Four Tips for Helping Adults with Down Syndrome Eat Well
Eating healthy meals that are full of protein, vegetables, and fruits can help your adult family member with Down syndrome to have the fuel that she needs to tackle the challenges of everyday life. Planning meals and determining how to make meals easier is a big priority.
Plan out Meals and Snacks
If you’re playing meals by ear, it’s a lot more difficult to keep up with what’s on hand and what’s going to pack a nutritional punch. The best way around this is to formulate a plan for both meals and snacks. Try to keep both nutritional goals as well as preferences in mind while you’re planning. If you’re stumped for ideas that fit with your family member’s dietary needs, talk to her doctor or consider working with a dietician for a session or two.
Get Help for Meal Preparation and Shopping
Shopping for groceries and then preparing meals can take up a lot of time. And if your family member lives on her own, this can be even more complicated for you and for her. Home care for Down syndrome is an excellent way to ensure that your family member has the ability to get to the grocery store. Home care providers can also help with meal preparation and cleanup, while ensuring that your family member is eating healthy meals.
Prepare Meals in Advance
The really appealing thing about fast food and pre-packaged meals is that they’re super convenient. They don’t take a lot of time to prepare and they’re ready fast. If possible, using homemade prepared meals that have been mostly prepped in advance gives your family member the speed of convenient foods but with the nutritional boost of homemade options. Home care providers can help you here, too.
Keep Food Preferences in Mind, but Experiment as Well
Your family member probably has some favorites when it comes to food and there may be some easy ways to make those dishes healthier, if that’s already a concern with them. But it doesn’t hurt to experiment a bit, too. Once a week or a few times a month, try some new foods or recipes. You never know when you’ll find a new favorite.
As a caregiver to an adult with Down syndrome, you want the best for her. That can sometimes mean that you’re making unpopular choices, like what’s for dinner. Every meal can’t be your family member’s favorite one but you can do small things to make meals both nutritious and tasty.
If you are considering Down syndrome resources in Brownsburg, IN, please call the caring staff at RSI Cares. Serving Greater Indianapolis Area. Call for Immediate Info & Assistance: 317-471-0750.
As a practicing Registered Nurse, Etelka was keenly aware of a void in quality patient care that could be provided in the home. She embarked upon a journey to develop a home health care agency that would exceed all expectations and become a trusted partner to physicians and patients.
A Distinguished Career From Nurse to Director of Nursing to President of Home Services Unlimited
Etelka’s distinguished career followed a logical progression to her position as President of Home Services Unlimited. She graduated as a nurse practitioner with a Bachelor of Nursing (RN) in 1972 from Meshgorya University in the Ukraine, close to where she lived with her family. She married her husband Phil in 1973 and decided in 1977 that they would relocate to the United States to be closer to family and to come to this land of opportunity. With an eagerness to continue her budding career, Etelka sat for and passed her Boards in the U.S. in 1979.
A Love and Talent for Working with the Elderly
Etelka began her nursing career in the U.S. at Colonial Crest, now part of Golden Living, where shewasthe In-service Coordinator, the Director of Training and Education and Director of Nursing, a position she occupied for several years.
With a group of partners, she co-founded Adept Corporation, which operated group homes for the mentally challenged. The business was successful and in 1996, Etelka sold her share to return to her roots, caring for the elderly.
In January of 1997, Etelka opened Home Services Unlimited as a fully licensed business to provide home health care. In her quest to learn to do better for her patients, she had already obtained a Masters in Healthcare Administration (MHA) in May of 1990 from the College of St. Francis. As President of Home Services Unlimited, Inc., Etelka guides the trusted, experienced care model Home Services Unlimited uses to continue providing excellent home health care.
Giving Back to the Community of Indianapolis
Volunteering for community services is a high priority for Etelka. Her memberships include the Indiana Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, Executive Women in Health Care and the Indiana Association for Home and Hospice Care, where she is a member of the Board of Directors.
Etelka has also served on the Board of Directors with Hooverwood Home, a highly regarded geriatric facility, since 1997 and as the President for 2005-2006. Through her community work, she has received several awards and accolades, including the Nora McFarland award in 2002, from the Indiana Association of Home and Hospice Care.
Etelka was honored as a “Health Care Hero” by the Indianapolis Business Journal. The issue can be read online here:
http://mags.ibj.com/activemagazine/welcome/html/ibjhch.html.
After clicking on the link, then click on the image of the issue’s front page. After that, you can browse through the issue or click in a box near the top of your internet browser to adjust the page to 17, which is where Etelka’s article appears.
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