June and Michelle,  Thanks for the suggestions. We have used Ensure in the
past. Our LO still has a pretty good appetite for regular food as long as
you cut up her meat in small bites and watch her while eating. If she is
hungry or really likes something, she tends to eat too fast and then chokes.
She was always vain about her teeth. Her old dentist wanted to pull the
front 5 teeth eight or nine years ago but even then we knew she wouldn't
deal well with having a bridge. She recently got her teeth cleaned for the
first time in 2 years and that was a mistake. She is a compulsive brusher
anyways but when they cleaned the plaque off her teeth it began two weeks of
constant questioning about what was wrong with her teeth and asking to go to
the dentist - when she'd just been to the dentist. Now her teeth are
cracking and breaking off a bit here and a bit there each week or so. It's a
mess in progress. I just don't want to think about having to deal with
having them pulled.       AW

Personal hygeine so often seems to be one of the first things to go.   The
first time I hugged my mother in law goodbye after having been to her house
for dinner, and realized she actually had an odor, I remember thinking how
very odd it was.

She had always been so clean and neat with herself, her home, just
everything.   This was before we even saw any strange behavior of any kind.
Both hubby and I noticed it and commented that it was noticeable and very
odd, while we drove home.   Little did we know that it was the beginning.

By the time her illness was noticeable in other ways, (and the entire
process of taking her here to live), that bathtub in her house had so much
dust and dirt in it, it was obvious that nobody had bathed in that tub in a
long long time.

And of course, when we did get her to take that first bath, which I have
spoken of here, she already needed complete supervision while bathing,
because she just had forgotten how to clean herself effectively.   She would
try to get out of shampooing, and I would say OK, but then a few minutes
later I'd try again and put shampoo on her head.   Once the hair was wet and
had shampoo on it, she'd start to scrub.

It doesn't hurt to mention again, that the shower head on a hose and a
shower chair, were necessities to get her cleaned thoroughly and cooperate
with bathing at all.   I think it took away that "out of control" feeling of
standing in the full shower stream that some have noticed seems so
overwhelming to a person with alzheimers.

Regards,
Evelyn