My had a stroke in July, developed vascular dementia, probably Alzheimer's also, according to her docs. She has trouble with speech and her swallowing has gotten pretty bad; we think she is probably having more TIAs or strokes. She was on chopped food for a while, but they've had to switch her to pureed food and thickened liquids, although the speech therapist has recently upgraded her to slightly less thickened liquids and is introducing some soft foods. Mom has become convinced that if only she had better dentures, she would be able to eat "real" food. She spent half an hour the other day explaining to me that there were no teeth on her bridge. I brought it out and showed it to her, it has teeth, believe me. She keeps badgering my poor sister in law about going to the dentist; the rehab place will have her seen by the dentist, but her teeth aren't the problem, her swallow reflex is. She's not buying our explanation that not giving her solid food is for her safety and that we have to follow the speech therapist's advice. Any thoughts?
I can only imagine what that would be like with memory problems on top of it, but aspirating liquid can't be pleasant either. It's also my understanding that food in ones lungs can lead to infections. You probably know all of that.
Lucky for me, if a doctor tells mom it is so, then she believes them, so the one thing I would recommend to you is to get a doctor to tell her, maybe even get him or her to write a note on official paper so that you all have something to refer to that states she has to have thickened liquids and why.
Maybe, just maybe that will help.
Does she eat the pureed food? Is she happy when she gets a "real" soft food? Did she like the chopped food better? Is she likely to be able to go back to chopped food at some point?