Why is my mother spitting out her last bite of food?
There can be many reasons twhy she is spitting out her food. Since she is not doing it during the entire meal, I do not think that the problem is related to her swallowing. To me, this problem sounds like indigestion.
When your mother is eating, I would encourage her to slow down and really chew her food. She may be forgetting to do this, so you may need to remind her. She should sip liquid in between bites to help the food "go down". When she says "I need to spit", that is a sign that something is coming back up. Perhaps just eating more slowly will help.
If the problem continues despite this, I would then take her to her health care provider to get checked out. She may need medication for the indigestion (often called GERD- gastroesophageal reflux disease). The good news is that it is often easily treated with medications.
One more thought that I have is that Aricept sometimes causes stomach upset. If this medication is new to her, this can contribute to her "spitting" problem. You can talk to her health care provider about this if you think it may be medication related.
Thank you so much, this was very helpful.
Andi
