Is over eating a symptom of dementia?

Not necessarily. I knew two people with dementia, and they were definitely not overeaters. In fact, one was an undereater to the point he was actually skin and bones. I never knew why he wasn't eating, and he did a very good job at hiding it for quite a while before I happened to discover it.

Hi Stevensmom,
I asked him if he's depressed but he is adamant he's not. He forgets he's eaten dinner, still gets his own meals and one night he had dinner then an hour later made another dinner and said it was the first. He gets AM and PM muddled, came back from the toilet one day and asked me what I was doing up at this time of the morning. It was 3.45pm. His whole personality has changed, he's impossible to reason with and quickly becomes aggressive. He fails to retain most of what I say, no longer reads books he used to spend hours reading, he severely self neglects, has gone 2 months without a shower or clothes change but believes he showers daily as he always used to do. He refuses to see a doctor so I've written all these and more on a list to show our doctor.

My MIL eats all the time. I chalked it up to the diabetes but it sounds like the dementia is partly to blame reading everyone's comments. It drives me crazy with the candy or finding food rolled up in a napkin set down anywhere. I have caught her eating out of a bag of her sugar free "sugar" by the handfuls. Now I have to hide stuff that she is not supposed to eat.

Some drs call Alz Diabetes 3.
Doesn't mean you have 1 or 2.
Aside from that sugar addiction is real. It leaves you wanting more. The body isn't satisfied, doesn't have what it needs so sends out messages to eat. It takes a few days to get off of artificial sweetners, soda and starches and sugar and gluten and excess salt and alcohol and processed foods ( full of salt and sugar). But if you add healthy fats and lots of veggies and fruit, eggs ( unless allergic) seeds and nuts, you can break the cycle and curb the constant craving for the addiction. Try this on yourself first and you will be empowered to try it on your elder. Add a walk and you'll be feeling great. I think overeating is a symptom of the Standard American Diet. No dementia required.

I can't help noticing the many posts saying dementia patients crave sugary foods but Don over eats mainly savory foods. He's constantly in the kitchen fetching a bowl of soup, a ham or salmon sandwich, buttered toast or buttered crumpets. He also eats several bowls of cornflakes/weetabix a day but said he's cut the sugar right down on those (I asked why n had to stifle a laugh when he said he's worried about getting sugar diabetes)! Don showing concern over his health? That's a first!

I knew someone with dementia and I must add that one of the 10 people also did not shower and he smelled terrible! I only wish I would've had some help early on because we would've given him a G.I. bath and cleaned him up. He used to have a neighbor living upstairs from him who even complained about the smell from all the way upstairs. When the neighbor confronted me with it, I told her I had no help to do anything about it, and that I'm only one person. I told her that if I were to do anything about it, I'm going to need more manpower than just myself because I can't do anything about it on my own. Oh how I would've loved to have given this person a G.I. bath with a little bit of help from other people! When the neighbor gets to complaining from all the way upstairs because they can smell someone from that far away, it's time to intervene and do something about it. I'm actually very surprised his landlord didn't try to do something about it because the smell was disturbing other residents, which may have actually been part of the reason why everyone left

Oh how I hate auto correct again! I said "one of the people", not one of the 10 people!

You had better be careful the eating everything in sight doesn't cause the friend to become a diabetic.

Neither of my friends with dementia were overeaters. In fact, one of them was an under eater. Obviously not everyone with dementia is an overeater, and I never knew this was a trait among dementia patients until I came on here. In fact, knowing that neither of the people I knew with dementia were overeaters, I was actually shocked to hear that this was a thing among demented people since I only ever knew two personally. Again, neither of the people I ever knew were overeaters

There are times my mother just ate lunch and an hour later says she is hungry again. But now that I find she may have a problem with her pancreas, would that be why she would want to eat again? I appreciate your question kaydii

Chappy, I'm sure there are multiple reasons why a person would always be hungry. You may want to speak with your mom's doctor to see what may be causing her to always be hungry. Along time ago I heard that tapeworm can also make you very hungry since it lives off of everything you eat. I'm not sure what causes tapeworm, but you may want to have her checked for all sorts of intestinal parasites. You may actually be supplies to find what all is living in her intestines, because most people actually have some sort of intestinal parasite and don't even know it. This is why internal flushing is highly recommended.

Last night I came across this: MEDIA RELEASE Researchers have discovered why some people with dementia are compelled to massively overeat, opening the way for better diagnosis and the development of new treatment for the disease. This was on a site called Neuroscience Research Australia. I thought I'd found something new until I saw it was dated 2010!!