Hello, I am new here. My dad has oral cancer and is currently receiving chemo and radiation. He is doing well in most aspects, except eating. I am looking for any advice, recipes, etc that anyone might have for ways to get food in him. He's dropped 25 pounds in 3 weeks and is dehydrated. He has been receiving IV fluids to combat the dehydration. He is averaging about 700 calories intake each day. We are clearly trying to avoid a feeding tube. He can't seem to "taste" anything anymore but has complaints that everything tastes nasty. What is salty is way too salty, sweet is sickeningly sweet. His mouth and throat look raw and terrible.
Any advice is appreciated very much. Thank you all

Welcome to OCF! Im glad you have found our site to help you with your father.

Here is a list of easy to eat foods. This should be helpful. During rads for OC patients, they will lose their sense of taste, foods will change from being tasty to disgusting seemingly overnight, plus processed foods just taste horrible, maybe even like cardboard. I found everything to have a burnt taste and everything was salty, even water tasted like it was burnt salt water. List of Easy to Eat Foods

This is something I cant stress enough... Every single day the patients MUST push to take in a minimum of 2500 calories and 48-64 oz of water. Since you have mentioned your father already has lost 25 pounds in 3 weeks that tells me alot. It means his body is not getting enough nutrition or calories and the cancer is burning what calories he takes in up. With your fathers body first fighting the cancer and also its treatments, there isnt enough fuel going in to sustain him. Even if a patient is overweight, the doctors still do not want to see weight loss. Your fathers intake MUST change immediately! Ive been thru this myself so I am speaking from experience. If he doesnt begin to get at least 2500 calories and 48-64 oz of water every single day he will soon end up in the hospital for malnutrition and dehydration. A patient in this situation feels absolutely awful. Ive been down that road and know how bad they feel. If he isnt able to take in enough by mouth then a feeding tube will be in his immediate future either a nasal tube or the type put in surgically into his stomach (PEG tube). To get your father back on track I suggest pushing for even higher daily intake such as 3000-3500 daily calories.

I found yoo-hoo to be very refreshing, plus its more calories and a few vitamins too. With a sore mouth and throat, the yoo-hoo will feel very soothing, at least it worked for me. You can also ask the doc for a prescription for magic mouthwash. Have your father swish it around in his mouth for about 30 seconds and spit it out before eating. It will numb his mouth and hopefully enable him to eat. There are several different formulas of magic mouthwash. The one I had was malox, lidocaine and benedryl. Others will have nystatin or other components.

Ive also sent you a private message. Look towards the My Stuff tab and click on the tiny flashing envelope. If you read the info included in the link, it will show you how to add a signature plus it has a few pointers on how to navigate the forum.

Stick with us and we will help both you and your father get thru this. Oral cancer is a terrible disease, the treatments are barbaric and recovery seems to take forever. Just remember, with radiation treatments will get progressively more difficult as he goes along so the intake must be turned around right away. Many patients are in denial and get into a habit of playing catch up thinking its ok to skimp today and they can make it up tomorrow. The only problem with that way of thinking is, tomorrow likely will be even harder so tomorrow never comes and the cycle of malnutrition and dehydration begins. You should try to have a good honest conversation with your father and let him know how important he is to you and you are there to help him get thru this but the bottom line is he MUST increase his intake dramatically. If he cant then its time to discuss a feeding tube with his doc.

As a caregiver, it must be horrible watching someone you look up to and love suffer. Your father is fortunate you are there helping him. Remember caregiving is not easy and be kind to yourself too. Take some time every day to walk away and catch your breath even if its only 10 minutes, it helps.

Hang in there. We are here to help you.

I had a couple of time periods where it was difficult to eat. First was the couple of weeks after my surgery, and the second time began a week or two after my radiation began, and lasted for maybe 3-4 weeks. My diet was mostly liquid in nature. I drank a lot of high calorie milkshakes, with a multiple scoops of ice cream, a variety of fruits, chocolate, peanut butter, etc. Always added a scoop of whey protein powder.

I also own a juicer, so I'd often make myself a green juice to make sure I'm getting my veggies. I was also able to get some soups down, but I had to make sure they were smoothly blended.

The liquid diet left me craving carbohydrates, so I was pretty happy when I was able to introduce thin noodles & start eating more solid food again.

The treatment your Dad is going through is harsh and it's going to suck for a while. Is he gargling with the salt and baking soda frequently? That's several times a day as often as possible.


All those juices, shakes, puddings, soups didn't work for me. Nothing thick or sweet, it was gag making for me. Don't give up and and don't get frustrated, keep trying things on him and encourage him. I found scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese to be one of the few things I could get down along with cottage cheese with peaches (from a package not fresh) and I would force myself to drink a couple of orgains a day. I didn't do the corn syrup drinks. I also got the IV fluids. It's just horrible until about 3 or 4 weeks after treatment ends and then slowly getting better. There's pain meds and other meds and creams and just getting back and fourth every day for the treatment. Hang in there. He's going to be miserable sometimes. It's worth it. I am 9 months out and feeling pretty decent. PM me if you have any questions.

Angi, I'm new here too, but do have some experience with a loved one doing radiation. Keeping on some weight is absolutely critical. The effects of radiation will continue to get worse until about a month after the treatments stop. A trip to the ER woke us up about the calories and water Christine talks about. I'd not found this board back then, and had no idea failure to monitor that intake could be life-threatening. Let him get angry with you if you have to - but know you're doing one of the few things you can to help. He needs to have a glass of water in his hand (or at least in reach) at all times, and someone really does need to keep count of the ounces that go down. Same for some high calorie liquid foods to combat the weight concerns.

I know you can't hold him down and pour it in - believe me, that's exactly what I wanted to do. But you can remind him you're fighting for his life and can't do it without his help. I'm sure my own loved one was trying to just wait it out, thinking that he'd soon feel good enough to get back to normal. It doesn't work that way though, and takes a concentrated daily effort. You could even tell him he's not being fair to YOU, and maybe he'll drink a little more, out of guilt. WHATEVER it takes!

The people on this board are amazing, so do come back and lean on them. It's doing me a world of good, and can do the same for you.