Eating all the time

Macs_help
  • By Macs_help · October 21, 2012 at 12:12 pm · 13 replies
  • In Everyday challenges / daily living
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My father has vascular dementia.
He is mostly pretty easy going, but he does not remember for more than a few moments what he had been doing.
He lives in his own home with my adult son and my son's girlfriend. She has a part time job, my son's only job is to be on duty all the time. Well, no one can do that, and my sister and I help out as much as we can in between full time jobs.

I will come over and take him out for coffee and a donut and on the way home he will suggest that we "...go somewhere for a cup of coffee"

My father eats anything and everything that he can get his hands on.
He will get up in the middle of the night and eat.
He does not understand about cooking any more, so all the raw meat is in the garage freezer.
We tried putting 'single serving sizes' of all sorts of things in the fridge. There was plenty to eat, and it included a variety of foods. That idea worked OK for about a year.
It reached a point where we had to put a lock on the fridge. He would drink the better part of a gallon of milk in one day, eat all the snacks that had been prepared and keep going back for more.
The most recent example: He had eaten a large breakfast and when my son took his girlfriend to work (less than an hour later) he ate all the crackers in the cupboard. There were 3 boxes, not all full, but it was still a lot of crackers.

He does not understand what is food and what is not. He tried to drink the bottle of bubbles we had for a relative's child's birthday. That surprised me, and I alerted the family to watch out for similar things.
At a recent family get together my sister served nutritious appetizers and my father kept eating, and eating, and eating... even when we told him, "Dinner will be ready in 10 minutes, and T_____ has prepared some really good food" he kept eating and eating... Then he ate a lot for dinner on top of all the appetizers.

He wants to stop at all the stands at the farmer's market or in Costco to get the free samples. We can laugh at that, and simply insist that he wait his turn and use the tongs.

But the situation is getting worse at home. He recently pried the lock off the fridge to get to the food.

He has 3 meals a day plus snacks in between, and this schedule has been posted on the fridge. When someone is there he can be reminded that he just ate, and can have a snack soon, then be redirected. But in those few minutes when no one is there (or asleep or showering...) he heads right for the kitchen. His weight is good, he does not need to gain any weight, we are fighting to keep him from gaining weight.
We are watering down the juice so that if he drinks it all (and he has done that) he is really getting perhaps a cup or two of juice and a lot of water.

Any ideas?

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13 replies   

Kayco9

My husband has Alzheimer's. Doesn't it amaze you that a loved one can just get through eating a large meal and 5 minutes later say, "I'm hungry, when are we going to eat."? I have been going through a simular experence.
I have to hide food also or it is gone. I put grapes in small sandwich bags and indivdual puddings in the produce bins and I have to hide the bananas in the lower cupboard. So far this has worked. My husband is diabetic and gradually, with small changes, it is helping. (My husband does not think to look down low for things if out of sight.)
"PURPOSE", "PURPOSE", "PURPOSE"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My husband does not have any safe hobbies but he loves to roll coins and take the labels off vitimin bottles which can take up alot of time. We also were given a seven year old house cat a few months ago and I can tell you first hand that "Pet Therapy" is wonderful!!!!!!!!!!! My husband talks to the cat as if she were human and the cat loves to be on his lap which makes both my husband and the cat very happy and it helps to take his mind off of "FOOD".
Reading about others experiences and how they have been able to solve their loved ones problems has helped so much. Sometimes it works and some times it doesn't. Learning to have a since of humor and remembering that it is not your loved ones fault that they have a disease helps also. I have made many mistakes but have also done many things right.
I have an expression I use when I get frustrated -PUFF!
P- Patience
U- Understanding
F- Faith
F-Forgiveness
Good luck with your Dad and all that you are going through!!!!!

kaysp

My husband can eat all day,and I know if I slip out for a few minutes or so he will go and eat,the waste is enormous because if distracted he forgets and the food is ruined.His weight never changes and after eating will sleep

Macs_help

Thank you your responses.
There is a cat in the house, and my father does seem to like her (He was never much of a pet lover), so there is that help. But he will push the cat off his lap to head for the kitchen.

I will suggest that my son and his girlfriend hide stuff behind other things, especially in inaccessible places like the backs of the low cupboards.

We had to start locking the fridge because having ready to eat snacks (and lots of them) was no longer working.

Long ago he started not paying attention to conserving the food, like re-wrapping something and putting it back in the fridge. That is where part of the idea came from about individual servings separately packaged.

Kayco9

Yes, I have to hide any frozen desserts behind the veggies or other frozen food that my husband would not be interested in.
It must be soooooo hard for them losing "PURPOSE". I think alot of the over eating is out of bordom and of course not remembering that they had just eaten a short time ago. Wishing you well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kaysp

We have cats dogs and birds these do not interfear with his so called hunger.I still cant see how the amount of food can be consumed in the day,without knowing you have eaten not so long ago.

mchasa

I have the same problem, my husband will eat a big meal & 5 min later does not remember and want to eat again. He is gaining weight, the only thing I can think of doing is have plenty of salad as he will eat that if I catch him in time.

Macs_help

Well, we got a separate small fridge and put a big note on it for him. It will hold a wide range of single serving size snacks of all sorts in easy to open containers.
He seems quite thrilled with it, saying over and over that his grandchildren bought it for him for Christmas.

daughter12

that is a hard issue! with my dad i had to put all food in huge tupperware containers. i am sorry the fridge lock did not work, that is a huge prob. my dad would eat raw foods so i immediately had to only use the basement fridge and tupperware. hard candies are good they last long (if he doesn't chew them) make sure also you hide all meds especially coughdrops.... i did alot of milkshakes.. but my dad is skinny so i didn't have any health concerns with weight or anything else. good luck this is a hard and serious issue especially with children around. my dad would eat until he threw up... i know it is hard.

Macs_help

Thank you for your ideas.
I will remind my son about keeping meds out of reach, especially tasty ones like cough drops. They already have to keep the pill sorter out of site. He forgets he took the meds, and takes the next dose before he should.

I am afraid hard candies or any other long lasting foods are not a good option. He has coordination problems and is at high risk for aspirating things that are at all difficult to chew and swallow. He has a very poor cough, not strong enough to dislodge things that start going down wrong.

FINEFAMILY

Boy can I identify to that eating every few minuets if I let my mother-in-law dorothy have it her way. Her plate will still be on the table and when I come to get it she'll say, "i'm hugry". i tell her no you're not hungry, you are bored. i

mchasa

my husband is eating all the time, I try to watch him, but it doesn't work. I am going to by fresh veggies & keep in the ref ready to eat and I am going to buy food for meals 1 or 2 days at a time, it will be lots more running to the store but maybe it will stop all the eating. I'll let you know if it works. My husband is really putting on weight.

Macs_help

We went through several stages of 'eating all the time', so I hope the easier solutions will work for you.

While my father could still handle some food prep it was not so bad, though he never was strong on clean up. Even when he mostly was doing OK by himself one of the family had to scour the kitchen sink, and re-wash the dishes every few days. My sister (much the better cook) always cooked extra at her house and packaged it for him in single meal servings, so he could microwave his own dinner. This worked really well for quite a while. He was not eating very much at any one meal, but could always fix himself a little snack.

When he needed more full time care, my son and his girlfriend moved in, and my father was not capable in the kitchen any more, but did not just go raid the fridge. He just was not great at meal prep any more. He still went by the clock to eat. "It is 12:00, I want lunch". Then the snacking started. Not quite 'eating all the time', but we set up single serving sizes of all sorts of good foods that needed no prep, just open the container. Fruit cups, mini-salads, half sandwiches...It did not last long. He got to the point of eating all the prepared snacks, several days worth at a time. He lost any sense about cooking or meal prep. If he looked at the clock to see if it was lunch time, he ate whatever was prepared for lunch, even if he had just finished snacking. Right after lunch he went right back to snacking.

The 'eating all the time' had started, including raiding the fridge at night. Eating the whole box of crackers. Eating all the yogurt and puddings that were bought to help him swallow his pills.

The part that made my son lock the fridge was catching his grandfather about to eat frozen, raw chicken.

My son locked the fridge, while still making sure his grandfather had plenty to eat. Monitored things a lot more closely. Broke up the days' worth of food into meals and snacks so his grandfather could have something to eat about every 2 hours. Plenty of variety, reasonable serving sizes.

That also did not last long. He figured out how to break into the fridge.

The separate little fridge is working well, now. The big fridge is kept locked.

After church last Sunday (yesterday) was a pancake breakfast/fund raiser. All you could eat for $5.00.
At previous events my father did not want to pay $5. This time I did not say anything, just paid.
They brought him a very generous plate of pancakes, eggs, sausage, orange juice, coffee... And he ate it all.
They offered him seconds. He accepted. Almost as much as the first plate! And this was the guy who got full when he ate about half what I would have thought of as a meal. Not any more! If it is available, he will eat and eat and eat...

About half an hour later we went to the local farmers' market. He wanted all the free samples and wanted to know when lunch was.

Kayco9

I have found that when my husband has purpose... no matter how small the task...he does sooooooooo much better with not eating. He forgets about food because he is concentrating on what he is doing. He loves to roll coins and take the paper off of vitimin and other bottles. We have a cat and as long as the cat will sit on his lap...he will pet and talk to the cat and forget about eating for a much longer time..."PURPOSE". Finding something for them to do no matter how small the task can help make a difference.

Not giving so much at meal time and trying to give your loved one something every two hours to eat helps. My husband is diabetic and so I am trying very hard to help him keep his blood sugars as normal as possible. A snack around 2pm. Will start the supper meal around 4 pm with a salad or cottage cheese and mandarine oranges and than as long as I "sound" like I'm fixing the rest of the meal, my husband is O.K. with waiting. I take as long as possible to prepare the main meal and by 4:45 or 5:00pm supper is ready.

I know that what works for one person with this "Dreaded Disease" does not necessarily work for another.
Have gotten many good ideas about different concerns on this site and other Alzheimer sites and sooooooooo appreciate every suggestion!

Good luck with your Dad. Will pray that you will find a solution that works for your Dad!!!!!!!!!

Will pra

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