My wife is in the last stages of dementia.
One of the problems is being unable to get her to drink from the nursing cup.
After a spell in hospital due to dehydration I have come up with a solution.
It consists of a plastic sauce bottle with a short piece of plastic tubing added.
My wife used to grip the cup with her teeth and would not let go.
This made it impossible for the staff to tilt it and feed her liquid, so they gave up.
I fed her liquid using the plastic bottle and she would still grip it with her teeth, but it left enough of the tube open to let some liquid in. She eventually taught herself to stop the flow with her tongue, so she could suck as much water or juice that she wanted as long as I held up the bottle.
The bottle could be left dangling down if she refused to let it go. No more liquid gets into her mouth, so eventually she gives up and drops the bottle by letting go with her teeth.
Unfortunately I am unable to post a picture here, as it is not on a website!!
It works well and she now drinks enough to stop her being dehydrated and I would recommend it to hospitals and care homes to try it.
Dear Stephen
This is a remarkably helpful way of helping with drinking.
Mostly though your love shines through, I am sorry your wife is so poorly
My warm wishes to you
Ula
Very sorry to hear this Stephen but am impressed with your ingenuity! When my Mum was in the final stages they gave her a tall plastic drink container, marked out with measurements so they could see how much she drank. It had a plastic straw which couldn’t fall out. They sell them in places like Home Bargains, Wilko and most supermarkets now as keep fit people like them.
It is not a nice place to be watching your loved one just fade away but if they are comfortable, clean and in no pain then that’s all we can ask really. Is your wife at home or in a care setting?
If you do want to try and post a pic these instructions might help, however, it seems to work only on some computers/ipads/tablets/phones and not on others. (I can only post pics from my little MacBook …)
Click on ‘upload attachment’ underneath your post and the ‘save draft’, ‘review’ and ‘submit buttons’.
Click on ‘add files’ it’s a red button,
double click on the image saved on your computer.
Type a comment if you want to in the 'file comment ’ box.
Click on ‘place in line’
and click ‘submit’ to submit your post as usual.