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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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A long time ago Carol Burnett was on a talk show and talked about her Gma who raised her, Carol thought for years that toilet paper came in squares. Seems they were poor and gma would take toilet paper out of restrooms, folding it so she could get it out in her pocketbook.
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noblerare Jun 2019
Thank you!
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This seems to be very common.
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.
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noblerare Jun 2019
Thank you for your answer. This helps give us some peace of mind and helps us redirect that energy to sources that won't waste toilet paper. The caregiver was upset that she was wasting it.
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This is an obsession. People with dementia obsess over things. Their brains are broken and there is no rhyme or reason to what they do or obsess over. At least Grandma isn’t eating it—people with dementia have been known to do that, too.

The repetitive motion may bring her comfort and in some odd way, a sense of accomplishment.
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noblerare Jun 2019
Thank you for your answer. This helps give us some peace of mind.
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