Nutrition

[Jubu71]

Hello, my mum in law has had Alzheimer’s now for 2 years. She has developed a very sweet tooth and now will not eat her main course…. She pushes the food around the plate and our wonderful carer has tried all sorts of tactics to encourage but she is only interested in sweet things. As soon as the carer is out of the room to do other tasks the food is hidden. The carer has had to hide her sweet treats as she would just devour everything. She is managing to find all the hiding places and now we’ve had to put them in a lockable cupboard.
I would welcome any suggestions or advice to encourage a better diet please. We have exhausted or the things she used to like to eat and tried many other things but do no avail. Many thanks 🙏

 

[nitram]

With dementia tastes usual go, the last being sweetness.
Hot/spicy is not a taste, you could try adding herbs or spices, eg ground pepper in mashed potatoes.

Ultimately calories becomes more important than varied diet.

 

[Alisongs]

Food is food. Indulge mum in law. It is better she eats something than nothing. We all start on breast milk or formula, which is naturally sweet, and mum in law is regressing and losing the ability to tolerate spicy, sour, bland, earthy etc.

 

[nitram]

As well as sweet things my wife liked spicy things to the extent that given mashed potatoes with ground pepper she would pouch the potato in one cheek and chew on the pepper on other side other side of her mouth.

 

[Sirena]

As others have said, it is very common but there is very little you can do about it. The best you can do is make the sweet stuff as 'healthy' as possible, so fruit-based where possible. My mother liked smoothies or puddings made with fruits like berries, mango, banana.

 

[nitram]

Weetabix (or own brand) mushed with fruit and cream.

 

[TessB]

You could sprinkle a layer of sugar over the healthy food. I found that often helped mum to eat it. Or make a sweet sauce and mix that in. One day I was delighted that mum ate some roast chicken soup. The next day she would only eat it with sugar.