Eating with Alzheimer's

[lis66]

Hi could anyone give me some advice please,my mum has had ad for six years when she is eating now ,she holds large amounts of food in one side of her mouth and just keeps putting more in,I try to tell her to slow down and finish what she has eaten ,but she gets cross I'm scared of her choking ,she also gulps her tea down whilst eating ,I think it helps her to get her food down easier .

 

[karaokePete]

Difficulties with the swallow can develop with dementia, as can the loss of knowledge of what to do with the food. I would suspect that these issues are arising with your mum and may I suggest that you should ask the GP for a referral to the SALT (Speech and Language Therapy) team. Despite the name the team spends much of their time with these eating difficulties.

Good luck to both of you with that.

 

[karaokePete]

BTW, there is a Society Factsheet about this issue.

In the hope that you can get some tips from the Factsheet, here's a link to it. To read and/or print the document just click the PDF line

Eating and drinking (511)
PDF printable version

 

[Tin]

Does sound like she is beginning to have problems swallowing, definitely talk to her gp and get SALT team to visit. In the meantime it might be a good idea to change the consistency of her food avoid chewy things, try and mash as much as you can, as much as she will allow you to anyway. smaller glasses and cups and only half full each time might help too.

 

[lis66]

Thanks Pete will contact gp and also view factsheet

 

[lis66]

Thanks for your reply tin will definitely look at changing the consistency of her food and drink