Suggestions to end food battles w/ diabetic, newly diagnosed Alzheimer’s mother-in-law?

GregSaoPaulo · November 2022

New to this, so be patient…

Newly diagnosed Alzheimer’s 77 years female (my MIL), long term diabetic (blood sugar numbers range from 150s to well over 200, even with us controlling food and diet, and sometimes over 300) plus thyroid and heart. She’s already getting combative, more difficult by the day (she was always unpleasant). It’s that “who’s in charge here” battle that I’m sure you all know very well.

Central arguments every day, every hour seem to be over food. She’s a complete carb addict, she used to eat over a loaf of bread plus plus every day until we started to control this this past spring. (Sidebar: we’re in Brazil where consuming carbs is king, like, you make lasagna and someone will ask, “aren’t we having rice with the lasagna?”) Now she’s completely argumentative about bread and fruit, sometimes hitting my husband. (She has no responsibilities in the house as she either could not figure it out (meds, the remote, one button to push on the microwave) or she’s a danger (no oven whatsoever). We have the “bad” (for diabetics) food hidden in various places including our bedroom, but she’s taken to searching everywhere for her carb fix. NOTE: She does eat bread and fruit multiple times a day; she just wants more, it’s all she would eat given the choice.

Do we need to set a schedule with times and what food she can expect at those times and give it to her everyday? Would it be helpful (so she can feel she can still make Some choices) to, like they do in the hospital, give her a menu of selections for the following day? An informal contract if you will… other suggestions?

Or, do we give up on the diabetes and just let her eat whatever she wants, regardless of health consequences?

Overall, any best Alzheimer’s resources you can recommend, your favorites? We need to teach ourselves how to cope far better than we are. NOte: WE ARE IN BRAZIL, HUSBAND SPEAKS PORTUGUÊS, HE POSTED TO SÃO PAULO BRAZIL Alz group, but no responses whatsoever.

Thanks!

Edit/P.S.: her family, many brothers/sisters/nieces/ etc. want nothing to do with her. Her day consists entirely of tv, and wanting bread. We got her into adult day care after months of trying, she went precisely twice. She has no friends or interests whatsoever.

Iris L. · November 2022

Welcome Greg. I have discovered for myself that eating carbs (sugars) causes me to crave more carbs about an hour later. No amount of telling myself not to eat carbs could stop the cravings. The only thing that stopped the carb craving was to stop eating carbs. My problem was bread and pastries and cookies. I just stopped eating them. I substituted fruit, especially apple slices, which are lower glycemic. So far, this is working.

Try to fill her up on apples and raw vegetables, such as broccoli and green beans.

Is she able to take walks? Exertion will help her blood sugars.

PWDs lose their sense of motivation, so you cannot just send her out for a walk, you will have to just get her and take her for a walk. Forget about motivation, it is gone.

Please read about anosognosia, which causes PWDs to be unaware of having limitations.

Read a lot of threads. Other members will have more ideas.

Iris L.

Marta · November 2022

A few questions that may allow us to help you better: what is MIL height and weight in cm/kg?

What diabetes meds does MIL take? And non-diabetes meds?

GregSaoPaulo · November 2022

She’s approx 5’3”, 64 kg (she was a good 12 kg more when she was eating loaf of bread a day/whatever she wanted/plus meals)

Thyroid:

Levothyroxine 50 mg

HBP:

Enalopril 20 mg

Hidrocloratiazide 25 mg

Anlodipine 10 mg

Atenolol 50 mg

Aspirin 100 mg

Sinvastatine 20 mg

Diabetes:

Glifage XR 500 mg (3 x day)

[has not been taking insulin like before]

Miscellaneous (hand pain?):

Gabapentin 300 mg (2 x day)

Alzheimer’s/Agitation-etc.:

Sertraline 50 mg (started October)

Donapezil 5 mg (started mid November)

M1 · November 2022

Greg: I would let her eat what she wants, period. I'm an internist, fwiw. The numbers you cite are not worth fighting about. Tight control in a diabetic matters when they are young, not when they are old and certainly not when you're dealing with dementia. Sugars of 300 are not going to kill her or shorten her life at this point. Others may disagree, but it sounds like you have enough battles on your hands and I would just not worry about this one. You can control what food is in the house, but beyond that I simply would not choose to fight this battle.

GregSaoPaulo · November 2022

On the glifage and the insulin with an inconsistent variety of food and bread, she started having a series of falls/dizziness (perhaps due to the rather vast large ups in blood sugar and all of a sudden Very lows?, plus whatever’s happening brainwise with mini-strokes from diabetes and the now diagnosed Alz).. We’ve been flying blind due to lack of access/available appts with doctor in charge of diabetes - husband’s going to camp out outside endocrinologist office tomorrow to try to get some advice and direction. There’s a whole handful plus of doctors involved here (endocrinologist, neurologist, cardiologist, geriatric, etc etc) but there’s no centralized computer system connecting doctor to doctor and charts and test results here in Brazil (it feels like everything is on many many little pieces of paper which the patient has to carry around from appt to appt,). We’re struggling…

mommyandme (m&m) · December 2022

I am not a doctor, here’s a thought I had anyway. From what I understand about carbs, (hope I’m not wrong) they stimulate serotonin, which is a feel good chemical in the brain. For eating disorders sometimes an antidepressant is used to help up serotonin levels in patients, which may curb cravings… well for carbs. Not sure what a real doctor might say or if you’d want to add another medication to her already large cocktail of meds, but maybe?

Sorry you find yourself on this journey but welcome to the forum.