Preparing Food for Seniors - Comfort Keepers San Mateo

In our declining years, our teeth become weaker or even start to fall forcing us to change our eating habits drastically. However, this does not necessarily mean that one can’t enjoy tasty, delicious and nutritious food items in senior years.

With a bit of knowledge and planning, you can very easily prepare easy to chew foods that are at the same time and healthy and tasty for your senior loved ones. Here we have brought to your some necessary knowledge in this regard from Comfort Keepers. Keep reading to know how you can prepare foods for your senior loved ones easily.

Fruit Preparations

Fruits can be a great source of energy and nutrition in senior years. Cut or slice fruits into small bite size pieces so that it becomes easier for our senior loved ones to consume. Mangoes, bananas, berries, peaches, melons, etc. are soft and easy to chew. You can also prepare mashed or pureed fruit items. Another preparation can be compote made of boiled fruit mix. You can boil the fruits in sugar mixed water.

Vegetable Preparations

Food items cooked with potatoes, squash or pumpkins can be easily made and had as a side dish. You just have to peel, boil and mash these vegetables to prepare nutritious food for your senior loved one. You can do the same with beans or peas. These are great for seniors who has a chewing problem. You just have to boil and steam properly. You may also use some of the crispy vegetables like carrots and broccoli if you cook these for a long time and keep the pieces small.

Meat Preparations

Many of you may think that having meat in senior years is impossible. But no! You can make meat items that you senior loved one will enjoy with bare gums or weak teeth quite easily. Shred boneless, skinless meat from well-roasted pork, chicken or beef. Just make sure to roast it slowly. You can add some minced meat into mashed potato or vegetables. Another option could be to hash shredded precooked meat with boiled potatoes.

Grain Preparations

You can make foods with cereals like oatmeal, rice and wheat cream for your senior loved ones. You just have to make it softer. Soft banana or blueberry muffins can be another option if your remove the top hard crust from it and cut it to bite size pieces. Another option can be a bit of overcooked pasta, barley or rice. Our seniors can very well have some delicious snacks made out of peanut butter sandwiches - just remove the hard crust from the sides of the bread. 

Hopefully, with these ideas, you will never feel at a loss while preparing foods for your senior loved ones who faces difficulty chewing. For any help and support regarding senior care and wellbeing do not hesitate to contact Comfort Keepers!

Getting Started with Caregiving - Comfort Keepers San Mateo

Are you thinking of getting professional senior care help for your senior loved ones? Or would you opt for family caregiving for them? No matter what be your choice, transitioning to care-receiving for in senior years can be overwhelming at times for our senior loved ones as well as for the family members. The circumstances are totally new to us and the changes are often difficult to accept.

So, in such situation what can we do to cope up with the changing dynamics and conditions? Comfort Keepers are here with some soothing thoughts and effective guidelines.

Accept the Changes

Change is the law of nature. There's no way to fight it. So, the best way to deal with it is to accept it as it is. Try to realize this fact and make your senior loved ones understand that the changes are for their safety, good health and well-being.

Discuss

Our senior loved ones often feel discontented over receiving care. Various negative thoughts and ideas may force them to think this way. They may think that care receiving is a dependency and lack of autonomy. So, discuss with them and make them realize that care receiving is for their betterment and no one can stay safe and healthy without proper care in declining years.

Make Opinions Heard

Often in  situations like these when family members are engaged in ensuring proper care for their loved ones situations may occur when some may feel blighted thinking that their opinions are getting heard. Even our senior loved ones themselves may at times think that you are forcing your decisions upon them. So make it sure that everybody is having their say in deciding what type of care would be the best.

Make a Routine

Whenever in life we are faced with changing times it is always a good idea to sketch out a plan of actions that would carry out the change with ease. So, sit with your senior loved one and sketch out the plane make a regular routine describing the necessary changes. Besides, having a clearly planned out routine keeps the mind stable in times like this.

Ensure Care for Caregivers Too

Being too much focused on the care of the senior loved ones, it may happen that the family caregiver becoming strained or not being taken care of properly. However, for ensuring the best possible care for the seniors the caregivers also have to be in top shape. Otherwise, they won't be able to be fully in sync with their own life as well as the caregiving process.

Make Your Home Fall-proof

One thing you should be  especially aware while having a senior around is the propensity of having falls in senior years. In senior years the chances of having potentially damaging falls increase significantly for various reasons. So, be mindful and scan your home for any potential fall causing elements. Read the resources that Comfort Keepers have on fall prevention and get the expert fall prevention team to scan your home for you to make it fall proof.

With these guidelines in mind, if you approach this phase of your family life then it can be expected that the changes will be played out with ease and smoothness. And it these difficult times if you need any help regarding senior care and well being then contact Comfort Keepers San Mateo immediately!

Loneliness and Isolation Can Have Severe Effects in Senior Years - Comfort Keepers San Mateo

For various reasons many in our senior years face the difficult times of living alone. According to US census data 2010  about 28% (12.5 million) of no-institutionalized senior loved ones live alone (8.8 million women, 3.8 million men). Almost half of older women (46%) aged above 75 live alone. This is a severe problem almost reaching the stature of an epidemic.

However, we all know that loneliness and isolation can never be good for our mental and physical health. It is often the case that most of us know but do not acknowledge due to family circumstances or other reasons. But it is high time we acknowledged the issue and took necessary steps.

Loneliness and isolation are not only dangerous in senior years but also may prove to be devastating in all the phases of our life. A recent study conducted by the Brigham Young University in Utah found out that isolation and loneliness can have negative effects on health and wellbeing as adverse as obesity.

The researchers observed almost 35 years of studies and have concluded that living alone and isolation can dramatically decrease lifespan.  The study’s lead author Julianne Holt-Lunstad said in a statement, “We need to start taking our social relationships more seriously, the effect of this is comparable to obesity, something that public health takes very seriously.”

After conducting their thorough analysis on data collected from more than 3 million people they reached the conclusion that isolation and loneliness can increase the risk of early death up to 32%.

Another study conducted by the University of Chicago also found out some very disturbing link between physical health conditions and loneliness. The study pointed out that isolation and loneliness can increase the level of your stress hormone cortisol which leads to a significant increase in the chances of heart diseases and strokes. This condition can even multiply in effects in senior years. The effects of loneliness on longevity has been shown as similar to the effects of poverty, in this study. Apart from the physical effects the mental and emotional health of our loved seniors also debilitates a lot due to loneliness and isolation.

So, this is an eye opener. As more and more seniors are being pushed into living alone now a days, due to the changing social dynamics and as the 'graying of America' speeds up, the country may experience an epidemic of isolation in senior years. To deal with this serious situation, we have to implement pro-active senior care programs and services like the one from Comfort Keepers, termed as the Interactive Caregiving approach.

Interactive Caregiving from Comfort Keepers adopts a proactive attitude towards senior engagement in social activities along with involving them in their own care receiving processes. Through these interactive techniques even if the senior loved one is out of sync and connection due to depression or other issues it is possible to get them back on track to engage with people.

However, we need more such facilities made available to our seniors in order to deal with the ever-growing isolation epidemic in senior years.

Entrepreneurship after Retirement - Comfort Keepers San Mateo

Today’s seniors are shattering the age old concept that only young people are fit to become entrepreneurs. At present we are seeing many of our loved seniors are starting their own business startups after retirement. They are proving again and again what C.S. Lewis said ‘You are never too old to set another goal, or to dream a new dream.’

The Number of Senior Entrepreneurs Are Increasing
Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship indicates that now the percentage of entrepreneurs aged among 55 to 64 has increased to 24 % whereas it was only 15% in 1997. So, this proves that gradually our senior loved ones are realizing the truth and coming forward with renewed zeal at life. Besides, Richard Sutch, economic historian at the University of California said that the self-employment rates for the male labor force rose with age, from virtually zero at age 16 to over 30 percent by age 70.

Motivation and Inspiration
What Comfort Keepers’ take at it is that, starting anything in life gives tremendous amount of motivational and inspirational boost to one’s life. And in senior years when we often struggle to cope up with the rapid changes both in terms of our physical and mental condition along with the lifestyle changes then doing something new with your life can render a lot of support. It will help to keep you going with as much enthusiasm and meaning as you were in your youth. Moreover, it will also give you some monetary boost.

Seniors Have an Advantage
There’s one special advantage that our senior loved ones get if they start their own business after retirement- the massive amount of experience they have gathered all through their lives along with the huge number of connections that they can summon. Besides, in today’s knowledge based economy our senior loved ones can impart immense support to the overall business sector with their grounded knowledge and experience.

Being Active
Comfort Keepers always encourages senior involvement and engagement in various social and communal activities along with their own care receiving processes through Interactive Caregiving approaches. In this line too entrepreneurship can be another brilliant idea to get engaged and active. The benefits of leading an active and engaged life in senior years are numerous.

Another Attempt at Realizing Lost Dreams
Taking up something new in our declining years gives us a unique opportunity of another attempt at realizing long sought after dreams. Often we have seen people sacrificing their dreams for social and family responsibilities and sticking to their jobs forgetting the dream of making something of their own. So, entrepreneurship in senior years can definitely be your last chance at realizing some lost dreams of life.

Awakening the Creator within You
There’s a creator in each and every one of us who is unique in terms of things they were meant to create. But life and its cares often bars us from that creative force. But after retirement you are free and nothing can bar you anymore. So, pay heed to the one true calling that you have been ignoring all though your life and release your own creative beauty. Entrepreneurship is nothing more than creating and producing newer and more beneficial products and services.

There Are Courses for Senior Entrepreneurs
With the rising practice of starting new businesses in seniors, now there are many reputed colleges that are offering entrepreneurship and financial course to seniors. There are more than 1000 Small Business Development Centers in colleges and state economic development agencies that are offering free low-cost training and business consultancy to our senior loved ones.

So, till now, if you had even a glimmer of such thoughts in your mind of starting something of you own in your senior years then now you know that there is no more time to procrastinate. Start right away! You already know your calling; sketch out a plan, get some courses done and start working on you dream. Contact Comfort Keepers San Mateo for any kind of help and support on the way!

7 Reasons for Family Fight over Senior Care - Comfort Keepers San Mateo

Families faced with the difficult time of being bestowed upon the responsibility of taking or ensuring proper care for the senior loved ones encounter some heavy issues. Having family disputes and conflicts among the members is often seen to be one of them. So, we from Comfort Keepers thought of addressing this often neglected issue of family fights over senior care related decisions.

Here we have listed down the 7 most common reasons for which such fights occurs and have tried to direct you towards possible solutions to the problems. As a result you will be aware of these issues beforehand and will be able to avoid such issues before they may take place. Moreover, even if they take place you will be able to solve the issues faster and more easily before any harm is done!

1. Difference in Opinion among Siblings

We have often seen that siblings view the need of senior care for their senior parents differently. The basic argument may revolve around whether they really need professional care yet or not. Or if they do, then what type of care would be most suitable.

To deal with this issue nothing does better than to have a focused discussion with a clear mind. Sit over a cup of tea with your parents and discuss over the present condition.

2. Seniors Resisting Care

Even if all the members of the family agree that the senior loved one really needs care then the seniors themselves may resist care due to various assumptions over expenditure, lost independence etc.

To solve this problem at first find out exactly why they are resisting. Then try and make them realize the essential necessity of the situation through effective exemplification.

3. One Member or Child Doing All the Heavy Work

Often in such situations we have seen that one of the members ends up doing all the hard work and becomes overburdened. This may lead to family fights and unhappiness along with the individual’s mental and physical problems.

To deal with this issue you have to understand that not all of us perceives the situation the same way. As you are doing most of the work you also have to keep in mind that may be others are not realizing that there are works to be done. So, you have to spell out your problems and ask for help clearly and logically.

4. One Member Making All the Decisions

Another issue that often leads to family conflicts is the tendency of one member’s ruling over all others while making any decision. Or may be that one member is not even caring to ask for suggestions from others.

This may become a bit difficult issue to solve. As the member who is doing so must have more significance in the family and talking to him might become a hard task. But no matter what, express your opinions in clear terms, if you think that the decisions they are making are not appropriate. Or just politely place your logical suggestions before finalizing any issue. Because there are conditions when wrong decisions may cause a lot of harm. So, don’t lose you calm and keep pressing what you think is right with dedicated quietude.

5.  Paying for the Care

It is one of the most common scenarios in the families with seniors needing care. Especially after the 2008 financial meltdown when most of the retirees financial account is still struggling to recover. So, in times of arranging the money needed for the care of senior loved ones family members and children may have to look into their own pockets. Thereby, causing dissatisfaction with each other.

Here too focused and considerate discussion along with earnest understanding of each other’s situation is of prime importance. We should all sit together to discuss and find out how much we can contribute. We should acknowledge that we will try our best to ensure the best possible care for our loved seniors.

6. Caregiving while Raising the Family

According to a research conducted by the National Center on Caregiving almost 75% of family caregivers are women. And often it has been observed that these women are also responsible for raising their own children and caring for the whole family. In such situations the condition may often become heated as the member responsible for all these will naturally be stressed and dissatisfied.

To deal with this issue all the other members have to be careful and proactive. They have to chip in to support as much as they can. And the family caregiver also have to ask for help without hesitation and make others understand that their help is very much required. Besides, opting for professional help is always an option.

7. Inheritance

Family members fighting over inheritance is a very sad incident indeed. However, this happens very often. Most of the times such situation occurs when there aren’t any well sketched out and up to date will.

So, in order to avoid such unpleasant family occurrences always keep a well written, clear and up to date will ready! 

Food Safety for Seniors - Comfort Keepers San Mateo

As we age our body undergoes many changes. Both internal and external. Due to this our whole digestive system also undergoes some changes. And the importance of food safety and following a healthy diet and all the rules of food safety becomes increasingly important. Specifically for the seniors above the age 65 has to be treated with utmost care in terms of food safety.

Seniors above the age of 65 are at much higher risks of getting foodborne illnesses than other age groups. Moreover, seniors who are living in nursing homes are ten times more likely to get affected by bacterial gastroenteritis than others. So, getting acquainted with the food safety rules and techniques is a must, if you are a senior or have one senior loved one around you.

Why Seniors Are More Prone to Get Affected by Foodborne Diseases?

●     The gastrointestinal tract holds on to food longer than usual. Hence, there opens up the scope of bacterial growth.

●     Our Liver and kidney gradually becomes less efficient removing foreign toxins and harmful bacteria out of our bodies.

●     The production of acids in the stomach becomes lesser and slower. Proper amount of acid helps to run the digestive process smoothly and reduces the growth of bacteria. So, lesser amount of acid means the scope to bacterial growth in the gastrointestinal tract.

●     Other chronic conditions like diabetes, cancer also increases the risk of getting foodborne diseases.

Signs of Foodborne Diseases

Food borne diseases often regularly known as food poisoning often is accompanied by some common signs and symptoms. These are signs are the following-

●     Upset Stomach

●     Diarrhea

●     Vomiting

●     Fever

●     Abdominal Cramps

●     Dehydration

However, these symptoms can very swiftly increase to create some severe conditions including death.

Tips for Maintaining Food Safety

Our caregivers from Comfort Keepers are very much experienced in food safety issues and have proper understanding of the techniques. So, here we have brought out some tips from them for maintaining food safety in senior years

Clean

●     The childhood rule of washing your hands applies the same all through our lives. Cleanliness is a virtue, we all know that. So, keep everything from your hands to your kitchen and everything related with food.

●     Clean your cooking utensils and countertops with hot water and soap before and after you cook each and every item. Periodically use kitchen sanitizers.

Food Management

●     Always separate raw food like meat and vegetables from ready to eat foods while carrying and storing. 

●     Always chill raw meat, poultry, cooked leftovers and ready to eat foods within 2 hours.

Cooking

●     Always cook up to the right temperature. Cook raw meat and poultry properly.

●     If you rely on delivered meals then take the service from a very reliable source and try be careful to keep them safe

Follow a Healthy Diet

●     Food safety and following a healthy diet go hand in hand! With age following a healthy and custom diet targeted towards wellbeing is of essential importance.

So, here you go, with these easy to digest tips from Comfort Keepers you will definitely be able to keep your digestive system safe and sound. For any type of help and support for ensuring your loved one’s well-being contact Comfort Keepers San Mateo right away!

7 Effective Ways to Avoid Back Pain in Senior Years - Comfort Keepers San Mateo

Back pain becomes an ever concurring phantom as we age. National Institute for Health reports that at least 25% of American adults encounter back pain in every three months. Although it tends to occur after we cross the threshold of 30 it gradually becomes more frequent as we reach our senior years. But do you know with some easy and simple lifestyle changes you can very effectively fend off back pain entirely?

We here from Comfort Keepers thought of sharing with your 7 such tips that you can adopt to avoid back pain as you age.

1. Do Hip Stretching Workout

In case of fending off back pain it is very important that you keep your abdominal muscles stronger to support your back as well as keep your hips muscles strong. For this you have to do some regular hip stretching exercises.

One easy way to do that is lying on your back and pull your knees upwards to your chest and hold it there for up to 15 to 20 seconds. Repeat it for three or four more times. This way you move and stretch both of your abdominal muscles and hip muscles and keep them in perfect condition.

2. Forget about Posture Strengthen Your Hip Muscles Instead 

Many often worry that our sitting or standing posture affects the back pain but it is actually not the situation. If you have strong muscles than no matter in whatever posture you sit and stand it doesn’t matter.

So, you have to solely focus on staying fit and keeping your hip and abdominal muscles stronger. Follow the exercise described above along with some other such muscle strengthening exercises.

3. Take Frequent Breaks from Your Chair

Sitting for too long at a stretch on the chair is bad for your hip muscles. It makes it too relaxed. So, take a break after every 30 minutes to one hour and do some light stretching or have a walk. This way your muscles will be much healthier and stronger.

4. Lift Heavy Objects Carefully

It has been observed that lifting heavy objects in inappropriate way can cause damage to your back muscles. So, whenever you are lifting anything heavy, such as your grand kids, be careful and follow standard procedure.

Bend your back and knees carefully keeping one foot slightly ahead of the other and straighten up your legs before your back. So, that the primary pressure remains on your legs instead of your back.

5. Have a Daily Walk around the Park

Nothing can be better for your back health along with your overall health than having a walk daily. As you walk you release the pressure on your spine and strengthen your back muscle.

One more thing about walking and back pain is that if you are having back pain like right now, start walking! Then you will notice that the pain will gradually decrease. So, even if you can manage to walk for only 10-15 minutes, do that and gradually try to increase the amount of time you walk as much as up to one hour.

6. Work Carefully

Whenever you are engaged with physical labor like shoveling snow or some heavy tasks like that you have to be extra cautious. Tasks that involve you to bend frequently and handle heavy things must be done with extra care for the safety of your back muscles. One rule of thumb can be to have a bit of warming up before starting, working with as little load as possible with frequent intervals.

7. Release Stress

Stress is an arch enemy to your peace. It has been proven in many research that stress increases your susceptibility to pain and aches. Besides, worrying about any specific type of pain will increase the likelihood and the intensity of it significantly.

So, follow de-stressing activities like relaxation exercises, yoga, meditation, aerobics etc. There are often some personal de-stressors for every individual; try to find out yours and carry out whenever you are stressed.

So, with these lifestyle incorporations you will be able to deal with back pain forever. Follow these and stay happy and healthy as you age. And for any kind of support regarding elder care contact Comfort Keepers.