thoroughly cooked, it's the stuff in metal tins that is often borderline mush already. You can also have a look at the baby food aisle, as that stuff is already pureed and thanks to mums being so health conscious about what they feed their babies, it's surprisingly healthy. No added sugar, preservatives or strange ingredients, just plain fruits and veggies, already pureed and ready to eat straight from the jar.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I'll definitely think about all those option, and see how he will stomach them.
I think if I bought the baby food I'd have to hide the jars, haha. He's very sight-based and his "tastes" will change if he sees something he doesn't like. Example, if I make meatballs and he sees me add the garlic, he can suddenly taste it. If not, he won't taste it. Or if I add sweet paprika powder to something, it'll suddenly be spicy - whereas if he didn't see it, no harm done

I hope my stick blender will do just fine
I do have a food processor, but it's never been good at chopping things finely as things always get stuck to the sides.

 

[Berkeloid]

Sounds like it's going to be a bit of a challenge!

You could try adding more liquid with your food processor, just enough so that it no longer sticks to the sides and instead runs down to get chopped again. I have the same problem if I try to puree something that's too dry.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Turns out my stick blender does not like blending very small amounts

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

To be fair, I tried my best.
Starting from the top, in a clockwise manner; mashed potato, cauliflower, carrot, fish in lemon&herb sauce. All blended of course.

 

[Berkeloid]

That looks perfect! Very thoroughly pureed. Hopefully the meal was well received!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I didn't hear complaints other than that his mouth was sore. He ended up eating about a third of it, and didn't complain about the taste.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Didn't take images of yesterday's food. My partner took care of food and gave him some pre-made soup whilst I was away at dinnertime.

Today's food includes leftover veggies from 2 nights ago, carefully re-heated. Plus some boiled chicken thigh and peas. Thoroughly blended of course.
The chicken thigh was boiled with a chicken bone in chicken broth, for flavour. The peas were thinned with some chicken broth too, to make blending them a little easier. In the end I could've added some more broth to make it a little more smooth, but I'm trying to whack stuff through the stick blender as fast as I can so he's not eating cold food.

He ate significantly more today. So I think this might've tasted a little better too with the added broth instead of water (I didn't prepare broth the first night).