Messy Eater

Possible Causes
The person may have:

• Lack of fine-motor control.
• Lack of attentiveness.
• Decreased interest in self-care and hygiene.
• Any combination of the above.

Try these suggestions:

• Lower expectations and look the other way as much as you can. Spilled food can always be cleaned up.
• Use a vinyl tablecloth, which is easily wiped clean, or paper placemats that can be discarded.
• Place a napkin in the person's lap before serving food. (It might not stay there, but it's a start.)
• Cut up foods before serving.
• Serve fewer "risky" foods, such as sauces and condiments (mustard, ketchup, mayo). Preseason food before bringing it to the table.
• If manipulating utensils is difficult, switch to a "spork," a combination spoon-fork often sold in camping stores. Spoons with thick handles are also easier to hold.
• Serve finger foods that eliminate the need to use a utensil, such as fried chicken, chicken strips, pizza cut into bite-sized pieces, fish sticks, sandwiches. Cook eggs omelet-style and cut them into strips or squares that can be picked up.
• At first, offer finger-food meals to everyone at the table, so the person is less apt to feel infantile.
• Serve soup in a mug, not a bowl, and let it cool somewhat first.
• Use unbreakable dishes or heavy ironstone that's less likely to slide around.
• Choose plastic cups over glass ones.
• Serve only one or two foods at a time.
• Serve liquids in a cup with a spout (available in some hospital-supply stores), or pour only a small amount at a time into a small cup.
• If you must point out a mistake (mustard smeared on the cheek), sound casual and surprised ("Oh, that mustard is so messy, let me help you get it off your cheek") rather than shaming or blaming.
• Wash stained clothes at night so they're not worn repeatedly (a common behavior among people with Alzheimer's).

______________________________

Dementia Signage for the Home

What Color Is Your Plate?

If you couldn’t see your mashed potatoes, you probably wouldn’t eat them.

That was the premise that BU biopsychologist Alice Cronin-Golomb and her research partners adopted when they designed the “red plate study.” Their idea was to see whether senior citizens with advanced Alzheimer’s disease would eat more food from red plates than they did from white ones.

The researchers in the Vision & Cognition Lab of the Center for Clinical Biopsychology, which Cronin-Golomb directs, had reason to hope that their experiment would succeed. Nursing home staff often complain that Alzheimer’s patients do not finish the food on their plates even when staff encourages them to do so. Forty percent of individuals with severe Alzheimer’s lose an unhealthy amount of weight. Previous explanations for this phenomenon included depression, inability to concentrate on more than one food at a time, and inability to eat unassisted. Cronin-Golomb and her colleagues took a different approach. They believed this behavior might be explained by the visual-cognitive deficiencies caused by Alzheimer’s. Patients with the disease cannot process visual data—like contrast and depth perception—as well as most other seniors.

So Cronin-Golomb’s team, led by then-BU postdoctoral fellow and current Senior Lecturer in Psychology Tracy Dunne (GRS’92, ’99), tested advanced Alzheimer’s patients’ level of food intake with standard white plates and with bright-red ones. What they found was astonishing—patients eating from red plates consumed 25 percent more food than those eating from white plates.

Since these findings were published in 2004, some nursing homes have made red plates the norm.

____________________________________

Red Alzheimer's Signage

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Dealing With Mealtime Challenges

A person who has Alzheimer's might not remember when he or she last ate or why it's important to eat. To ease the challenges that mealtimes can bring, try these tips:

• Don't rely on your loved one to ask for food. He or she might not respond to hunger or thirst.
• Use solid colored or white dishes. Solid colored or plain white dishes can make it easier for your loved one to distinguish the food from the plate. Similarly, use placemats of a contrasting color to help your loved one distinguish the plate from the table. Stick with solid colors, though. Patterned plates, bowls and linens might be confusing.
• If your loved one is overwhelmed by an entire plateful of food, place just one type of food at a time on the plate. You could also offer several small meals throughout the day, rather than three larger ones.
• Finger foods are even easier — but avoid foods that can be tough to chew and swallow, such as nuts, popcorn and raw carrots.
• Turn off the television, radio and telephone ringer. Put your cellphone or pager on vibrate. You might also clear the table of any unnecessary items.
•  Make meals an enjoyable social event so that your loved one looks forward to the experience.

Red Placemat

 

White Plate