The Memory Unit OT

As dementia progresses, you may notice that individuals begin to lose the ability to utilize utensils during meals. They may attempt to eat all foods with their hands, may not initiate eating when presented with food, and may exhibit unsafe weight loss.

My number one recommendation to address this? Finger foods.

There are tons of great finger food options that can be easily integrated into a dining program. But for the sake of this post, I want to focus specifically on what you can do when traditional finger foods are not immediately available.

This tip is super easy: take whatever food is served for the given meal and pop it between 2 slices of bread.

This may seem unconventional, but it truthfully works so so well. I’ve seen patients almost immediately initiate self feeding when provided with a sandwich instead of the provided option. Sometimes I’ll add some jelly to make it sweet as ‘sweet’ is that last taste receptor to remain with disease progression.

Things to keep in mind/ask yourself if you’re going to use this trick:

• What is the recommended diet texture?
• Can this individual see the food on their plate? Do they require increased contrast on the plate?
• Is the dining environment too distracting?
• What is the SLP recommending for this individual?

Take a peek at the video below to check out what kinds of sandwiches I’ve made in my clinical practice.