When Does Hospice Care Stop Feeding a Patient?
Updated November 2025
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Fewer things are harder than watching a loved one in hospice with a life-limiting illness slip away. It becomes even more challenging when families notice that their loved one has stopped eating and drinking.
Because many family traditions revolve around food and drink as a way of showing love and care, they wonder if they are being neglectful, even hurtful by not ensuring their loved one has food and drink. They may feel like they are giving up on them.
Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s simply part of the dying process. A person’s need for food and water are significantly less than those of an active, healthy person.
Hospice care does not deny a patient food or drink. If someone has the desire to eat or drink, there are no restrictions on doing so. However, for most patients, there comes a point where they simply do not want nor need food or liquids.
Physical Changes at the End of Life in Hospice Care
As someone nears the end of life, their body loses its ability to digest and process food and liquids. Organs and bodily functions begin to shut down and minimal amounts of nutrition or hydration are needed, if at all.
Continuing to insist that your loved one receives food and water, including artificial nutrition or hydration through nasal or stomach feeding tubes, can cause distress. Forcing food and liquids can cause additional physical problems and discomfort. So often, the decision to stop feeding your loved one would be made.
As the body loses the ability to regulate fluid, swelling can occur in the feet, legs, and hands. Worse yet, it can cause swelling in the lungs causing shortness of breath, coughing, and the inability to get enough oxygen into the blood. This is known as hypoxia. Hypoxia can cause confusion, agitation, and even combativeness.
Challenges Presented by Feeding at the End of Life
Feeding can cause its own set of issues for loved ones at the end of a life. Forcing food can cause choking or aspiration. Aspiration is when food or liquids enters the lungs and it can be very painful. It can cause the same symptoms as liquids such as shortness of breath and coughing. Additionally, it can cause:
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Abdominal bleeding
- Excessive gas
- Constipation
- Diarrhea
All these can be especially painful to someone who is dying. These symptoms are uncomfortable at best for someone who is healthy, but, for someone at the end of life, it is much worse.
While we think of food and drink as a way to provide comfort and express our love, at the end of life this may no longer be the case. So, what can we do to show our love and make our loved ones more comfortable at this time?
How You Can Help Your Loved One in Hospice Care
Providing support is the best thing you can do for your loved one at the end of life.
- If they are still able to eat or drink, offer small sips of water or liquids, ice chips, small amounts of food with a spoon, or hard candy. Take your cues from your loved one when they have had enough.
- If they are no longer drinking, keep the lips and mouth moist with swabs, lip balm, or a wet washcloth. Often, your hospice care team will provide a special sponge-tipped swab to provide your loved one with moisture for the mouth.
- If your loved one can no longer eat or no longer wants food, provide other means of comfort such as:
Talk to Your Hospice Care Team
When you are feeling nervous and anxious about your loved one’s disinterest in food and liquids, talk to your hospice care team. They can help you understand the process of dying and the changes going on in your loved one’s body. They can provide other suggestions to make your loved one feel comfortable to show your love and care.
Contact us for more information about our hospice care and learn why you should trust us in your loved one’s transition.
Taking the Mystery out of Hospice Care
No one should take the end-of-life journey alone, but quality end-of-life care remains a mystery to many people. Here are a few factors:
Myth – Most people think that hospice is a place.
More than 90 percent of the patients at Lower Cape Fear LifeCare (formerly Lower Cape Fear Hospice) are served where they live: private residences, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities, and hospitals.
Myth – It is only for the elderly.
Hospice care is appropriate for anyone at any age that is facing a life-limiting illness. It is appropriate for patients with a life expectancy of six months or less when curative treatment is no longer available or desired.
Fact – Hospice provides hope.
Generally, patients and families experience greater quality of life with hospice care and find there is much to be shared at the end of life through personal and spiritual connections. Studies have also shown that patients who chose hospice care lived an average of one month longer than similar patients who did not choose hospice care.
Fact – It is not just for those dying.
The family-centered approach to hospice care supports the entire family during care and after death. We provide grief support for families for up to 13 months after the loss of a loved one. Thanks to donors and grants, no cost grief groups, workshops and camps are offered to all in our community coping with grief.
Fact – Hospice care is expensive.
The majority of people using hospice care are age 65 or older and are entitled to the Medicare Hospice Benefit. We are a nonprofit hospice. Thanks to the generous support of donors, there is available support for charges not covered by insurance.
Myth – All hospices are the same.
Although the scope of care is generally prescribed, all providers do not adhere to the same level of quality. Nor do they provide the same services. You have a choice in your hospice provider. It is important to be informed about your choices for care.
Be Informed. Know your options for care. Let us be a resource for you.
Hospice and Palliative Care can help you keep your loved one at home during the holidays
As the song goes: “There’s no place like home for the holidays.” Surrounded by family and friends, celebrating the season, sharing meals and memories – home is where the heart is.
Many times, people put off making the decision about getting hospice care until after the holidays, when instead they should do just the opposite.
Hospice care can help your loved one stay at home in the center of family activities while managing their pain and symptoms for improved quality of life. Additionally, early admission to hospice care is the key to realizing more of the benefits that this type of care provides the patient and family.
Care that helps keep your loved one at home
Hospice care is provided wherever someone calls home. The goal of hospice care is to manage pain and symptoms to improve quality of life. It does not hasten death, and studies show it can even prolong life when patients are admitted early in the disease process.
Having a care team to call on any time, day or night, can help prevent you from making stressful trips to the Emergency Room and keep your loved one comfortably at home.
Care that relieves stress
The holidays are stressful enough. Hospice care can help alleviate certain stressors by making sure your loved one is clean and comfortable.
A Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) helps with hygiene tasks like bathing to help keep your loved one feeling clean. Volunteers can provide companionship and respite, which can help reduce stress while you are busy with holiday preparations.
Care that comforts
Having an interdisciplinary care team (physician, nurse, CNA, social worker, chaplain, and volunteer) provides not only care for your loved one but is also a support system for the whole family.
They can help you deal with emotional stress, while they provide clear information about your loved one’s care and prognosis.
Chaplains can provide spiritual care at home, which patients who are home-bound will find comforting at this time of year.
Care that is covered
Hospice care, including hospice-related medications and supplies, is covered by Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance plans.
If you do not have a reimbursement source, don’t worry. Lower Cape Fear LifeCare never refuses care based on ability to pay.
Care that is continual
If your loved one’s pain and symptoms cannot be managed at home, Lower Cape Fear LifeCare (formerly Lower Cape Fear Hospice) is the only regional hospice provider that operates inpatient hospice care centers, making transitioning to acute care quick and easy.
These home-like facilities offer large rooms to accommodate family, and a shared kitchen where food can always be found. These rooms are your home-away-from-home, and personal touches are not only permissible but encouraged.
Care that is trusted
Lower Cape Fear LifeCare is the area’s oldest and most experienced hospice provider, caring for more than 850 patients and their families every day.
Many clinical team members have earned specialized certification in hospice and palliative care. We are dedicated to providing the highest level of quality care and support and it shows.
Feel free to see how we stack up against other hospices in our region, as rated by caregivers, at Medicare’s Hospice Compare website. (due to our name change, please look for us as Lower Cape Fear LifeCare)
You don’t have to do this alone. Let us provide the care and support your family needs. Be supported this holiday season.
You have questions, we have answers. Call us at 1-800-733-1476 to find out more.
Since 1980, Lower Cape Fear LifeCare (formerly Lower Cape Fear Hospice) has served patients and their families throughout southeastern North Carolina, serving patients where they live – in their homes, hospitals, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities. For more information on how to start the conversation about hospice, please call 1-800-733-1476.
Key Takeaways
- It’s natural for hospice patients to stop eating and drinking near the end of life; it’s part of the body’s natural process, not neglect.
- Forcing food or fluids at this stage can cause discomfort, swelling, and even respiratory distress.
- Families can show love by providing comfort—moistening the mouth, offering ice chips, or simply being present.
- Hospice care never denies food or drink; it simply follows the patient’s cues and comfort level.
- Talking with your hospice care team can help families understand the dying process and ease anxiety.
- Hospice care focuses on comfort, dignity, and quality of life rather than curative treatments.
- Most hospice patients receive care in their homes, assisted living communities, or nursing facilities—not just at hospice centers.
- Hospice care is appropriate for anyone with a life-limiting illness, not only the elderly.
- Studies show hospice patients often live longer and experience better quality of life.
- Families receive emotional, spiritual, and grief support—often at no cost—before and after their loved one’s passing.
- Hospice care is covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and most private insurance plans.
- Lower Cape Fear LifeCare provides hospice care wherever patients call home—including inpatient centers for advanced care needs.
- Early hospice admission allows more time for patients and families to benefit from comprehensive support.
- During the holidays, hospice care helps families stay together at home while managing pain and symptoms.
- Certified nursing assistants, volunteers, and chaplains offer compassionate support for both patients and families.
- Lower Cape Fear LifeCare is the region’s most trusted, nonprofit hospice provider, serving more than 850 families daily.
- You don’t have to face the end-of-life journey alone—trusted hospice professionals can help your loved one live fully and comfortably.
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Sources:
American Hospice Foundation, “Artificial Nutrition and Hydration at the End of Life: Beneficial or Harmful?” https://americanhospice.org/caregiving/artificial-nutrition-and-hydration-at-the-end-of-life-beneficial-or-harmful/
Hospice Foundation, “When Death Is Near: Signs and Symptoms,” https://hospicefoundation.org/when-death-is-near-signs-and-symptoms/
Karnes, Barbara, RN, “Food and the Dying Process,” https://bkbooks.com/blogs/something-to-think-about/food-and-the-dying-process
Connor SR, Pyenson B, Fitch K, Spence C, Iwasaki K. Comparing hospice and nonhospice patient survival among patients who die within a three-year window. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2007 Mar;33(3):238-46. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17349493/
Medicare, “Medicare Hospice Benefit,” https://www.medicare.gov/pubs/pdf/02154-medicare-hospice-benefits.pdf
