eating dog treats & getting multiple drinks

Ginsamae

A few months back, during 2020, DH installed cameras around the property and in our kitchen. Yesterday evening when reviewing the kitchen camera footage during a period of time she was alone in the house he noticed MIL getting the dog's treats out of the pantry and eating a couple of them. He asked her about it and she said she thought they were peanuts (they look more like white chocolate chips). He told her what they were and he moved the pet food to a different area of the pantry hoping it will help prevent this from happening again. I'm not so sure though, I've noticed that her frequency of eating has increased lately - not sure of this is normal or not.  During the same snacking episode as the dog treats she also fixed herself a piece of bread with peanut butter and a piece of bread with regular butter and ate both.

She has also recently started increasing the number of times she'll get a cup of coffee or a diet soda. Sometimes she'll fix a cup of coffee (she still remembers how to use the Keurig) and then forget it and get a diet soda out of the fridge, then I remind her of the coffee so she'll get that too. Shortly after I'll see her carrying 2 coffee cups to the sink to pour the now cold contents down the drain. Any suggestions on how to keep her from getting multiple drinks?

So far she's left the cat food alone but the plastic container it's in is clearly labeled as such. I'm now starting to get concerned about leaving her alone for even 2 hours (daughter and I had to leave her alone because daughter needed me to go to her OB appointment with her and then she needed to buy some work clothes).

Rescue mom

My DH with Alzheimer’s would get multiple drinks. As soon as he put one down and walked away, he’d forget about it. He could have 6-7 mostly full drinks scattered around. The only way to stop (that I ever found) was constant supervision, or hide everything except water, which I really did not want to do. 

I did hide a couple things bad for him to drink,  but did not want to really reduce his liquid intake. Mostly it was just having somebody around all the time. Same with snacks or inappropriate food, although he wasn’t a big eater and that wasn’t a problem. If it was really not good (like dog treats) I’d just hide it.

There usually comes a time when labels don’t work. Then, as with toddlers, you have to make sure the PWD cannot get into it. The only “normal” thing IMO is that they will eat and do all kinds of things you never thought about.

ButterflyWings

Hi Ginsamae,

My DH pours liquids incessantly, and at least he does drink a lot of it which keeps him hydrated. I try to keep only basic healthy liquids in the house, plus decaf for him (hide the real coffee so he won't drink 5 cups and be up all night which is my only respite time!). He must drink 20 glasses of something every day, seriously...water, juice (which I've started watering it down since he guzzles it so much, and it is expensive). 

He has been taking 3-4 beverages to bed for a few years now...water, tea, another glass of water since he forgot about the first one, and juice to sip on -- and just this week, milk, which he never, ever drinks. We have almond milk only for breakfast cereal since milk has always disagreed with DH and several family members.. Yes, next morning lots gets poured down the drain as he says its not fresh...has sat out all night = |. I stopped paying for the water delivery for that reason. Just a total waste. We have filtered water through our fridge, so it still safe. With this weird addition of the milk to his multiple glasses poured for the evening, I worry about him pouring and maybe drinking other random things now though. 

A new worry: I watched DH the other day, taking things out of the cabinets in bathroom and kitchen, reading (?) labels and resisting as I tried to redirect him from pouring a big glass of mouthwash. He ignored me, but at least didn't swallow it since I kept reminding him not to. I can see it is time to move the cleaning products again too, or get locks. Some of those pretty smelling liquid cleaners look just like juices or lemonades, or koolaid-type beverages. He'd be sick (or poisoned!) We are "line of sight" 24/7 now, and for over a year. I agree with you, it doesn't seem like she should be left alone anymore.

I once had a babysitter (one of my kids' godparents) who let them taste test doggie treats (still don't know why). But she had checked ingredients and determined the dog biscuits were safe. At least your MIL has dementia so she has an excuse! 

dayn2nite2

Report it to your husband and tell him he needs to watch her when you leave.  He created this problem, he needs to figure it out.

Rescue mom

Day2night is right. And butterfly made a point I started to...I can’t imagine much caffeine is good for MIL..depending on how much others use the Kruerig, maybe time for it to “break” or disappear. Other beverages are better,  And the possibility of her drinking something really bad—like mouthwash or cleaners—should not be ignored. Labels lose meaning quickly at this point. Yea, many do eat more, and most seem to prefer sweets.

star26

Supervision and locks on cabinet doors that contain things you don't want her to get into, including the fridge if that's an issue. I use Munchkin XtraGuard Dual Action Latches from Amazon, in locations high up or out of the normal line of vision. They just use adhesive and can be easily removed after MIL has moved. Labels were ineffective for me.

BassetHoundAnn

This describes my mom. When we found her eating dog treats one day she insisted her doctor told her they were good for her. 

When she was at our house she would be frequently pouring herself a cup of coffee, then forget about it and pour another. Or she would try to warm up the coffee by prying open the microwave door with a knife, as she couldn't remember how to open it, then pressing multiple buttons. She was doing this every few minutes. We often found forgotten cups of coffee in the microwave. We taped the microwave door shut with duct tape and put a big "Out of Order" sign on it. 

Her current residence gives her a cup of coffee with her breakfast and I usually find it abandoned somewhere, never touched. I gave her a jar of decaf instant coffee so she has the feeling that she can prepare a cup of coffee for herself whenever she likes. She doesn't know what "decaf" means and doesn't seem to have the capacity anymore to make herself instant coffee, but the untouched jar seems to give her a sense that she can have coffee whenever she likes. 

Another problem with the dog treats... She was feeding the dogs a constant stream of them, so much so that she cleaned out the whole pantry of dog treats within two days. So we had to hide those. 

MN Chickadee

We had to lock the pantry, cabinets and the fridge. There was no other way to keep up even though we didn't leave mom home alone at all. In addition to eating too much she would ruin so much food and over feed the pets so everything got locked up. Also lock up cleaning supplies, medicine and other dangerous things. You have to kind of act like you are toddler-proofing your home. Your MIL is probably beyond the point where she should be left alone at all. Even with someone home it only takes a second to get into trouble if you take your eyes off them for a minute, but it should probably be reduced to when a caregiver steps out of the room for a moment, not leaves the house. This phase where they are still busy and puttering around as usual but have no common sense can be very dangerous to them and the household.

Arrowhead

My wife has been "grazing" for some time now. I started putting things on higher shelves, but she just gets a chair and climbs on it. I recently put child proof slide locks on the cabinet and that has worked so far. She will also get food out of the refrigerator and freezer and eat them cold. I got locks for that too but have not put them on yet.

Jo C.

This is quite a vexing challenge, but it is also a signal that the disease is having a greater impact upon the brain and it will take a concerted effort byi all family in the house in order to have your LO remain safe.

It has reached a point in which it seems it is no longer safe to leave her alone in the house; even for two hours as has happened.   Her brain is damaged so she no longer has the ability to utilize good judgment and adequate reasoning.   She will do whatever pops up as something to do and will do it when the whim strikes; she is not capable of realizing consequences and her ability to process is also compromised..  Not her fault; it is part of her dementia process.

Pet snacks need to be removed from any line of sight; best in fact to lock cabinets; there are a host of cabinet locks that do not harm cabinets that can be found online.  It cannot be trusted that she will see a label on the cat food container and process that adequately; she could very easily not process and move forward to eat whatever is in the container.

It would be good to keep a host of good for her snacks around.  Cut fruits, berries, bananas, cheese cubes, granola bars, small cookies,, dried fruits, graham crackers, popped corn in a bag, other snacks in baggies; pretzels, dried cereals in baggies, cut veggies if there are some she likes; nuts would be a bit concerning regarding her ability to chew them and swallow properly.  Finger foods, peanut butter crackers; jell-o cups, pudding cups, flavored yogurt with fruit; etc., you get the idea.

If she is compulsive, you could keep a single basket of snacks in the kitchen or other room in plain sight where she would learn to go for snacking; it would be only her  box or basket; you could put her name on it and make a big deal of  giving her a "present.".

It would be good if she had a snack or two given to her between breakfast and lunch meals and had snacks available for the afternoon and again before bed.   Keeping one step ahead of her.

And also, perhaps time to look for other things to refocus her; are there hobbies, gardening, container gardening, using puzzles, small chores, going or walks with a LO, etc. that she would enjoy being busy at?  If so, this may help her to refocus off food.  As adult daycare centers begin to reopen, perhaps she would benefit from some time at such a center for increased socialization.

It is good she is getting a good amount of fluids, but I do understand the challenges there too.  Putting the Keurig away, or putting away your coffees and only having a decaf version of hers. Yet; that does not do away with her compulsion to make the coffee.  I personally would remove that - yes; a pain for me, but this behavior will eventually pass.  As for sodas, not good for anyone, but keeping only a small number of cans in the frig or eliminating that for awhile too may be helpful to break the dynamic chain.  Hard to do if you and your husband like and use the soda each day, but it would be temporary.

Give her snacks, good full meals, and water, etc. through the day to keep her filled may help minimize the behaviors.  If she watches TV, she can have a table near her seat where her drinks can be kept.  Monitor her and head her off at the pass if she is piling up multiple drinks.  It really is like monitoring and correcting a small child despite her being an adult.

What this means is that is is going to be your and your husband's changed approaches to get this under control.   For me, it would be cabinet locks and if necessary a frig lock.  Also, if this is a true compulsive dynamic that cannot be refocused or changed, her dementia specialist can adjust meds to help control or elimante that.

So sorry for all that is happening; but she really is at a pont that she should not be left alone; too much risk based on her changes and lost reasoning and judgment.

Let us know how it goes, so hope improvement come soon.

J.