I’m new and caring for my mum
- Thread starter morag1067
- Start date
Welcome @morag1067
I wouldn`t try too hard to persuade your mum. Perhaps you could leave finger food to hand to see if she is tempted.
Appetites do fade as dementia takes hold. The taste buds seem to change and many people with dementia are tempted by sweet food.
The most important thing is you mother drinks enough to stay hydrated.
Keep posting. Lots of carers worry about loss of appetite and will be ready and willing to offer advice.
I wouldn`t try too hard to persuade your mum. Perhaps you could leave finger food to hand to see if she is tempted.
Appetites do fade as dementia takes hold. The taste buds seem to change and many people with dementia are tempted by sweet food.
The most important thing is you mother drinks enough to stay hydrated.
Keep posting. Lots of carers worry about loss of appetite and will be ready and willing to offer advice.
Mum's taste buds changed from eating meat and 2 veg diet to anything that was sweet. I found she would eat better if it was smaller portions and food that she could pick up with her fingers - she could use cutlery, just preferred not to. She could demolish small trifles, custard (she was never a lover of custard before dementia) and enjoyed finger food - so small sandwiches (crusts off), fruit cut up into pieces, small cakes. She also would eat better if someone else was eating alongside her. The battle did get harder as her dementia progressed and I found it difficult initially because she wasn't getting a balanced diet, but then I think it was the admiral nurse who asked the question did it really matter what she was eating as long as she was eating something.
Has your Mum been assessed by the SALT team (although I must admit they weren't overly helpful with mum)
Has your Mum been assessed by the SALT team (although I must admit they weren't overly helpful with mum)
It does seem that this to be a standard thing.
Mum was a small 8st most of her life, in the last 18 months she went from eating normally to existing on cup a soup, cakes, biscuits, trifles & those little pots of fruit you put in kids lunch boxes.
I’d do her meals - mostly pasta type dishes, fish pie, softer type meals, in small child like portions. A big meal & she wouldn’t touch it. The carer would serve them up for her, few mouthfuls would be all she’d eat. She craved sweeter foods that she’d hated previously.
My brother went mental at her, shouting she was not to eat so much sweet stuff - he threw a lot of it in the bin. So she stopped eating it when I restocked it - as ‘that man’ that came said it was bad for me 🤦♀️ And she ate virtually nothing for the last six months.
My view was - she was 86 & if she wanted to eat a box of cakes & 2 trifles lunch time - let her.
When she passed she was 4.5 stone.
Who are the salt team?l do not think it would help as she says l am the one who is ill and not her
She got up today and before l said anything she started to swear at me and said she was not taking her tablets(arthritis)or eating anything.
I left her to it and she has now took her tabs and had some toast
What is going on?ldon’t get it!
Speech And Language Therapist SALT
It isn’t just speech but also swallowing they advise on.
If you think about it there is a lot of work for the brain to govern. Chew food thoroughly, push food to the back of the throat, swallow it down whilst not breathing in at that exact moment
In the later stages of dementia or after strokes this proves difficult. Food and drink going down the wrong way can cause an aspiration pneumonia
It isn’t just speech but also swallowing they advise on.
If you think about it there is a lot of work for the brain to govern. Chew food thoroughly, push food to the back of the throat, swallow it down whilst not breathing in at that exact moment
In the later stages of dementia or after strokes this proves difficult. Food and drink going down the wrong way can cause an aspiration pneumonia
She can swallow and eat anything but is just being difficult
She used to be so outgoing,bubbly,centre of attention and always wore matching clothes and make-up. Now she doesn’t care what she wears.She wants to go to bed all the time which is not like her.Her personality has changed-will l get her back?
I very much doubt you will. There are so many things similar with this decease and also so many differences for each sufferer.
She may be able to get some meds to improve her mood but sadly nothing to reverse the illness.
It’s so very hard to bite you tongue sometimes even when you realise it’s not the ‘old them’ it’s the illness that is making them act & speak so out of character. I used to get really upset until I actually accepted that sometimes I had to walk away for a bit, I couldn’t ‘fix’ her - when I came back 30 minutes later she didn’t even remember I’d been there. 🙈
