Coughing every time she drinks or eats?

Ema, she may have dysphagia, a swallowing condition in which foods can be aspirated into the lungs instead of going down into the stomach (not the correct medical terms, but I think you can get the idea).

Choking and coughing, as well as inadvertent "pouching" of food in the pockets outside the teeth can occur. As FF states, a videoscopic swallow study should be done to determine if this is the issue.

In our experience, my father's pulmonary doctor was the one who ordered swallow studies, as did a speech therapist at rehab and a speech pathologist at a hospital.

It's an easy test. The individual is given little bits of liquids to swallow and food to eat. The pathologist monitors the intake and path flow to determine if "frank" aspiration is occurring.

A modified diet is then prescribed, based on the level of dysphagia. As Inlaw mentions, modifications such as chin tucking, slower eating and more processing time before the next bite, and exercises can be recommended, depending on the severity of the condition.

Several of us here have been through that, pureeing foods for our dysphagic relative.

A search of other dysphagia posts here brought up a lot of hits, which you can read to familiarize yourself with the issues.

https://www.agingcare.com/search.aspx?searchterm=dysphagia

If dysphagia is diagnosed, then you move to the next step of acquiring a food processor or something similar to puree the food, buying Thik-it or other brand to thicken the liquids.

Be aware that if the condition is severe, a feeding tube might be recommended. Think seriously if it gets this far, as that would typically mean an NPO status - no foods or liquids by mouth. That's a drastic and emotionally challenging step.

She would benefit from speech therapy. I know, it sounds weird, but speech therapy will help her to practice swallowing and she will experience a difference. Contact her primary care giver to arrange for it and they will come to her home for about 6 sessions. If she does not have a primary care giver, please contact your County Aging Services office. Please do this soon.

Ema, time to have your Grandmother have a swallowing test done. Aspiration could be starting. Or she could be forgetting to swallow between bites.

My Dad use to cough when he ate, but it got worse as he aged. Test were run when he went to the hospital at the recommendation of Dad's aide at Assisted Living. Turned out Dad had aspiration pneumonia.