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Tips to prevent malnutrition and dehydration

  • Make sure your loved one in a nursing home drinks plenty of water. Eight glasses a day is recommended, unless there is a medical reason for restricting fluids. In addition to water, your loved one should drink plenty of juice.
  • Insist on a pitcher of water and cups in the room. Make sure the resident can handle the pitcher and cups. If needed, insist on oversized cups with lids and built-in straws.
  • Make sure your loved one eats three well-balanced meals per day.
  • Insist on a daily weigh-in with accurate record keeping. Review weight records to monitor gain or loss.
  • Make sure the resident's food tray hasn't been placed too far away so that it is difficult to reach.

Signs that may indicate that your loved one is suffering from malnutrition and/or dehydration:

  • Weight loss
  • Cracks around the mouth
  • Pale lips and mouth
  • Complaints that dentures no longer fit
  • Unexplained confusion
  • Mouth sores
  • Thinning hair
  • Loose, flappy skin
  • Dry skin
  • Sunken eyes
  • Urinary tract infection
  • When the resident eats or drinks more when a friend or family member assists with feeding
  • If you observe patients being fed in a circle by one nurse's aide. This could indicate that there is not enough staff to properly ensure all residents are eating enough food and drinking enough liquids.

If your loved one shows even one of these signs, you should:

  • Immediately inform the doctor and staff members of your observations
  • Immediately request a care planning conference with the physician to discuss possible causes for the symptoms and to set up a plan for meals and feeding assistance
  • Monitor the situation. If it does not improve within days, you should contact authorities. Pennsylvania residents can click here for Contact Information.

If you even remotely suspect the situation may be life-threatening, take immediate steps to get your loved one to a hospital emergency room.

Put our experience to work for you

When a loved one as been a victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, you need an experienced law firm that will work hard to protect your loved one's rights. The attorneys at Edgar Snyder & Associates have been helping injury victims and their families for over 25 years. In addition, our highly-rated law firm has represented more than 30,000 injured people and has answered over 350,000 injury-related legal questions. Let us put this experience to work for you.

Free Consultation

If someone you care about has been the unfortunate victim of abuse or neglect in a nursing home, you can contact our law firm for a free consultation of your claim by:

  • Calling our law firm from anywhere in the United States toll-free at 1-866-648-7608. Our phones answer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • Completing an online consultation form.

We will answer your questions without charge and there is no obligation to use our services. And, as we say in our TV ads, "there's never a fee unlesswe get money for you."

Statistical sources: Journal of the American Geriatric Society (May 1999); Nutrition Screening Initiative (1993); Malnutrition and Dehydration in Nursing Homes: Key Issues in Prevention and Treatment (National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform June 2000)
malnutrition of elderly residents

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Copyright 2002-2009 NursingHomeAbuseResourceCenter.com is sponsored by the Law Offices of Edgar Snyder & Associates, A Law Firm Representing Injured People. Attorney Edgar Snyder & Associates has offices throughout Western Pennsylvania including locations in: Erie,PA; Johnstown,Penna; Ebensburg, Pennsylvania and Altoona, PA. All of our lawyers are licensed to practice law in the state of Pennsylvania. We also have attorneys licensed to practice law in the states of West Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia. Although this website is not intended to solicit clients for matters outside of the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, if you are injured in an accident, we have relationships with other personal injury attorneys and lawyers throughout the United States.