She went down 20 pounds in 3 months as reported in May and 20 more pounds by August. She has trouble eating, but aides are too busy at mealtimes to sit with her. I assist with a meal 5 times per week. Is this weight loss normal for 98 yrs plus dementia?
Wait, your comment about aides had me thinking she is in a facility but your profile says she is living at home, which is it pamelac?
It's also not acceptable to fail to support a resident with meals if that resident is unable to feed herself. What has the facility got to say for itself?
Some weight loss may be unavoidable as appetite decreases toward the end of life and this is something that needs to be discussed in a care plan meeting.
If it's utensils, please have her doc order an OT assessment; there are adaptive utensils that really helped my mom.
Swallowing difficulties need to be assessed by a speech language pathologist, as noted by Mac.