My father has lost 40 lbs in under a month due to his sense of taste. He was hospitalized for two weeks for pneumonia and a bacterial respiratory infection and discharged to SNF. During his hospital stay, he said that everything tasted "awful" or "rancid". Now in the SNF for almost two weeks, that continues and in fact has gotten worse to where he's claiming that everything tastes "like kerosene", even water.
We've raised the concern with SNF that Dad can't rehab properly (the infections impaired his strength and mobility as he was bedridden for two weeks straight) if he continues to lose weight and strength. They seem to treat it as him just being stubborn.
Thanks to Dr. Google, as well as a phone consult with a geriatrician, we've learned that either the respiratory infection or the antibiotic treatment (or both?) might have caused his altered sense of taste. Now that we know the cause (maybe) we need to know how to restore his taste buds to full and accurate functionality. We can't find such info anywhere, and if this continues, Dad will deteriorate to where he'll slip away by Christmas (if not sooner). He's spunky and says he wants to fight to get better and come home, but his inability to eat or drink is "torture" and until that's resolved, he can't really make progress with rehab. Suggestions?
You might want to research the meds he's taking and see if others have an effect on taste.
Nothing helped to make foods or drinks taste better until I stopped the medication and even then it was a week or more before my sense of taste was fully restored.
One thing that can help with nasty tasting medications (where the medication cannot be in a pill form and tastes terrible) is to eat some raisins before and after taking the medication.
How well was he before the pneumonia?
Did the altered taste come along with an inability to smell? Was the pneumonia a Covid-penumonia? Is he still on PO (by mouth) antibiotics?
Some aging changes (Lewy's is notorious) comes with some alteration in smell and taste.
What do the doctors say about the long term prognosis for your Dad if he is able to receive proper nutrition? That is to say, is nutrition our only problem here, or one of many? If nutrition and taste ALONE are the big hurdle, it is well worth considering a temporary T-tube for nutritional support (not without problems such as chronic diarrhea, et al) to get past the next month or two, and continue with rehab.
I am so sorry for all you are going through.
Here's what I read about how to revive one's taste buds:
Rinse your mouth with fruit juice, wine, tea, ginger ale, club soda, or salted water before eating. This will help clear your taste buds. You can sometime get rid of the strange taste in your mouth by eating foods that leave their own taste in your mouth, such as fresh fruit or hard candy.
Try cold foods, which may be easier to taste than hot foods.
Drink plenty of fluids.
Brush your teeth before and after eating.
Lemon helps to restore back the sense of smell and taste. It fights the bacterial and viral infections thus makes the nasal passage clear. Mixing lemon juice and honey in a glass of water is an effective remedy to treat this problem. Besides this, you can also try consuming lemon pickle to treat your taste buds.
And finally, here is a medical paper on this very subject:
https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(16)30177-2/pdf
Wishing you the best of luck!