Hello, my name is Mike and my 83 year old mother has dementia. She lives alone and unfortunately due to the nature of my work I live 300 miles away. She was diagnosed with dementia nearly 2 years ago and recently I’ve noticed a sharp decline in her short term memory. She does not leave the house except for hospital appointments and I do all her shopping online unless I’m visiting. My main worry is that she is not eating enough and that is helping in her decline. She has carers 3 times a day to check on her and give her medication but they obviously can’t force her to eat. I spoke to her when visiting a few months ago and we discussed and agreed upon having a camera in the kitchen so I could make sure she was ok when cooking. It transpires that she doesn’t really cook anything and only has toast a couple of times a day. Can anyone advise on how I can manage this situation any better? Thanks in advance!
Hi Mike, it sounds like there may be a few things going on there that I have experienced previously.
Firstly, your mum may in fact think she is cooking and eating when she is not (Confusion).
Secondly she may not even realize it herself, but may be beginning to struggle to chew and/or swallow some foods (Dysphagia).
Also she may be simply forgetting how to prepare foods, and/or eat them properly.
If you can visit her, I would try cooking up some of her favorite meals but make them pureed, soft or fork mashable, and see if she will eat them with a little assistance from you, or a carer. You may find she suddenly starts eating more. If so, you could batch cook different soft meals, spoon portions into food moulds, freeze and then store in labelled freezer bags, that way all the carers need to do is defrost and gently warm portions as needed, and your mum will still be getting her favorite homemade meals in an easier format.
If that's not an option you may have to get more outside help in the way of ready meals and further assistance for your mum.