For the past month, my mother, who is in the late moderate stages of Alzheimer's has started throwing used toilet paper into the trash can in the bathroom as opposed to the toilet. I saw one video about caregiving that suggested changing the color of the toilet seat to help her distinguish. Has anyone else who is a caregiver for an Alzheimer's patient encountered this experience? My father has not heard it from any of the other caregivers in his support group so he does not understand why my mother is behaving this way.
What you can do, and probably should be doing is more closely monitoring your mom in the bathroom.
The flip side of this coin are those that put so much toilet paper or tissues and everything else in the toilet that it clogs.
If she is tossing the toilet paper in the garbage you can try "fighting it" or you can get a self closing waste can and make sure it is emptied as soon as she is done. A bidet toilet seat might help as it will eliminate the use of some of the toilet paper but she might have a difficult time adjusting to it.
There are many countries that have very poor sanitary systems so many revert back to how they grew up. (even people in the USA may have grown up with poor septic systems or even outhouses)
It is difficult to get someone with dementia to change or correct what they have in their mind as the "right way" to do something so if this is going to be a "battle" this is not one that is worth fighting. I guess what I am saying is it is easier to adjust what you and your dad do in response to what she does than get her to adjust to what you want her to do.
On another toileting subject, she can sleep overnight without using the toilet, but before every meal, she says she has to go three or four times before we sit down to eat. When I say "you just went to the toilet," she says she knows that, but she still feels like she has to go. What should I do? Rick 80
That way whoever is with her can make sure that the used toilet paper is going into the toilet instead of the waste paper basket. Plus they can make sure that she in fact is getting good and clean to help prevent any future UTI's as well.
It's a win win for all involved.
Did she come from a country as a child where they had to throw TP in a garbage can?
However, do know that many folks who were born in another country did not have reliable plumbing, and would deal with clogging of the toilets to the extent that toilet paper was typically NOT thrown in the toilet but in a waste container at the side of it. Common to many places in Latin American countries still today.
If mom comes from another country her family may have done this as normal disposal of waste tissues in some prior stage of life.
This is, by the way, a question we have had quite a few times before, so this isn't all that unusual.
Good luck.