Tool Kit. Strategies to facilitate eating and swallowing in people living with early-stage dementia

26 1. Encourage the person to eat when they are sufficiently alert to engage in this activity. 2. The person may forget that they have already eaten. Avoid insisting on reminding them, but instead use other strategies such as visual schedules to organize their routine, consuming healthy snacks between meals, and orienting the person about the time of day (e.g., “It’s noon, and you had breakfast at 9 am so that we can have a fruit now”). Shall we have lunch? Yes, lets go! 3. People living with dementia may be restless or want to get up from the table continuously before the meal is served. In these cases, allow the person to walk around or engage in another activity until the meal is ready.