Comfort eating?

[Linbrusco]

Or not sure if Mum forgets shes eaten sometimes....

Mum with Alzheimers has put on a stone and a half above her normal weight in the last 18 months, and like most has developed a very sweet tooth.

She has gone up a size and a half in clothes, but still trying to wear all her old clothes.
When taking her clothes shopping, and trying to get her to buy a size bigger she says she isn't possibly that size. She has never been that size in her life.
If you tell her its the make, and they have made it smaller or any such fib, No she won't accept it so she will buy smaller clothes.
It doesn't work if I buy anything and cut the labels out

Every time we go out she has to have lunch, or a scone and coffee, or an icecream.
There is so much she can no long do to occupy her time apart from TV when she is at home, she eats.
Her shopping trolley at Christmas was rediculous. 3/4 full of biscuits, cakes, puddings, chocolates, icecream. Her blood sugar levels remain good though

I am glad she is eating, as at the time of her Alzheimers diagnosis she had bowel cancer surgery and wouldn't eat and lost a lot of weight.
It's gone from one extreme to the other.

What can I do here... If anything?

 

[Ann Mac]

I'm struggling with this issue too, Linbrusco. For a long time, I've noticed that when Mil is particularly agitated, she wants to eat all the time and I suspect that she also 'forgets' she has had a meal/food very quickly after eating. The sweet tooth that she currently has isn't helping either. She has gained 1 1/2 stones over a 3 month period, clothes are only just fitting her and the biggest worry - she has COPD and asthma, and the excess weight is definitely affecting her breathing, and I suspect will impact on her diabetes before too long.

Its really hard - Mil lives with us, and I prepare all her food, so I've taken to reducing carbs in her meals - more veg, less spuds - and going as low fat/sugar as I possibly can. I have to watch her like a hawk, as she is very crafty about helping herself sneakily to anything she can lay her hands on - daughters school lunch box is a favourite target - and she has no conception that it is wrong to help herself to other peoples snacks/food. I've spoken to day care, and they are now careful with her meals - and also aware that she will help herself to other peoples stuff. We've had several instances of her coming home with chococlates and sweets that she has snaffled stuffed into her handbag, so they are keeping a close eye too.

She lost 3lbs last month, so it is starting to work - but you have my sympathy, because it is incredibly hard to control her eating, particularly when it means me saying 'NO' when she asks for a second breakfast or lunch, because she gets very angry and upset and accuses me of 'starving her'

Good luck x

 

[jaymor]

My husband and I both put on weight when his short term memory became a problem. He constantly brought food with a drink forgetting we had just had a meal or a snack and of course we ate it because telling him we had just eaten was useless and worse still, made him angry because as far as he was concerned we had not.

It got so bad that I mentioned it to his CPN and her suggestion was to have a bag at the side of me and put the unwanted food in there. Well as he sat right next to me that was going to work fine wasn't it?

As we progressed it became worse because so much time was taken up with care that finding time to prepare 'proper' meals was impossible and quick convenient food became our diet, more weight for me but because my husband was a pacer his weight stayed the same.

It took me a while after he went into his nursing home to get back to eating healthily and two and a half years after I am seeing the results of being back on track.