How To Get People With Dementia To Take Pills
Dementia care demands incredible creativity. The ever-changing needs of the person who has dementia challenge family caregivers and professionals alike. One particular frustration is getting important medications to their loved ones who either can’t or won’t cooperate when it comes to taking pills.
As Alzheimer’s spreads throughout the brain, logic departs. The ability to understand one’s world disappears, understandably being replaced by fear and suspicion. These emotions are often blamed by caregivers when the person that they love refuses to take needed medications.
To complicate issues, loss of appetite is common. Disliking once-favored food is also common. Swallowing can be a problem, as well as sheer stubbornness about taking the pills. Therefore tricks become the norm in the quest to sneak pills into a loved one’s food, often with limited success. Sweet treats are often the chosen method since people with dementia seem to like sweets, but this method often fails when medication is added. Why?
Teepa Snow, an acclaimed dementia-care education specialist, reminds us that the sense of taste changes with the progress of the disease. Unfortunately, the ability to detect bitterness remains strong. This is one reason why it becomes more difficult to sneak medications into food. The other reason is that people with the disease can still detect texture.
Apple sauce and pudding are two foods that caregivers instinctively go to for as carriers for the needed medications. Apple sauce eventually becomes a failure because it tastes bitter to a person who no longer detects the sweet taste efficiently. Pudding, which is sweeter than apple sauce, also has its issues.
Pudding fails for many people because of the texture problem. It’s impossible to…
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