Has anyone noticed significant behavior changes when giving candy to those with dementia?

I have not seen aggressive behavior relating to sugar consumption. My mom eats a donut every morning and has a piece of pie each day. She eats a well balanced lunch and dinner but does snack on Halloween candy that we have in a dish. She loves her candy and sweets. I do not deny her the sweets. I figure since she is 78 years old and if that is what she wants to eat then she can have some. She doesn't eat it all day but we don't deny her any.
Maybe it is the fact that your mom doesn't get any at all? Maybe that is the reason she gets angry. Maybe if you gave her a piece each day she wouldn't feel as though she were being deprived of it. Just a thought.

Mom likes her sweets as well. At 90+ I figure she can eat anything she wants. But she does not have any health issues except dementia. She is in better shape physically than me.

My understanding is that the "sweet" taste buds are some of the last to go. That the other foods begin to taste very bland to them and that is why they desire sweets so often.

My mom is 93 and loves her sweets. She doesn't have dementia or diabetes. So I always have cookies, ice cream, candy and usually pie or cake available to her. She's losing weight these days (despite my best efforts to keep her eating enough to maintain her weight), so I figure any calorie is a good calorie. My cousin, who is a nurse, agrees with me.

In your situation, I'd have candy or cookies, but buy in small boxes or individual bars, so that your mom can eat "all of it" but it's a small quantity. If she had some every day, maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal to her when she gets it. As others have said, our sweet tooth is the last one to go, so I figure I want to give my mom what she enjoys for as long as possible.

Yes, we had a person with Huntington's Disease who was aggressive, hyper active and attacking nurses. No medication seemed to help other than turning him into a Zombie. Then I asked the staff to carefully monitor his food intake for a week including what his relatives gave him. His sister was bringing him a case of Dove bars twice a week. So when we eliminated that his behavior dramatically changed.

I agree with pink! My mum has diabetes and I let her have the odd treat as long as she eats at least 2 balanced meals a day. Shes never eaten sweets but likes apple tart or fruit loaf. When I had her on a very strict diet she was having so many hypos and the geriatrician agreed with me that when youre too strict theres problems ive learnt to keep a balance and her bloods are ok.
I think at thier age let them at it its the only pleasure they have my mums life is so boring i let her have a treat when she asks.
a few sweets is no harm! When I get older im going to eat what I want!!

My Dad has a sweet of some sort at "snack time" every day, at about 2 PM. It's usually several cookies (today he ate 5 because Mom freshly baked them!) and a cup of hot chocolate. He'll eat his snack even on days when he won't eat all of his lunch or supper or refuses a meal entirely. He likes certain types of chocolate candy -- it must have nuts or something crunchy in it. His favorite is KitKats. If he won't eat a meal, or if he's not in a very good mood, all you have to do is offer him a KitKat and his eyes light up! I agree with several of the other posters -- Dad is 80 years old and does not have diabetes. If he wants sweets let him have them!

My mom has dementia but not diabetes. She loves her M&Ms and they make her happy. At her age I let her eat the M&Ms.

One thing that happens with the neurons of dementia patients is that their neurons and astrocytes looks to be impaired to metabolize glucose to makes from the glucose the ATP that they need as an energy source.
I guess (this is only a hypothesis) that by instinct their brains lead they to a "sugar craving " trying get more energy from the candies.
But no matter how much sugar the dementia patients eats, their brain still will be in a "starving mode" once their neurons can not metabolize all that sugar (or glucose) to ATP, and they still will search for more candies, still without succcessmto gets energy from that lots of sugar.
I guess that her agressiviness comes when you try (based in your justified concerns) to stop her to get the sugar that her brain is asking for, making her very frustated and nervous.
Wnen we read about ketones and Alzheimer searching in Google, we can read articles that shows that dementia brains are in energy deprivation.
I suggest you to search for thesite lf dlctor Mary Newport about coconut oil where you can find a detailed explanation .

Gladim - I remember reading another's poster's comments that when her mom eats sweets, her behavior changes. That's how she knew that the paid caregiver was giving candy to her mom. Anyway, I did a search here on AC and found something in which 2 posters kind of back you up about sweets changing their parent's behavior:

Look for comments by deefer12 and brianNC
https://www.agingcare.com/questions/elder-will-only-eat-sweet-food-139115.htm