Therapies and allied health
Dietitian
Helps you keep weight and nutrition steady when eating becomes tiring, slow or unsafe, rather than putting you on a diet.
A dietitian works out how to get enough energy and fluid into you when eating has become hard work. In ALS/MND that usually means the opposite of what people expect from the word diet. Losing weight is a problem to be prevented, not a goal, and small practical changes often matter more than any particular food.
How you reach this person, and who pays, depends on where you live. Set your country in Location and Compass will show what applies there.
What they can help with
- Keeping weight steady, and noticing early when it is not
- Getting more energy into smaller, easier meals
- Texture and thickness changes, worked out alongside a speech pathologist
- Supplement drinks, and whether they are worth it for you
- Planning around a feeding tube, before and after
- Fluid, constipation and the practical problems that follow reduced intake
When you might meet them
- When weight has started to drop, or clothes are looser
- When meals have become long, tiring or stressful
- When swallowing has changed at all
- Whenever a feeding tube is being discussed, ideally well before a decision is needed
- After a tube is placed, to work out what actually goes through it
Things you could ask about
- What weight should we be watching for, and how often should I weigh?
- What is the easiest change that would make the biggest difference?
- Are supplement drinks worth it for me, or is food better?
- If I had a tube, could I still eat for pleasure?
Not to be confused with
In most systems a dietitian is a protected title with clinical registration and a nutritionist is not. They are not interchangeable, and for a decision about tube feeding or weight loss in ALS/MND you want a dietitian.