How do I get my mom with dementia to quit smoking?

I'm a smoker, and I'm trying to cut down. Nicotine addiction is physical. Cold turkey's never worked for me, and I do not have dementia (as far as I know). Cut me off from *all* nicotine? Whole continents shall pay for my irrational wrath!

So. What to do?

Patches do help, especially at the highest level, 4mg of nicotine. But there's a hand-to-mouth habit, as well. Habit, not physical addiction, but *really* tough to break, even without dementia.

Pharmaceuticals may reduce the urge ... or create more behavioral issues. You may want to try them, but with vigilance.

Main concern you mention is fire danger. Yup, that's critical.

You may need to use more than one method, simultaneously. In addition to gums and lozenges, there are vape pens (e-cigarettes) that look like, and taste like, standard cigarettes. Vaping *may* help with the hand-to-mouth habit, especially if you remove all matches and lighters, *and* remove/hide the burner dials from the stove (with most stoves, you can put 'em back in anytime you actually want to, like, cook). Many drug stores stock vape pens.

Yes, vaping is controversial, as well. But vapes won't burn down your house. Neither will multiple, non-smoking, delivery systems for nicotine.

Hope this helps. Please let us know how it goes.

I know I am going to get flack here but I lived with a chain smoker growing up, my Dad. I find some smokers are not sympathetic to non-smokers or the rules. My Dad would lie about smoking which he was not suppose to be doing.

Really, if Mom is leaving the stove on and doing other dangerous things, she should not be alone. With Dementia/ALZ they no longer reason or remember what u told them. Get rid of the cigeretts. Ask her doctor for other options. This woman could burn down your house.

Whenever a habit needs to be quit a new habit must be put in place. I quit smoking 7 times before I learned this lesson. If you don't put something in place it is nearly impossible. Nature abhors a vacuum, true story.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure how you will accomplish that in another person. I engaged in my new habit immediately after a cigarette. To build the dopamine receptor association. What that did was make it so that after I stopped smoking whenever I engaged in my new habit my brain associated it with smoking which was what got me through cravings in the beginning and the not eating uncontrollably after the cravings stopped.
Hopefully something here is useful.

It's not likely your mother will stop smoking with dementia. Rather than thinking you can get her to quit smoking, perhaps a better way to think about it is "how to curtail her smoking, or control when she smokes?" This happened many years ago with my grandfather -- he'd light up in the middle of the night, drop matches or ashes on the carpet, light multiple cigarettes and walk away, etc. Answer: My mother managed his cigarettes -- took them and put them away so he didn't have access to them. My mother would laid one out on the table, with the lighter. He'd see it and light it and that would be all he'd have access to for the next few hours. He didn't like it, but he got used to it...

Ummm Who is buying the cigarettes?
Now I have never been a smoker but both parents were as well as my grandparents. As a matter of fact one of the last images I have of my Dad was in the hospital (could have been a Nursing home I don't really know) they had rigged up a holder with a clip there was a tube attached and they would clip a cigarette on and light it and give him the tube so he could smoke in bed. Granted this was in the late 60"s and he was dying of Lung Cancer. And mentally he was aware of what he was doing.
Have you tried...
Setting a timer and when the timer goes off she can have another cigarette? Lengthen the time each day until there is no timer. But at least you control when she gets to smoke and where. You would have to control the cigarettes as well as how she lights them
Give her a "pill" like a TicTac and inform her the doctor just prescribed these and while she is taking them she can not drink, drive or smoke. Does not matter if she does not drive or drink it is just "instructions" that come with the "medication"
Telling Mom she quit. She quit last week, or last month....You just keep telling her the same thing.

The nicotine addiction aspect is well proven and I wouldn't argue with that for a second, but on its own it's only part of the story. The rest of it, and I personally suspect the greater part of it, is a combination of habit, distraction and boredom.

I assume you don't smoke yourself, correct?

And is your mother still suffering from her broken hip? Is it difficult for her to get outside comfortably?

To explain my perspective, I moved over two years ago to a rented house and smoking on the premises is not allowed, there is a clause in the lease. So I can only smoke outside, and I have been 100% rigorous about complying with this. It has probably saved me quite a lot of money... but here we are more than two years later and I still have to be careful to leave all smokers' requisites in the porch so as not to light up absent-mindedly when I'm reading, watching tv or using the computer.

To be honest, it's driving me slightly round the twist, now that I sit still and think about it. Sigh. That's what you get for twenty misspent years in your home office. Writing, or, as Maureen Lipman put it about her beloved husband Jack Rosenthal, "lighting cigs and typing."

What about the chewing gums, has she tried those?
What are her typical daily activities? Does she or could she knit, crochet, draw, play electronic games?

I am having the same problem. My mom always lights hers on the gas stove. Twice I have found the gas on because she didn't turn it off all the way. She does smoke in her room or she goes on the porch when its nice out. If I go to the store she will smoke in the living room witch I hate. Before I came to stay with her she burnt the carpet around her bed and where she sits in the livingroom. I will be her payee starting tomorrow. I really don't want to buy her any cigarettes. If I don't she will freak out. Beside that my brother smokes them and they cost $75. a carton. She is use to having a carton and smoking a lot. I am going to give her a pack at a time. Try to get her to cut back on it. Maybe get her to stop some day. Plus my brother won't be able to still her packs.

How difficult! This is certainly dangerous. Getting your mother to quit smoking by willpower, patches, etc is going to be impossible. There may be no alternative except to remove all access to cigarettes, in spite of the distress that will cause. It is worth remembering that if your mother went to any facility, there is a strong chance that she would not be allowed to smoke. The same thing at home is no worse. It may be that smoking rules are not as strict as I am used to – though I am sure that there would have to be supervision, which you can’t provide all the time at home. Perhaps others may have better ideas?

What a difficult situation for you! Major empathy sent your way.

When she’s not smoking while being monitored hide the cigarettes AND THE LIGHTER(S)!!! I agree with the above comment re a vacuum. Substitute hard candy. Maybe get a kitten to distract her! Kind of kidding! Her hands would stay busy holding and petting.

Have you though about her vaping? Especially the Juul. Different device that doesn’t need a lighter.

I’ve NEVER smoked however I know people who do.

Tiabug, I would not cold turkey your moms smoking, this can be fatal for her. Nicotine addiction is serious and you should not completely take them away with out having her doctor involved.

I, personally, smoked for many years. There is a layer of reasons it is hard to quit. They are like a big hug, they energize a tired body, they give you something to do and they release feel good chemicals in our brains, to name a few things.

Try her on the e-cigs, you can buy ones that look like cigarettes and the end lights up. They have regular cigarette flavors so she won't feel like you gave her koolaid when she asked for bourbon. These will address her need for nicotine and provide her whatever else smoking has for many years. Please do not try to take this away from her, it's one of the few things she has left and it does provide her with something only she can understand. They will not stink everything up either. I used them to quit smoking and it worked but I was ready.

Over the years I tried to quit and was never really ready, not only was it hellish for me but everyone around me. So until she's ready, probably going to be more problems for you if you try to make her. Just a thought.

I would suggest that if she is now doing dangerous things she probably shouldn't be left alone anymore. Loosing your house to a fire is devastating to say the least.
It does sound like she needs someone monitoring her actions 24 a day now.

Good luck finding the right fix for her.