Eating and drinking: how to know you are getting enough?

LaffeeTaffee

I wasn't sure where I would be able to ask these questions, as it is my mom who has stage 4 breast cancer, not me. She was diagnosed two weeks ago, and having no experience with any cancer at all, I am learning everything as I go.

She has just started chemotherapy, and the doctors and family members are emphasizing how important it is that she drinks lots of water and eats lots of healthy food. That is easier said than done, however. My mom is already a very thin woman and has been all her life. Everyone knows her as the woman who "eats like a bird." She simply doesn't eat enough to get full.

What is the best way to help a person who is in chemotherapy eat and drink when they don't feel like eating and drinking? What should they eat, and how can you present it to them so they will want to eat? If they have no preferred foods (which my mom doesn't), what's the best way to make food look irresistable?