Dementia Food Behaviors Guide – Refusing to Eat

Most days it is extremely difficult to persuade an individual with dementia to show any remote interest in food much less get them to take a bite of it. They are easily distracted, won’t touch the food item they loved yesterday and may find it difficult to use utensils to eat.

Does the following sound familiar?

• My patient/loved one refuses to sit down long enough to even think about eating.
• My patient/loved one refuses to eat because she believes she’s being poisoned.
• My patient/loved one likes literally two things and now he refuses to eat them.
• My patient/loved one refuses to eat because the pureed meal “all looks like baby food.”
• My patient/loved one refuses to eat because he doesn’t want anyone to help feed him. “I’m doing it myself or I’m not eating!”
• My patient/loved one refuses to eat during normal meal times. She wants to eat at the strangest hours.
• I’m running out of ideas…I feel like I have nothing left to work with.

If you found yourself nodding in agreement with the above statements, then this product is for you!

I understand the daily struggle of coming up with ideas to persuade your dementia patient to eat. Some days it feels like a revolving door that you can’t escape and can’t navigate. I personally worked with this population for a number of years and accumulated quite a few targeted approaches with an 85-95% success rate!

Let me help you take some of the guess work out of the navigation equation.

In this handout, you will find:

• A 2 page checklist of dementia food behaviors grouped into 6 categories such as The Wanderer, The Skeptic and 4 others
• 3 pages of nutrition approaches tailored for each of the 6 behavior categories
• A “Food for Thought” section with additional advice
• Lots of room to individualize an intervention to best meet your patient/loved one’s nutritional needs

This product is intended to:

• improve meal intake
• provide & encourage variety
• allow the patient the opportunity to feed themselves
• peak interest again in meals/eating
• reassure the patient/loved one that their food is safe
• help make pureed meals look appealing
• PERSUADE your patient/loved one TO EAT

 

Looking for further help to navigate your nutrition intervention?

Check out my free download List of Finger Foods for Dementia Patients for a list of simple and realistic finger food options!

Keep an eye on my store for other helpful products in regards to dementia coming soon!