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Dementia and nutrition

Caregivers: Dementia | Last Active: Dec 21, 2019 | Replies (12)

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@tipsytoad

Thank you for those suggestions. She does have several others involved (doctors, home care workers, etc.) but so far nobody has been able to convince her to eat. The only way we can get her to eat at all (and we hate to do it) is to tell her she’ll have to go into a nursing home if she won’t follow doctors’ orders to eat, take her meds (that’s another battle), etc. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to matter if we eat with her or not. She’s also refusing to bathe or shower because she has a little bit of purple dye in her hair and she’s afraid it will wash out, and then “all the men won’t be after me anymore”. We’ve offered to re-dye it for her but she’s not taking any chances. We’ve been lucky to find work arounds so far for a lot of the problems she’s facing, but these ones are definitely throwing us for a loop. We’re happy that she is eating something, but even with the high-calorie items she chooses she’s barely eating more than a few bites so she’s definitely not getting enough to maintain her weight, let alone put some back on, We’ll keep trying, though. What a challenge!

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Replies to "Thank you for those suggestions. She does have several others involved (doctors, home care workers, etc.)..."

For some reason this topic popped into my digest even though I'm not normally on this group. Brings back memories as we have dealt with this issue on our family several times with dementia and stroke-induced memory issues.
First order of business should be a swallowing (and chewing) study, probably by an occupational therapist - we learned there is often an issue with one or both that make a person fearful of choking. The same issues could be causing the med resistance. They will also evaluate her meds to see if one or more are suppressing her appetite or causing her taste buds to change, though the dementia itself can cause that too I believe.
As for the showering issue, also a common one, have you offered her an old-fashioned shower cap to protect her hair.
Your mother is very lucky to have a caring family supporting her. Good luck, the journey you are on is a tough one. I am thankful you have siblings with you - take care of yourselves.