Food Obsession

raebuck

Have noticed that my husband is obsessed with food and meals. He constantly wants to eat and go out for a meal. He hoovers over family members while they eat making everyone uncomfortable. Always hungry. Thoughts?

Lhuerta

I've noticed similar with my DH. When I bring his plate to the table he practically grabs it out of my hands. He'll eat more than one lunch and lots of snacks. I've chalked it up to possibly his medications making him hungry and his forgetting that he just ate.

ghphotog

Same here. DW always wants to eat. Every time we pass a restaurant or burger place she wants to go eat there even if she just ate 15 minutes ago.

Rocky2

DW constantly tells me, and anyone else she sees, that she needs to eat because she hasn't eaten all day. I can't even clear the table before she thinks she has not eaten. What's more, she is a type 1 diabetic and has to carefully balance her meals with insulin shots. I try to look at the good side, she eagerly eats anything I serve her and says "oh, this is good".

ButterflyWings

Same here. We learned it was related to his AD diagnosis. Some PWDs lose the ability to recognize when they are full. DH was actually kicked off hospice at one point for gaining weight, as if his terminal dementia had been cured.

His lead nurse researched what I was observing and found the condition that affects up to 40% of folks like him, I think she said. It contributed to his gaining weight, eating until his stomach hurt, and taught me to do portion control and not allow him to access the fridge anymore. If I can find a link to the article on this condition I will come back and post it.

*Found it.

Leptin: What It Is, Function & Levels - Cleveland Clinic "Leptin resistance". Leptin resistance results in a decrease in the ability of leptin to suppress appetite or increase your body's energy use. Because of this, the main symptoms of leptin resistance are constantly feeling hungry and increased food intake despite having adequate or excess amounts of body fat.Feb 23, 2022

Here is a different article on the topic: Shrinking Of Brain Leads To Overeating In Dementia Patients (medindia.net)

harshedbuzz

A couple of other thoughts-

I think another piece to this is that as a PWD's world becomes smaller and more confusing, food is one pleasure they can still enjoy easily. Many of us use food-- cookies and sweets especially-- as bait in redirecting our LOs from paranoia and delusion.

The other thought is that many PWD are treated with atypical antipsychotics for aggression, sleep disturbances, hallucinations, etc. This class of medication often increases appetite as a side effect. Generally, the side effect is somewhat dose dependent, but I have a few people on really low doses become obsessed with food.

HB

REL

My DW has the need to have a certain flavor of ice cream (Carmel Delight) every day. She must have it just before bedtime. Other flavors do not work.