• the visual aspects of the environment for example, whether there is poor room lighting, too much glare or too many shadows in the room or on the table, unneeded items or too many food choices on the table, distracting patterns in the place setting, or too little color contrast between the food and the dishes;
• the sounds and noise in the environment whether there are distractions coming from people talking, the television or radio, the refrigerator humming loudly, or dogs barking in the background;
• how the food smells, tastes, and feels;
• how well the person manages the mechanics of eating, from grasping utensils to identifying and picking up food to chewing and swallowing;
• the emotional climate in the room and how the person interacts with and responds to others in the room.

For everyone, nutritional needs shift as a person's activity level changes. Therefore, it is important for the caregiver to note whether the person is eating and drinking enough, or, in the earlier stages of the disease, eating too much. The caregiver should monitor the person's weight and eating habits to assess the care recipient's nutritional intake and any nutrition-related issues. Caregivers should pay particular attention to:

• how much and what kinds of foods and fluids the person consumes over the course of each day,
• what times the person tends to be hungry,
• weight changes,
• appetite changes,
• problems with chewing or swallowing,
• how physically active the person is daily.

This information can be shared with the physician to determine whether the person is eating and drinking the right amount, relative to his or her activity level. The physician may recommend keeping a daily food and hydration diary. The information can help identify new physical or medical problems that may not be related to dementia but cause weight changes. Assess the situation before moving to the next step, Coppola says. "It's important to know how much the person is really eating and how active he or she is before worrying or making changes".

View Mealtimes as Opportunities

Dementia-care experts acknowledge that mealtimes can be stressful for caregivers and care recipients alike, but say that some of the typical challenges can be overcome by viewing eating as an opportunity rather than a task to "get through."

Mealtimes are one of the most important temporal anchors that people with Alzheimer's have, marking morning, mid-day, and evening each day. Unfortunately, some caregivers dread the challenge of "getting the person to eat," and as a result, the experience for everyone can become negative and confrontational," Coppola says. "Rather than being akin to a medication time, mealtime can be seen as opportunities for a successful experience for the person because it's an activity that is familiar, is overlearned, and can be modified in many ways."

Mealtimes are opportunities for people with dementia to make choices, to have their identities reinforced, and to be affirmed for past accomplishments through statements such as "Mom, you make the very best biscuits!" or "You taught me to make pie."

Mealtime provides a time to be with other people," adds Coppola. "Caregivers often have busy lives, and meals bring people "in the moment," creating a time to connect with each other." For instance, caregivers can help create a pleasant, social dining environment by talking about the food or reminiscing about family traditions and celebrations.

Experts further recommend integrating people with dementia into the entire mealtime process by encouraging them to help prepare the food, set the table, pull out the chairs, or put the dishes away. Doing so helps the care recipient experience eating in a larger social context and as part of daily activity, rather than as an isolated task. Moreover, participating in the mealtime process helps the person maintain functional skills and feelings of personal control.

"Think about the mealtime-related activities the person did in the past and modify them as needed so he or she can continue to contribute to the family. Keep your eye on the process, not the product, because it's the activity, not the outcome, that counts," says Cynthia Epstein, ACSW, a clinical social worker at the New York University Silberstein Aging and Dementia Research Center.

Promote Independence
Caregivers can use a variety of strategies to promote independence during mealtimes. For example, if the person lives alone, the caregiver might call and remind the person to eat a meal, write down simple step-by-step directions about how to prepare a particular meal, or organize the kitchen so that items needed for a simple meal are in view.

If the care recipient has difficulty using utensils, replace some foods with finger foods such as small sandwiches, cheese, hard-boiled eggs, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Simple adaptive eating tools also can help some people remain independent and maintain a sense of personal control while dining. These include items such as plates with large rims, cups with lids and wide bases, flexible straws, utensils with large or built-up handles, and non-slip placemats or suction cups to keep dishes from moving on the table. Adaptive tools that look familiar can help trigger the person's memory for eating.

In addition, visual, verbal, sensory, and physical cuing can promote independence, especially when the cues are based on lifelong habits. Coppola recommends starting with visual cuing, which can be as simple as eating with the person as a reminder that it is mealtime. Place utensils in the positions in which they will be used. Dishes that are different colors from the food help the person distinguish the food.

Clear, easy-to-understand verbal prompting may also be needed. Depending on the person's language ability, this may mean giving very specific, step-by-step directions, or it may mean offering simple choices, such as "Do you want peaches or apples?" or "Would you like cream in your coffee?" Verbal prompts, such as "Do you think the beans have enough salt?," can focus the person's attention on the food.

Sensory cues, especially those involving smell, can let the person know it is time to eat. Sifton notes that nothing 'says' mealtime and triggers the appetite more than aroma of soup or stew simmering on the stove or something baking in the oven. Even the smell of toast can help.

People with more advanced dementia may also need physical prompting to initiate the process of eating or to continue eating. For example, the caregiver might place a finger or hand under the person's grasped hand on the fork and guide it to the mouth. After getting help with initiating eating, the person may then take over.

However, Sifton notes, while physical cuing often can help, caregivers should not step in too soon. Doing so can diminish the care recipient's sense of personal control and independence. "When the person starts to have difficulty doing things, it's often too easy for the caregiver to take over, rather than finding ways to involve the person," she says.

Maintain Familiar Routines

Change can be difficult for a person with AD, so preserving familiar routines and rituals, and respecting lifelong preferences and eating habits can make mealtimes easier. Many caregivers have found that maintaining a sense of normality adds to mealtime pleasure, provides reassurance, helps maintain the person's dignity, increases food consumption, and eases the tension that often arises during mealtimes. "Follow the person's normal routine to the extent that you can," suggests Epstein. "That makes the person more relaxed, and because it's predictable, he or she will feel more in control knowing what's going on."

Routines and rituals provide important cues that it is time to eat and trigger the familiar actions involved in feeding oneself. Experts suggest a variety of ways to maintain lifelong habits and routines:

• Identify and respect personal, cultural, and religious food preferences, such as eating tortillas instead of bread, avoiding pork or milk products, and not liking certain kinds of vegetables.
• If the person has always eaten meals at specific times, continue to serve meals at those times.
• Serve meals in a consistent, familiar place and way whenever possible.
• If the family has always said a prayer of thanks before meals, continue to say the prayer.
• Avoid introducing unfamiliar routines, such as serving breakfast to a person who has never routinely eaten breakfast.

• View mealtimes as opportunities for social interaction and success for yourself and the person with dementia. A warm and happy tone of voice can set the mood.
• Try to make mealtimes calm, comfortable, and reassuring. Be patient, avoid rushing through meals, and give the person enough time to finish the meal.
• Be sensitive to possible frustration, confusion, and anxiety during mealtimes and look for ways to reduce these feelings.
• Maintain familiar routines and rituals, but be flexible and adapt to the person's changing needs.
• Minimize distractions during mealtimes. For example, turn off the television or radio, and eliminate unneeded items from the table.
• Offer appealing foods that have familiar flavors, varied textures, and different colors, and give the person opportunities to make choices.
• Make nutritious finger foods and nutrient-rich homemade shakes or shake products (unless the person is lactose intolerant) available throughout the day.
• In the earlier stages of dementia, be aware of the possibility of overeating. If this occurs, provide a balanced diet, limit snacks, and offer engaging activities as alternatives to eating.
• If the person is on a reduced-sodium or sugar-restricted diet because of hypertension, diabetes, or another medical condition, keep foods with high salt or sugar content out of reach or in a locked cabinet.
• Help the person drink plenty of fluids throughout the day's dehydration can lead to problems such as increased constipation, confusion, and dizziness.
• Use adaptive eating tools as needed. Talk with an occupational therapist about which tools might be helpful, as well as other strategies to make eating and mealtime routines more successful.
• Identify and work to resolve issues such as depression, forgetting to wear glasses or hearing aids, wearing poorly fitting dentures, and use of appetite-suppressing medications, which may impair the person's ability or desire to eat.
• Maintain routine dental checkups and daily oral health care.
• Be alert to and address potential safety issues, such as the person forgetting to turn off the stove after cooking and the increased risk of choking because of chewing and swallowing problems that may arise as the disease progresses.
• And finally: Remember to take care of yourself to reduce the stress of caring for others. Whenever you have questions or worries, get help from your health care provider, friends, and family.