Mom is still able to eat, however, she only eats soft food. She has no bottom back teeth. My issue is that she seems to have forgotten how to eat...one bite at a time. She constantly stuffs her mouth so full of food it's, on occasion, dripping from her mouth. What would be the best way to combat that besides actually sitting and feeding her (which she doesn't like)? Any advice would be helpful.
But seriously, it can be very dangerous. Rainman once swallowed two tiny toys that perforated his intestines in two spots which lead to near death. I have also had to give him the Heimlich maneuver a number of times.
If Parkinson's effects the nerves - perhaps the cause of your mother pocketing is similar.
I tried a number of things to get Rainman to stop the behavior- including working with physical therapists but nothing really helped. My only solution has been to cut his food into small pieces and to pretty much monitor him while he's eating. The small pieces isn't the perfect solution as if I'm not looking he will stuff as many small pieces in his mouth as he can. And if I'm not watching he will eat at the speed of light. He also tries to be sneaky and hid the fact he's pocketing- he KNOWS he's not supposed to do it but can't seem to help himself. I can never just hand Rainman a whole cookie.
It's a pain in the butt and more often than not dinner time becomes a battle with me constantly having to sternly correct him. But it is what it is - at least for us.
So - I wish you better success with this challenge than I have had. I'll be watching the replies as well. Maybe someone has a success story to tell about correcting this problem.
My client had Parkinson's and watching her eat was a challenge in itself. She LOVED a huge hamburger with all the stuff on it--My job was to try and help her not stuff her face/choke/spill all over whilst dabbing at her with a napkin. Lots of spills--hard for her to hold onto anything, and she was so happy to be eating "forbidden foods" she'd almost vacuum them in. I would try to cut it in halves or fourths and she didn't like that.
Trying to "correct her" was pointless. I just got a ton of napkins, kept wet wipes with me all the time and let her "gorge". I was only with her for 2 meals and usually I could control what she was eating and how it was "presented".
Frequently he'll have his dinner finished before I'm half way through my steak. But I guess part of that is me sitting on the edge of my chair - ready to jump up at attempt to squeeze a chunk of meat from 6'1" 180 pounds of confused dead weight!