Teaching Now Living:Part 4 - Eating - Tastes that Remain

Teaching Now Living

Ellie and her personal care assistant go to a local coffee shop twice a week for breakfast and coffee. Her assistant noticed she was always ordering a breakfast sandwich with bacon then taking the bacon off and saving it. Her daughters noticed miscellaneous containers in the fridge with bacon while doing their weekly cleaning. When they asked about the bacon Ellie ordered her daughters to leave it be.

The next time her daughter brought over a salad for her mother’s dinner, her Mom asked her to crumble two pieces of bacon in the salad. One of Ellie’s grandsons even noticed she was crumbling bacon in her fettucine alfredo another night.

Tip: As the disease progresses, individuals will eat less and less. The tastes of sweet and salty remain and can be utilized to enhance the flavor of food to increase consumption. Pouring maple or chocolate syrup over potatoes, vegetables, and ground meat can make them more appetizing for an individual with advanced dementia.