Okay, anything dh likes to eat or drink he does to extremes. He'll sit down and eat many bowls of eat ice cream each night when we have it; he'll drink many glasses of alcoholic beverages until he's through with his dinner (which has prompted me to serve dinner earlier now); last night he ate half of a box of cherries (the size you buy at Costco) - I thought about warning him not to eat that many cherries, but he gets pretty belligerent when I try to moderate any of his behaviors so I let it go. This afternoon (almost 24 hours after eating all those cherries), he made a predictable mess (very large ugly mess) of his pants. What's a mother to do? Yes, I do feel like his mother now (I'm sure you all can relate).
All this to say, is compulsive behaviors a hallmark of AD?
My husband once ate 5 bananas in less than 20 minutes. While he was napping I went outside, when I came back in all the bananas I had just bought were gone. He never would open the pantry for a snack or ask for one, however, if anything was on the counter he would eat until it was gone.
i remember eating 3 boxes of chocolate covered cherries in less than 20 minutes.....back in the day...after a few tokes. but seriously wonder if the brain on AD is altered similarly to the effects of certain chemicals.
after DH was DX'd I hate unbelievable amounts of sweets...self medicating to raise my seratonin levels. could their brains be telling them they "need" these foods or drinks?
Yes this eating is driving me nuts..DH will have breakfast and no sooner than I get the dishes done up and he doesn't think he had breakfast and makes another..the kitchen is now always in a state of disarray. One doctor wants him to take those 6 lbs off...the neuro said don't worry about the wt as later on it will be hard for them to keep wt on at all.. They forget they ate and the "I am full " button doesn't work either.
i also tend to agree that the 'full' button is broken. and this can become a neurosis as well. maybe if you can manage offering controlled amounts of snax during the day would work. and keep the foods etc behind cabinets and out of sight if possible.not allowing them to serve themselves so much. - some have even gone as far as putting locks on fridges. the hunger sensation does seem to be affected during this disease thru most of the stages, but sometimes in reverse, they tend to lose desire to eat in latter stages.at any rate, keeping healthy snax out on the cabinets seemed to work fo rme, carrots, celery stix, pretzels, munchies that didnt do much harm if they eat in excess.
For several years my DH has picked at food and lost weight. He went from 165 lbs down to 122 lbs. He is six feet tall. BUT...in the last two months he has started everything in sight. He is in a NH now and they serve him double portions ...plus snacks. He has put on 18 lbs in six weeks. He never was an overeater! I am assuming it is the AD.
We are going through this right now - he eats/drinks everythig in sight. Stuffs so much food in his mouth that he almost chokes at least once a day. This morning we had a new experience-after eating his breakfast, trying to eat the aides breakfast, he grabbed the cup we keep the dog food in and tried eating the pieces of dog food. DH has FTD and therefore has difficulty with impulse control and the dr recently increased his seroquel significantly and I think that is contributing to his behavior. Unfortunately DH just ignores me and the aide when we ask him (finally yelling at him) to slow down or stop putting more food in his mouth. He has pretty much reached the point where he cannot be redirected.
DH went through the stage of eating a lot, gaining a lot of weight; then that stopped and he had no appetite and lost the weight he had gained. Now he is back to his normal weight and just eats whatever I give him. I fix all plates and put them on the table; I keep NO snacks around where he can find them. He does, however, want to eat and dinner earlier than usual. I can live with that!
Well, part of me says "heck, he's 81 years old, I've taken so much away from him already (car, guns, etc), he should be able to eat what he wants when he wants. If I can keep him away from too much alcohol, I consider it a victory. He's tall, 6'1" and weighs around 180 and never goes more than a couple pounds beyond that. Of course, that may change because he loves to snack so much. But, I do feel sorry that his life has become so small and he has so few privileges left. I have become his mother.
One other thing and a totally different subject - I have noticed in the past month that his short term memory is getting shorter and shorter and he is forgetting the names of those he knows (not his children or me, yet), but today as we were walking into the chiropractors office he asked me 3 times (within 5 minutes) what was his name. We go there all the time and have for the past 5 years. And, that's just one example. Is this a sign that he's moving into another stage?