Many caregivers often find mealtimes are a real challenge. Either our loved ones will barely eat anything, or they rush through a meal and hardly take time to chew and swallow. Either way, it can pose problems. For either kind of eater, try this:

Put a small amount of one kind of food on the plate - no more than three or four bites. When that's gone, take the plate back and put on three or four bites of another food. Then back to the first food, then the second. And so on.

Waiting for more food to be added to the plate will slow down a fast eater. A slow and easily overwhelmed eater will never be faced with "too much" on the plate.

Since many of our seniors don't drink enough, offer water or another beverage each time you re-fill the plate and wait until it's been drunk.

This may mean you're popping up and down like a jack-in-the-box. It's worth it if it makes meals more pleasant.