Is eating only the same thing common for someone with dementia?

My mom always ate healthy. She loved to look over a menu for a long time. As the dementia is getting worse, she will look at a menu forever, and then say "You know what I like, just order for me." I usually already have. But I have noticed, she eats better at home. A lot of the same foods, but she eats and has a Boost everyday, along with her vitamins.

My husband always used to eat salads, but recently has begun rejecting raw sweet peppers, radishes, even olives at times. He loves sweets and will eat several cookies, puddings & cake after every meal. I worry that he's going to become diabetic so I try to limit those things. He will usually finish soups especially if they are blended, so I take the vegetables he won't eat and throw them in the blender with some chicken/vegetable stock and hope that he's getting good nourishment from that.

I think that must be so. My mother has dementia. She will eat the same things for lunch day after day - the "juice" out of a cup of soup, 1/4 grilled cheese sandwich. She doesn't cook any more. She only eats yogurt, ensure and anything sweet. Everything else she picks at it and puts it in a napkin and puts it in her purse or hides it. It drives me nuts - she complains about every soup they serve saying it is too thick. She won't eat the solid part of soup unless we nag her. She won't eat salad, complains about the veggies they serve at her independent living home, etc

judahtaylor, my mother is the same way, she just turned 68 on april,7th, she don't recognize any food, but she stuck with eggo waffles and syrup, its the only thing she will put in her mouth, along with that I give her ensure for nutrition, she drinks like 6-8 per day, so a case of 24 only last 3 days. this is costly because I have to pay out of pocket for it. medicare wont pay because she don't have a feeding tube. its very common for them to stick to one food.

I have foudn that as my mother's dementia increases she seems to have forgotten alot of foods, not recognizing them anymore. So I think with age she prefers the familiar, often a hamburger. I figure at 89 she is entitled to keep to the familiar if that is what feels good to her.

I have noticed that as my mother's dementia increases, that she finds many foods she used to eat, now strange to her. She seems to choose those foods that she can remember. Often a hamburger.

I just downloaded a 69 page booklet from the National Parkinson Foundation called "Parkinson's Disease: Nutrition Matters." (and it was free!) It is great and answers many questions about what the caregiver needs to know about feeding.

18 pounds' weight loss in three months needs reporting to her doctor; but before agreeing to any investigations that he or she might propose, check that they serve a useful purpose.

If I ask Edna what she wants to eat, it's always one of three things: hamburger, hot dog or steak. The thing is, I also know her tastebuds: sweet, not very salty. So, if I make her something to eat, I just make it the way I know she'll eat it. And she does. So far.

My mom is 89 years old with Alzheimer's. She has lived with me for a year and is able to stay by herself when I am working. She is in excellent physical health. Her appetite has lessened the past three months. She has lost 18 pounds but is still within normal weight for her size. The past two weeks she will only eat two or three bites at each meal. She says she has no appetite. Some days I can get her to drink one Ensure, other days just a few sips. Is this normal for Alzheimer's patients? Her blood work was fine a few months ago. What can be done?

Thanks for all the input. I can get her to eat more variety at breakfast. Lunch is more challenging and dinner is the same every day. I suggest other foods she used to eat but no luck.

As I reread my moms breakfast that I wrote above, I forgot the glass of fresh squeezed orange juice she has with that breakfast. She looks forward to it every morning. When I run out of oranges every once in a while and give her water, she pouts. So she knows what she likes.

my mother has dementia, she eats only eggo waffles and syrup with ensure. she drinks 8 a day, a case of 24 lasts her 3 days, it her main source of nutrition she don't recognize food anymore, so she don't eat it.I try to incorporate foods that I know she loved, nothing works. so this is what she eats 3 times a day. I have to pay out of pocket for the ensure, because she don't have a feeding tube, her part D wont cover it, this stuff is 30.00 a case of 24 @ sams, the cheapest. I m an only child 43, no children. I m caring for her all my own, she have sisters, but they don't want to be bothered with her, sad, because she did everything for them . iv been caring for my mother since I was 15yrs old, she also has arthritis, and is totally disabled, now my health isn't so great, I have 3 types of arthritis, and barely getting around, with diabetes, type2. and that's my story....

Eating right is important. I'm fortunate in that my mom loves vegetables and will eat heartily. Mom's day care person cooks breakfast and lunch and I will cook evening meals and the weekend meals so she gets a variety. She generally has the same thing for breakfast every time but we vary on lunches and suppers.

When they can not remember, it is a hard thing to question what they will eat. Till she cam to live with me, she had a boneless pork chop everyday. But she doesn't want them now. She wants a yogurt, 2 scrambled eggs, a honey bun, coffee for every breakfast. She says today I want...it's the same thing everyday. For lunch she prefers toasted ham and cheese sandwich, but I will give her a lean cuisine a lunch every once in a while, it just has to have sweet potato in it. She also drinks strawberry hi-protein Boost everyday. She seems just fine, she is 95.

My mom might sprout feathers any day from all the chicken she has eaten in the last 8 years! That, along with 2 or 3 'go to' things are what she is sure to eat. My theory is, as her dementia (or whatever it is) has progressed, she will always choose what she remembers liking. The good news is that she will usually eat whatever I prepare partly because I remember her preferences and lean toward those even though she may not. She, too, wants a cookie or two after almost every meal. And in agreement with others, short of a physical or health condition preventing it, anyone who has made it successfully into their eighties or nineties should get to eat what they will. The long term effects of bad choices don't really apply in their cases. And as some other wise one posted, there are bigger issues than long term nutrition now. Less agitation, any nourishment, and the act of eating itself now move up on the list.

My mom does not have a specific food she wants to eat other than cookies. I can fix eggs, sausage and hash browns for breakfast and she eats until she says she is stuffed,but has to go get the cookie tin and have her cookies....this happens at every meal.

Maybe they do just really love this food so this is all they want. Anderson Cooper from TV says the only thing he has in his refrigerator is hot dogs. Its all he makes and eats. I thought it was a joke but it isn't.

I must say it would make my job of cooking dinner easier, I would not have to figure out what's for dinner tonight!!!

My husband's tastes have changed over the last few months. He no longer will eat sliced peppers or mushrooms or greens. To get him to eat these things, I chop them up small and add them to tuna salad/egg salad and spread the salad onto a sandwich which seems to be easier for him to eat. He has cut down on the amount he eats, as well. I can't put too much on his plate or he will quit eating anything, but the protein (because his doctor told him to eat protein). Whatever I tell him to eat doesn't count. He lives for the end of the meal -- halvah, cookies & lemon meringue pudding! I too worry about him getting diabetes as he seems to eat less and less of the vegetables so he can get to the sweets faster.

I read the biography of George Washington Carver and something stuck in my head. Remember he was the chemist that studied peanuts and found all kinds of uses for them? He also studied sweet potatoes. He discovered that if we could only eat sweet potatoes and peanuts for all time we would get all the nutrition necessary for good health!

You could try sending a written note to the administrator. Most of them will care about the nutrition. Threaten to go to the state if it is not corrected.

I think my mum eats easy things that dont involve cooking as shes afraid to cook she has already burnt things and i think this scared her. I cook all her meals but if im not here she will just eat cheese and crakers or toast and marmalade as long as shes eating i supose but in her case i know its "fear" of anything that involves heating anything. Ive also read that this is another reason for not having a bath they are afraid of water being too hot?
My mum eats well BUT she has gone off alot of things and its getting frustrating I find if i say nothing and just cook her something and hand it to her shes more obliging i think asking her what she wants only causes confusion as i get a list of what she dosnt want?
My heads wrecked even typing this off for a NAP!

Glad I read through these...MIL (91) has eaten so many chicken pot pies that to look at them almost makes me gag...has had the same cereal for breakfast every day since she's been here, now eating it dry and drinking the milk on the side to keep the mess and choking to a minimum...she does eat different things for dinner depending on what I cook...if it's going to be something that she has trouble chewing or if it's spicy she's right back to the chicken pot pie even if she is given several choices. if she has a hot dog and soup for lunch she wants the pot pie for dinner...we just keep a supply in the freezer.

At least her taste buds like something sweet and salty. This is usual. Heck, I will do this myself and I don't have dementia. I eat the one thing until I don't have a taste for it, and then I usually never touch it again. Let her eat whatever she wants as long as she eats. Don't sweat the small stuff because you have much more important things to worry about in the future.

My husband has terminal cancer. His appetite and taste for food has changed drastically. I formed a menu with at least 3 choices of prepared meals in the refrigerator. He then chooses from that menu. Each week I change the menu, I never leave out dessert! EB

Too many choices only confuses them, even though the fish and sweet potatoes are good for her you really need to introduce new foods to her for a well balanced diet. If you know what some of her favorite foods were then start there. Maybe get her onto the ensure as it is designed for this type of problem. Try switching the fish for maybe chicken fingers with some carrot sticks or cucumber sticks, Good luck

If you mom can get out I buy her gift cards to restaurants she likes and then she tells me she went out to eat

Yes, my mom almost eats the same thing everyday. And thirty minutes later can't tell me what she has eaten. As long as they eat something is better than nothing I always call me mom when she eats now basically its usually at the same time everyday since she tells me she is in bed at 6:30PM :)

I don't know if it's a sign of dementia, but Mom who is 93 is the same way. She will eat either grilled cheese or an egg sandwich for lunch. For dinner all she ever wants is chicken tenders and mashed potatoes. She would eat this every day if I let her! She was a very good cook, but doesn't remember anything she used to cook. She made wonderful Lasagne. Now she says " I would never cook that crap!" I hate Italian food!

My 91 year old mother still largely eats foods in balance, although extremely small portions at this point. I often bring her several portions of something that I've made and she seems to enjoy it all (soups, slow cooker meals, etc.). But, I also have to say she has quite the sweet tooth and also a taste for the "other stuff" - ice cream, cake, cookies and candy and also too much popcorn & potato chips. The doctor and I have the same attitude at this point....there isn't anything she can/should eat, just let her have what she wants. So, that's what we do.....

my mom was diagnosed with vascular dementia yet only by the mini mental test alone which does not diagnose it. but she does like to eat the same things which would be the things she likes and she is always bickering that at the nursing home they do not give her proper vegetables or food . but what do you expect they say they are there to care for your loved ones and they really do not.