Also there is a definite thing with dementia and sweet food, a lot of people with dementia have an increasing sweet tooth.
Firstly, figure out how much she weighs, get some decent scales. If she's within say two stone of her ideal weight for her height, I'd try not to worry too much, because frankly at least she's eating, and it becomes increasingly difficult to get people with dementia to eat (it's been a nightmare to get my mum to eat)
If her weight is two stone over what she should be, then perhaps look at steps you could take. I know it's not easy to do this. Firstly talk to your GP and explain the problem - if they don't get back to you, keep ringing and making a nuisance of yourself. There is quite a lot you can also find out via google.
You could try some steps that can help fussy eating get more vegetables etc e.g. in pasta sauces, casseroles etc. Sneak vegetables into things like mash potatoes - but add cream in it so it tastes sweet. Do the same with rice and pasta - mix with vegetables and cream. Give them to her as often as possible so she's getting veg. You can also cream vegetables by themselves for example spinach - cook and mix up with cream (yes again) and put it with her main meal. See if she will get fruits by themselves e.g. peaches, bananas, berries etc as they can be very sweet.
If not, be creative. You can also sneak fruit into a lot of sweet things e.g. fruit crumble, pancakes with berries inside them, fruit mixed with creamy yogurt or in creamy porridge. Cream and yogurt are great to adding fruit and veg to things.
Don't lecture her about being healthy, she probably can't process that. Try to limit her access to empty calorie foods e.g. biscuits, and quietly dispose of them. If you don't buy food for her do this bit by bit so she doesn't notice things are going. If you do buy her food, just limit the amount. If you have any carers etc ask them to try to find ways to get healthier foods into her diet.
Google is pretty good - do some searches about how to sneak more fruit and veg into a diet and also healthy alternatives. But again it's about the amount of weight she's gained, also it may that she simply can't tolerate non-sweet food. The primary goal is making sure people with dementia eat - even if it is on the sweet side. Dementia does very weird things to people's appetites.
Hope that helps! Let us know how things go.
