I suffered with acid reflux and heartburn for some time, and the digestive specialist told me that I would have to take Prilosec for the rest of my life. Thankfully my PC doctor is a holistic doctor, and he told me to stop taking the Prilosec and replace it with some apple cider with the mother every morning instead. You can mix it in with some water, but I just take 2 large spoonful's in the morning with my vitamins and I haven't had any acid reflux or heartburn in about 4 years now. It works great!
Now that being said, I would also have mom have her swallowing checked as recommended below, as you don't want her developing aspiration pneumonia, as that is most often deadly. My husband had aspiration pneumonia in Nov. 2018, and he almost died. Because of that he developed sepsis and septic shock and remained completely bedridden in our living room for the last 22 months of his life. And I had to puree all of his foods and thicken his liquids with the product Thick It. So it's nothing to mess around with.
Geaton has made a very good point. Your Mom may need a swallow test. Once you get that done they will tell you what time of consistency of foof she needs. Even water can cause problems and needs to be thickened.
Do this ASAP because swallowing problems also cause aspiration problems that can cause pneumonia.
What treatments has her doctor recommended so far? Is she going to a specialist? Are you certain it is acid reflux? Since your profile states she has dementia/ALZ have you considered that her body may be forgetting how to swallow and this is a separate issue than acid reflux?
My 103-yr old Aunt developed a swallowing problem. Eventually we figured out that it is some sort of spasm that occurs when she begins to eat, which causes her throat to constrict and creating a back-up of saliva to the point where she needed to stand over the toilet and continuously spit out the saliva. It was a lot. It never happened at breakfast and never when she drank hot soup. So now she makes sure to drink something very hot first and then she can eat solid foods with no problem. It never happened in the mornings because she always had hot coffee first. Apparently the heat relaxed her throat muscles to prevent the spasms.
If you haven't consulted with your Mom's doctor, you need to.
You can mix it in with some water, but I just take 2 large spoonful's in the morning with my vitamins and I haven't had any acid reflux or heartburn in about 4 years now. It works great!
Now that being said, I would also have mom have her swallowing checked as recommended below, as you don't want her developing aspiration pneumonia, as that is most often deadly.
My husband had aspiration pneumonia in Nov. 2018, and he almost died. Because of that he developed sepsis and septic shock and remained completely bedridden in our living room for the last 22 months of his life. And I had to puree all of his foods and thicken his liquids with the product Thick It.
So it's nothing to mess around with.
Do this ASAP because swallowing problems also cause aspiration problems that can cause pneumonia.
My 103-yr old Aunt developed a swallowing problem. Eventually we figured out that it is some sort of spasm that occurs when she begins to eat, which causes her throat to constrict and creating a back-up of saliva to the point where she needed to stand over the toilet and continuously spit out the saliva. It was a lot. It never happened at breakfast and never when she drank hot soup. So now she makes sure to drink something very hot first and then she can eat solid foods with no problem. It never happened in the mornings because she always had hot coffee first. Apparently the heat relaxed her throat muscles to prevent the spasms.
If you haven't consulted with your Mom's doctor, you need to.