Alzheimer's Disease Support Group

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and characterized by progressive cognitive deterioration with declining activities of daily living and neuropsychiatric symptoms or behavioral changes. An early symptom is memory loss (amnesia), usually manifesting as minor forgetfulness that becomes pronounced with illness progression, with relative...

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Deborah48 12/30/2010

I am not sure exactly when it happened but Rollie is now down to 180 pounds. 5 years ago he was a nice, round 230 pounds. In 16 years I have never known him to be under 195. Before Thanksgiving he weighed 189, I know that for sure, so he has lost 9 pounds in just under 2 months. I am pretty sure he was still 230 at least 2 years ago. He still eats but not very much, very rarely eats everything on his plate. He does seem to want to nibble frequently throuoh out the day though so if he asks for food I give it to but I am not forcing him. I am going to point this out next week at the dr, I'm sure they'll notice though.

Deborah48 01/02/2011

Thank you all for your comments here, they are really going to help me in my decision. I would like to know how they know that they don't feel hunger, because if that is really true then that will make things easier for me. Rollie has an Advance Directive and a DNR on file. I am just going with the flow right now. I serve meals when the rest of us eat and he has to feed himself, I don't spoon feed him. I do cut it for him because of the danger of choking. That seems like the reasonable thing to do.

Jamr41 01/03/2011

I cut Ron's meat for a long time. Then he got so he could not seem to swallow meat. He would chew and chew and finally spit it out.

So I only offered him ground meat after that.

Our Dr. told us, too, that something does not register... they don't feel (recognize) hunger OR don't realize when they have had enough and will continue eating copious amounts of food.

I just let Ron decide if he wanted food. We have talked before how they seem to only want sweet things.

deleted_user 01/03/2011

I have had to start cutting Robs meat too lately. Just too hard for him. His balance is really getting shaky which is scary. I almost wonder if I should get a handicap sticker for the car so we can park closer especially in this snow! (Ohio)

Pam65 01/04/2011

Mother eats like a pig and stays the same. She's teeny, tiny and last year weighed 100 lbs.......this year, 110, which is good since she needed the extra weight anyway. I'm so confused about her I don't know what to think anymore.

deleted_user 01/06/2011

I was going to suggest the slimfast if you are looking for a liquid supplement. It has lots of vitimins and lots of fiber to combat the medications.

What's funny is my kids love ensure. I started getting them for my son when he was a young teen because he eats almost nothing. It helped his mood alot so it was worth the cost.

I think you are all right about not pushing food. There is alot that we don't know about illness. So why should we assume we know what is best?

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