I can't get my mother to eat dinner, but she will go for ice cream any time! How do I deal with her predominate sweet tooth?

My mother is 89, has dementia and lives in my home. She will only drink coke and only eat ice cream. She also won't wear diapers anymore and since she goes in her pants often and then hides the soiled clothing somewhere in her room. She can't smell anything either. She goes diarrhea all over the bathroom and then tells me I'm trying to make her look like an idiot and she doesn't like it. In other words I did the diarrhea and blamed on her because I am jealous of her!! She keeps telling me her brain is just as good as mine and she told the doctor her memory is excellent! The doctor told me I have to choose my battles. The way things are going around here I AM going to end up in the looney bin!

My mom was eating chocolate for awhile and then all of a sudden it stopped now she doesnt want to eat, but that's due to her delusion on constipation now. So it may just be a phase and stop on it's own.

I will have my mother-in-law over for dinner and dessert. On the way back to the living asst. place, she will want to stop for ice cream. I tell her, we just had ice cream. But it makes no difference. She wants ice cream! I figure at this stage of her life (85yrs) who cares anymore? If she wants ice cream, we stop for ice cream.
I've heard that as you get older the last taste buds to go belly up, are the sweet and salty ones. Maybe that's a factor, I don't know.

Thanks, everyone, for your replies. Tonight she ate a good dinner (I cook every night) with the promise that ice cream was coming after :-) I guess that will work for awhile. While we did just have to move to another building in our complex, the not wanting to eat dinner started before. Oh well, she is 84 - and at least there's a little protein involved!

My dad has stage 5 parkinson's and gets downright nasty over third bowl of ice cream. It has nothing to do with needing more variety at dinner - it is more like an addiction. IDK if it is physiological or psychological but if your loved one is in the same shape, there's nothing you can do to stop it other than just trying to distract them and keep sweets out of the house.

My elderly mother will only drink coke and eat ice cream. She has really bad dementia and refuses to eat anything else and she refuses to wear diapers so she pees and hides her soiled clothes. I took her into my home 4 years ago. The doctor said I have to choose my battles. So I'm not fighting her anymore on these 2 things. P. S. She thinks I hate her when I explain what she is doing and starts crying. So like I said I'm thru with telling her to stop.

Will she eat regular food if all she has to do is sit down at the table with you, or pull something frozen from the freezer? Has there been a change in living arrangements or health? If so, they may have no appetite for real food, only sweets. I have no advice on how to get her to eat regular food, and you may have to provide Ensure or some other type of nutritional and/ or fiber supplement, with vitamins, but here is how I have started handling my relative's love of sweets. I have started to buy her sugar free jelly and fruit. I told her that's what I was doing, and she is OK with that. Also, I give her 1-serving portions of chips or candy, so she does not eat the entire bag or container in two days. Luckily, she's not diabetic, but did have elavated sugar a little, a couple of months. She has been fine since, but she understands the need to eat less sweets.

My dad is dependent on prednisone, so I know that is a factor in his sweet tooth. I think researchers really should study the elderly more, my dad has reverted to a love of ice cream, potato chips, coffee and chicken. If that's all he had to eat - he'd be happy.

My dad also has alzheimer's or dementia, and so talking "sense" really doesn't work. He'll just ask against. So -- we've just put away all reminders and access. There is no candy or sweets in the house. Not that he doesn't get any - every daily walk the other old folks stuff him with snacks and we have ice cream quite often. He also eats well at meals. But it's just a tactic to reduce the constant asking. What's the saying "Out of sight - out of mind."

I've been told that the elderly slowly lose their taste for food. The last taste to go is for sweets and that is why many elderly pass on their meals and go straight to dessert!

It might help to offer some sweeter tasting foods at dinner too. Sweet potatoes, squash, salmon baked with a sprinkling of brown sugar on top (yum!).