She is diabetic with high blood pressure. She has extremely difficult having regular bowel movements. She has to take large amounts of laxatives to have a bowel movement often. She is constantly hungry, her weight is out of control. I need desperately to know what I can do to help her with her hunger feelings. She can eat a big meal and then doze in the chair wake up and say she is hungry.
Does she live alone or with someone? Who is her medical PoA? Is someone currently checking her levels and dispensing her meds? More information would be very helpful for forum participants to give you better suggestions.
If she wakes up an hour after eating dinner and wants more tell her no and that she ate an hour ago.
If breakfast is toast, cereal, juice and she has a snack of yogurt and fruit later before lunch break it so she has toast. then an hour later cereal, an hour later a piece of fruit then yogurt.
Lunch the same thing if she has a sandwich and soup give her a sandwich then an hour later soup.
Rather than laxatives would she eat foods that would act the same?
Fruits like prunes, prune juice. A blend of papaya and pineapple sometimes works.
Often it is not "hunger" it is boredom It also might be that she has forgotten that she ate.
Increase the fiber in the foods she does eat. They will help with the bowel movements but will make her feel fuller longer. (But she may still say she is hungry because eating is something to do and again she may have forgotten she ate)
when she says she is hungry give her a task to do that will take her m imnd off it for a bit, just say you will fix something but .."these towel need to be folded first" or "these socks need to be paired" or "I need to cut these coupons out of the paper" (or the recipes out of this magazine)
some medicines can also increase appetite more than normal.
by the way, we also added a basket with fruits.
in our case also, the extreme hunger (lasted some weeks) eventually went away.
some people have to lock the kitchen/cupboards because the situation is so extreme: LO seeking food.
boredom can make all of us hungry too. we need happy things, to be kept busy with nice activities, and to look forward to things.
hug!!
also, dementia makes you crave for sugar, which makes you crave even more.
try to reduce sugar.
(i myself am not good at that. and i’m an athlete!).
i think basically, we all need to be kept busy with exciting activities. this can help also to stop thinking about food.
food is also a way to try to stop unhappy feelings.
hug!
With dementia, she may forget she ate - or maybe her brain is affecting the part of her brain telling her she ate recently. If that seems to be the case - giving her more frequent but smaller meals/snacks may work better.
Best of luck.
Water will help. Everybody needs about 2 liters of water/fluids per day - even folks taking diuretics for blood pressure or heart issues.
If you can get her out into the sunshine for some short strolls or to dance to her favorite music, that will literally help things to move along.
Some folks as they age need a little extra help to get things going. My husband prefers sugar free fiber gummies. I prefer psyllium capsules. I have also found that getting a little more magnesium (prunes or milk of magnesia) also help with muscles of digestion. A doctor can be consulted for other medications to help stimulate bowel movements (Linzess and others).
Food labels are a great big help. You can find two products and they both say low sodium (soups for example) or low sugar but still have to dig deep to see which has the lesser amount.
This morning dad is constantly asking for water and coffee. I'm drawing a line with the coffee but have been letting him have the water this morning back to back (smaller size cup) but that'll have to change later in the day.
Also a couple of prunes a day or a cup of decaf coffee gets things moving for mr. Or any herbal tea with senna, a natural laxative.
This happens in people who do not suffer from dementia as well. It is almost as though there is a primeval response to waking from a sleep that says OK - first thing to do to survive is eat.
Very often the solution is either to distract the attention whilst the person wakes up fully - or to give a drink and say "dinner" or whatever "won't be long.
Perhaps the use of low calorie cup-a-soups would provide a solution. But wanting to eat as soon as we wake up can happen with any of us, it seems to just need the waking up process to complete to "disperse" the need.
Do you have a blood glucose monitor? She sounds hypoglycemic. She should be eating more protein and healthy fats and no processed food. Nothing prepackaged. Just whole, real food. No grains, no pasta, bread, or sweets.
Magnesium Glycinate really helps keep bowels moving.
Before you start her on any kind of caloric reduction, talk to her doctor about caloric goal ranges.
Crash dieting (even intermittent fasting) can be very dangerous. If it is determined by her doctor that she should eat less, wean her slowly so it is not a shock to her system. Make sure she is getting plenty of nutrition and make sure she us still enjoying her food.
Find plenty of distractions and other entertainment. Help her get some exercise.
It may be worth asking her doctor for a digital blood sugar monitor, one where you wear a patch like device and can see the blood sugar level without a needle poke. It may help you decide what food to offer and still keep the blood sugar in a normal range.
Give her something to drink, hot tea, coffee, soda, water...
let her help with cooking if she's able.
My Mom is always "hungry" she has no sense of time and if she leaves the table, she thinks it is time to eat.