A client in your care in a nursing home asks for nutritional pudding supplements all day. You notice that staff often respond to the request and then the client does not eat the food served at mealtime. You decide to:

Question

1. Post a chart that staff must sign when they give the client pudding, and limit the servings to twice a day at least two hours before or after meals.
2. Ignore the problem since the client probably gets more nutrients eating the supplements than eating the meals.
3. Inform the client that too many servings of pudding are not good and meals are a better nutritional option.
4. Ask the kitchen to provide the client with small portions of meals since they are discarded anyway.

Answer 1

1
Rationale: Posting a chart to help staff monitor how often and how much pudding the client is given each day along with specifying the amount allowed. Since nutritional supplements are not designed to meet daily nutritional requirements, eating them in place of food is not recommended. Informing the client that eating only supplements does not provide a balanced diet is an important part of client education, but may not result in a behavior change. Asking for a nutritional evaluation may be beneficial to identify client preferences in foods, but smaller portions of the same foods will not make a difference.