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My mom is 84 yrs old and on yr 9-10 of alzheimers. She is currently living with me and this woman pooped five times yesterday. Luckily and for the most part she uses the toilet but occasionally has accidents. I have to help her wipe and keep clean.
She has a healthy appetite and loves to eat, which I'm thankful for (her dad died from alzheimers starvation). I try to give her healthy foods, low/no seed oils, organic produce washed, more BRAT diet-type foods, nothing acidic. She's taking a probiotic and drinking 4 oz Good Belly every morning.
Later in the evening she complains of stomach pain and discomfort. She says the pain is around her belly button and it's painful. On occasion she would complain of nausea too, to the point of actually vomiting. It seems to go away on its own after about an hour. Everyday its rinse repeat.
Kaiser Home Health comes out once a week and I've told them of my concerns. They did a stool sample to make sure there wasn't something like CDif or a parasite and it all came back normal. I've been in touch with her doc but I haven't gotten any answers.
Any ideas on what could be going on with the constant pooping and evening stomach pain? That can't be normal, right?
First, Mila, a general "thank you" from all us old timers to you for providing care to your mother. It's a tough job and difficult not to get frustrated. We hope our kids will step like that when needed.
As far as the problem presented goes, the only right answer any of us could give is "it could anything."....As we age we lose the sensitivity & control in the bowels.....We also can get more sensitive to large fat &/or sugar loads in a meal-- dumping syndrome...,and then the story here is also consistent with a partial bowel obstruction....and we always have to keep in mind that abdominal problems in the elderly may not show the classic symptoms, so we come back to "it could be anything."
She needs an appropriate physical exam and probably some imaging tests. You don't want things to advance to a bowel obstruction, gall bladder obstructlon, perforated ulcer etc when early intervention could prevent those things. Even for a pt with poor quality of life and our willingness to accept Fate, those things are just too nasty to ignore.
Applesauce is incredibly gassy. If she's doing mostly BRAT-style diet, then she's probably not getting enough protein. You didn't mention which Good Belly product she's getting, they have fast melts, sparkling water, juices, supplements. The juices have very little nutritional value, but plenty of sugar and gluten. The sparkling water has little nutritional value, and bubbles - which makes most people burp, but burps can become vomiting in some people.
Add a little protein - white fish like haddock, or lean pork, ditch the apple sauce. Bananas are very binding. You might want to stop doing all of this special diet stuff and just let her have normal food, in small amounts throughout the day.
My gut has rather, er, active transport. When it gets to be a problem, I make some homemade vegan banana-bread. A one-inch thick slice of that per day slows things down without constipating. Just one slice, though. Two and things get a little slow. Three is right out--constipation city. (Hey, I was hungry, needed to make a grocery run, and that was all I had! Don't judge me!)
for increase in pooping, and frequency, and urgency (meaning, more accidents)
here are two things that helped immensely (at age 65):
eliminate all caffeine, 100% NO CAFFEINE at all.
and starting to eat low FODMAP foods. read up on that, and for food she eats check every single one to see if it s low FODMAP or not. Stop eating the ones that are high FODMAP, and see if there is a change. This is temporary, intended to identify specific "trigger foods" that are individual to the person. It is not permanent, as nutrition needs to be balanced. But it helps establish a base line to calm the system down to a point where individual foods can be trial-and-error identified as triggers.
i learned things on that i never knew: such as a food can be fine in a small quantity, but just stay away from larger quantities. and yeah like someone else said, the typical "BRAT " advice, often does not work.
My gut has rather, er, active transport. When it gets to be a problem, I make some homemade vegan banana-bread. A one-inch thick slice of that per day slows things down without constipating. Just one slice, though. Two and things get a little slow. Three is right out--constipation city. (Hey, I was hungry, needed to make a grocery run, and that was all I had! Don't judge me!)
and if someone has an allergy or sensitivity to wheat or gluten, then BRAT with its T for dry toast, is just going to aggravate it. and yes this can develop later in life.
I am no doctor, and offer zero medical/nutrition advice..........but I do suspect a lot
of your dear Mother's poop-issues is emanating from her diet.
it sounds like that to me, and is one of the simplest things to check, just by varying what she eats.
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This sounds great. Thank you.