noblerare Asked June 2019
What is it with my dementia grandmother's fascination with toilet paper/tissue?
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My grandmother (93) is living in a private caregiver's home. Recently, she has been exhibiting behavior where she will take a roll of toilet paper out of the bathroom and rip off squares, piece-by-piece until half the roll or the whole roll is gone. It is not like she is using it to wipe. She is just playing with it and ripping off pieces.
I did a search on this forum and found several others mentioning this behavior as well but no indication of the reason people with dementia tend to do this? Does it provide them comfort or some thing they find interesting? Do they like the texture of the paper or the fact that they can do something to pass the time?
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The caregiver can try to redirect the obsession.
Give her hand towels to fold
Socks to sort
handkerchiefs to fold
cut pictures from a magazine (If she can safely uses scissors)
Give her a deck of cards, sort by number, color, suit.
Try jig saw puzzles, there are wood ones as well as the standard cardboard ones.
The repetitive motion may bring her comfort and in some odd way, a sense of accomplishment.